If you need a reason to look into wedding dress preservation, looking at ugly-cry inducing photos of women in their mother’s wedding gowns will pretty much do the trick.
Your wedding dress has a high sentimental value, both for you and any future children you may have. Even Lady Gaga says that she especially treasures her mom’s gown, calling it her “favorite accessory.”
Still, in addition to these touching photos, there are lots of reasons why you want to make sure your wedding dress lasts for years after your alter moment.
For one, wedding vow renewals are on the rise. Many older brides are determined to fit back into their wedding dresses as well and celebrate the fact that their marriage has been a source of joy and love for so many years.
Also, the average wedding dress in the United States costs over $1,250 – so it makes sense that, when you’re spending that on a dress, you want it to last for years to come!
In this post, we’re going to tell you everything you need to know about wedding dress preservation. Read on to learn how to keep your dress as beautiful as it was when you first wore it.
Start Wedding Dress Preservation ASAP
You don’t have to drive your dress straight from your reception to the cleaners. In general, the sooner you can start the preservation process to get your dressed cleaned after your wedding, the better. Remember that the longer stains sit on fabric, the tougher they’ll be to get out.
If you wait too long, you’ll have to pay a restoration fee, which is usually incredibly expensive.
While your dry cleaner might be your go-to guy when you get a stain on your favorite blouse, you need to be sure you’re working with a gown cleaning expert when you get your gown cleaned. We recommend working with a preservationist, who specializes in wedding gowns, as opposed to a dry cleaner.
If possible, see if your maid of honor would be willing to ship your dress to a wedding dress preservation company, or drop it off in person if it’s nearby.
It’s best to start looking into wedding dress preservation options before your wedding. That way, you can be sure you’re working with a company you can trust, and that you know you’ve gotten the best price!
What To Ask a Dress Preservation Specialist
When you’re looking into potential wedding dress preservation companies, you need to know what questions to ask.
Here’s a few suggestions we came up with:
- Ask for references and photos of past gowns
- Know the cleaning methods they use, especially if you’re an eco-friendly bride!
- Make sure they can do hand cleaning if needed
- Ask if they do the work on their own premises, or send it elsewhere
Also…
Look into their policies
- Will you be held responsible if your gown is lost?
- Do they have a warranty?
- Will you be reimbursed if your gown is damaged?
- What is their shipping insurance plan?
Make sure you know how they handle pricing
- If a wedding dress preservation company gives you a flat rate over the phone, move on
- This is a sign that they don’t take the time to really look at what needs to be done
- It also means they likely won’t do a thorough job!
Try A Wedding Gown Preservation Kit
If you want the easiest (and also one of the best) options in wedding dress preservation, you could look into a kit!
This Prepaid Dress Cleaning and Preserving Kit sends you a package with a shipping box. You simply mail out your dress (don’t worry, the box has serious padding and shipping insurance) to be preserved.
If you’re nervous about shipping your dress, many companies also include tracking options, and they’ll alert you when it arrives at their facility. And a 100 YEAR GUARANTEE that your dress will stay beautifully preserved. If not, your gown will be reprocessed at no charge. Your preservation cost will be refunded if they are unable to remove yellowing.
You can even track the progress of what’s being done to your gown!
Once it arrives, your gown will be cleaned, with an extra step to make sure your wedding dress won’t get discolored, even if it’s stored for many years.
No matter the length, style, and beadwork on your dress, it can be cleaned with ease and packaged to make sure no moths or other insects can get inside.
The cleaners are professionals and are trained to work with a variety of materials – even vintage gowns.
Translation?
If you got a little red wine on your wedding gown, these are the people that can help you to get it out. They can even find stains that other dry cleaners wouldn’t be able to!
One major stain culprit that often goes overlooked?
Sugar from your wedding cake and other sweet treats! With time, the sugar can turn brown, leading to permanent and unsightly stains on your wedding gown. A wedding dress preservation expert can make sure that doesn’t happen.
They also know the proper materials in which to store your wedding dress. Plastic works well for a few days, but over time, it can lead to discoloration. Instead, most wedding dress preservation companies will use a special kind of tissue paper that won’t stain your dress – even after many years in a box.
