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by: Martin Smith
You want the perfect wedding dress, so you
have made it a major focus of your pre wedding planning. There are some things
you need to find from the bridal shop, before you even look at your first gown.
Do you need to make an appointment to visit the shop? Does the store carry dresses
you can afford Can you browse the whole collection, or do you only get to see
the dresses the sales person chooses for you? If this shop doesn’t carry
the dress you love, can it be ordered?
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Once these questions have been answered and you find a dress
or two that you like, there are still more questions you need to ask.
Can a particular dress be ordered with different sleeves, or neckline? What
alterations can be done and what will that cost? Can you get a written estimate
on the alterations? If we order the bridesmaids dresses here, can we get a discount
or free alterations? Do you have headpieces and or veils that will go with my
dress? How much is the deposit and when is the balance due? What are the cancellation
and refund policies? Can we get a Rush on this dress if necessary? These are
the most important questions to ask, but you will probably have some of your
own. Beware of any shop that won’t give you straight answers or written
estimates. When you think you have found just the right dress, ask if they can
hold it for a day or two, then go home wait at least 34 hours and go back for
another look. If you still love it, then go right ahead and buy it.
On the other hand, if your mother, maid of honor, sales clerk
or friend thinks a dress is perfect and you are not sure