Once the cleaning and boxing process is complete, your gown will be shipped back to you, good as new! Usually, the whole process takes between 6-8 weeks, depending on the level of stains and where you live.
Even better?
Many wedding dress preservation kits also allow you to send up to 5 other accessories, which will also be cleaned and preserved.
Beyond the Box: Keepsakes and Display Ideas
So you’ve preserved your wedding dress. Now what? Let’s be real – there’s something a little bittersweet about tucking away a dress you spent months obsessing over into a box under your bed for the next 30 years.
The good news? Wedding dress preservation doesn’t mean your gown has to live in storage forever. Whether you want to transform it into something you’ll actually use, create keepsakes for loved ones, or display it as the work of art it is, there are plenty of ways to honor your dress while keeping it safe for future generations.
Here are some of our favorite ideas.
Bespoke Dress Box Mount
A laser-cut acrylic front, hinged opening, and display depth deep enough to fit your full wedding dress without turning it into fabric origami — that’s the kind of overachievement we can get behind. This bespoke dress box mount doesn’t just store your gown, it frames it like the sentimental time capsule it is (or fashion flex, depending on who’s visiting).
Made to hang directly on the wall, it’s essentially a shadow box for people who believe a wedding dress deserves the same treatment as a museum artifact — which, frankly, it does. Especially if it survived cake, sweat, Champagne, and a crowded dance floor. There’s space for accessories too, so your veil, invitation, and maybe that one rogue bobby pin that held your entire updo together can join the shrine.
Turns out, preserving your gown doesn’t mean hiding it in a closet in acid-free paper, never to be seen again. This mount is the upgrade for anyone who wants to celebrate their wedding story without turning their bedroom into a Pinterest board. Sentimental, sure. But understated. Chic. And maybe just a little smug — as all good heirlooms should be.
Bridal Gown Heirloom Chair
Queen Anne legs. That’s what stops this from being a random chair with a fabric backstory and starts making it heirloom-worthy. Yes, the Bridal Gown Heirloom Chair is literally made using panels from *your* wedding dress—lace, tulle, beading drama and all. Think understated antique frame meets emotionally loaded upholstery. It’s one part Victorian, one part deeply personal, all parts spellbinding.
This isn’t a craft night project. It’s a keepsake that doesn’t feel like a consolation prize for boxing up your dress forever. It holds your memories, yes, but also holds you—preferably while sipping something bubbly and grinning at old wedding album pages. The design allows for customization based on your gown’s actual features, so if your sleeves were a lace masterpiece or your bodice had beadwork that could stop traffic, it’s getting a second act. Functional? Obviously. Sentimental? Overachieving levels. And unlike a shadow box, this one earns a permanent spot in your living room—not just your nostalgia circuit.
Bridal Gown Keepsake Ring
That tiny white detail in the ring’s bezel? It’s not lace-patterned metal — it’s your actual wedding gown, sealed under glass. A real textile fragment from your dress, quietly living its next life on your hand (without making a whole “wearing my wedding dress to brunch” statement).
This made-to-order keepsake ring is minimal enough to pass for vintage heirloom, but sentimental enough to make you weirdly emotional about seam allowance. The creator works with your actual gown fabric — yes, you send it in — and preserves it under resin with a clean, modern finish. Choose your metal tone and setting style, then pretend you didn’t tear up when the package arrived.
It’s a smart move if you’re not ecstatic about leaving your dress in a box for thirty years collecting dust and perimenopausal symbolism. With this ring, you get to distill the memory down to something tangible, tiny, and weirdly powerful. It’s sentiment with restraint — no bells, no whistles, just a quiet nod to the day you wore the freakin’ dress. Honestly, that’s kind of perfect.
Circle Of Life Keepsake Necklace
A silver-plated bezel and a DIY kit that turns your wedding dress scrap into something you can wear without literally wearing the whole dress—that’s the charm of the Circle of Life Keepsake Necklace. This pendant doesn’t just sit there looking pretty (though it does that too); it’s designed to house a piece of your gown inside a simple, circular frame that’s subtle enough for daily wear and meaningful enough to make you misty-eyed.
Here’s the thing: your dress deserves more than a cardboard box and a controlled climate. It deserves a second act. One that’s elegant, wearable, and doesn’t require a special occasion—unless you count walking the dog in yoga pants as an event (which, fair). This kit gives you full autonomy over your sentimental jewelry moment, no need to ship your memories off or trust a stranger with mother-of-pearl scissors and a glue stick. It’s a small, beautiful rebellion against tucking everything away “just in case.”
If you’re keeping the dress for future generations, this is the piece you wear to remind yourself why. If you’re not, well—this is the piece you wear to remind yourself you looked incredible. And yes, it’ll match basically every neckline.
Custom Acrylic Bridal Shadow Frame
The acrylic front panel keeps everything crisp and dust-free — like your gown deserves, frankly. This custom bridal shadow frame is more exhibit-worthy than sentimental clutter, with a clean, modern display that puts your preserved dress in the same tier as art (which, reminder: it kind of is).
It’s built to your specs and securely encases your dress behind a crystal-clear acrylic face that won’t yellow over time. Unlike the usual cardboard box you’ll inevitably shove under your bed, this one’s meant to be seen — without inviting curious pets, toddler hands, or the slow creep of climate-induced regret. Mount it in a hallway, bedroom, or that one area of your house that’s just become “wedding shrine corner.”
The point here isn’t just nostalgia. It’s taking that once-worn, $1,250+ marvel and giving it a little well-earned stage time in your post-wedding life. Because a gown this personal shouldn’t only resurface once every 30 years for a “try-on-for-the-kids” moment that ends with someone crying into boxed wine. Seal it. Frame it. Show it off — without the lace turning grey.
Custom Lace Keepsake Ring
Actual lace from your wedding dress, set under glass and wrapped in silver. It’s not just sentimental — it’s downright elegant. This custom ring makes space for a small piece of your gown, preserved in resin so it doesn’t yellow, disintegrate, or mysteriously vanish into a junk drawer over the next few decades.
Most “keepsakes” have the subtle charm of a participation trophy. This is not one of those. It walks the line between heirloom and everyday wear with surprising finesse. The setting is understated enough to wear to brunch, but meaningful enough to side-eye your grandkids with when they ask, “Wait, you *really* wore a giant satin bow?”
The beauty is in the contradiction: it’s delicate and durable, sentimental and self-contained. If you’re already boxing up the dress like it’s retiring from Broadway, this ring lets a piece of it keep working overtime — stylishly, emotionally, and without demanding a shadow box half the size of your living room wall.
Framed Bridal Lace Heirloom
Five inches by seven, framed in wood, and stitched with your actual wedding dress lace — yes, the real thing. This framed bridal lace heirloom doesn’t just preserve a memory; it edits it down to its most poetic detail. A swatch of your gown, carefully trimmed and spotlighted like it belongs in a gallery (because honestly, it kind of does).
It’s the kind of keepsake your grandchild might find on a shelf and ask, “Was this part of your dress?” And instead of digging through a storage box that smells faintly of cedar and regret, you’ll just nod toward the wall. It’s sentimental, sure — but nothing saccharine. This works because it’s small, intentional, and just a little bit dramatic (like you on your wedding day, but quieter).
For anyone who doesn’t see themselves breaking out the whole dress again (vow renewal or not), this is the no-fuss, high-impact way to keep the magic visible. One part art, one part memory, and zero parts mothball.
Handmade Ivory Lace Dress Box
Hand-applied lace and a satin ribbon closure — yes, even your dress’s box gets to be fancy now. This handmade ivory storage box is what your gown deserves after its one-day-only performance: a proper rest in understated, romantic luxury instead of being crammed into a disintegrating plastic tote beside your college yearbooks.
The extra-large size is intentional, giving even the most dramatic trains and poofy underskirts room to breathe. It’s acid-free, cotton-lined, and designed for long-term preservation — because the dress that made your aunt weep and your niece dream about her future wedding shouldn’t yellow into a puffball of regret. This isn’t just storage. It’s stage two in your gown’s transformation from “worn once” to “family heirloom.”
Heirloom Gown Heart Ornament
Lace from *your* actual wedding gown, hand-shaped into a heart and backed with ivory linen—it doesn’t get much more personal than that. This isn’t a generic ornament pretending to hold deep meaning. It’s your dress, your stitches, your moment, hanging on the tree like a tiny, wearable memory that doesn’t require you to haul out a vacuum-sealed box every December.
The ornament is made from a swatch of your own gown (yes, the *real* one), making it a far cry from mass-market sentimentality. The maker doesn’t just slap it on glass and call it a day—they professionally preserve and frame the lace under protective UV-safe plastic so it won’t yellow like your Aunt Carol’s old curtains. Plus the hand-lettered details on the back (name, date, or a short message) add just enough polish without veering into Pinterest-overload territory.
So if you’ve archived the rest of your dress for the next generation—or the next closet purge—this little heart lets you keep a sliver of it alive in plain view. Sentimental, without being smothering. Emotional, without needing its own shadowbox shrine. Think of it as preservation with a wink. One highly specific heirloom, zero storage anxiety.
Heirloom Wedding Dress Crewneck
Made from your actual gown fabric — the one you swore you’d never cut — this crewneck is part cozy loungewear, part time capsule. Your wedding dress lives again, not boxed under a bed or sealed in archival tissue, but stitched into a sweatshirt you can actually wear to brunch. It’s sentimental, but in an “oh this old thing?” kind of way.
The idea is subtle genius: repurpose a piece of your wedding dress into something with sleeves. Whether it’s a lace panel across the chest, a trim along the hem, or a more dramatic center-front swatch that says “yes, that *is* part of my bodice,” this one-of-a-kind keepsake turns preservation into everyday affection. It’s not about showing off — it’s about holding onto something personal without being precious about it. Bonus: it won’t yellow in storage or require a specialist to clean it.
Perfect if the thought of never seeing your gown again makes you mildly tragic, but you also don’t need a glass shrine in your hallway. Wear the memory, skip the museum.
Heirloom Wedding Gown Bear
Hand-cut from your actual gown, complete with its original lace, beading, or maybe even that one stubborn champagne stain you swore nobody would notice — this Heirloom Wedding Gown Bear turns your biggest dress into your smallest keepsake. It’s a sentimental downgrade in size only.
Yes, it’s a teddy bear. But it’s not a teddy bear you grab off a gift shop shelf. It’s made *from your wedding dress*, stitched into existence with emotional gravity (and professional tailoring). Every bear is custom-made, meaning yours could end up wearing your veil as a scarf, or flaunting satin paws that once walked you down the aisle. It’s not just charming — it’s archival with a hug.
This is the kind of heirloom your future kid actually *wants* to inherit — less “fragile box under the bed,” more “chic nostalgia that sits on the bookshelf.” For when you can’t physically wear your dress again, but aren’t emotionally ready to box it up and pretend it never happened. Sentiment, with a side of whimsy.
Pearl Adorned Ceramic Dress Sculpture
Hand-shaped from ceramic and detailed with a collar of delicate pearls, this sculpture manages to nod at sentimentality without drowning in it. The texture mimics dress folds in a way that’s eerily evocative of actual fabric — silk, maybe, or organza — frozen in time. There’s something a little haunting about capturing the essence of your wedding dress in stoneware, and that’s the point.
It’s for the kind of bride who kept her gown not just because it was expensive (though let’s not pretend it wasn’t), but because it meant something. And now, instead of banishing it to a climate-controlled vault under your bed, you can give its spirit a place on your shelf—quiet, sculptural, almost reverent. It won’t yellow. It won’t wrinkle. It doesn’t need archival tissue paper. It just sits there, regal as hell, gently reminding you once wore the dress of your life. Without the need to zip back into it ever again.
Congrats, You’re A Wedding Dress Preservation Expert!
Now, you know the wedding dress preservation steps you need to take to be sure your wedding dress lasts for years to come.
Our tips will take the anxiety out, and put the fun back in, getting ready for your special day.
Lawrence
November 10, 2017 at 11:53 pmNice blog! Thanks for sharing.
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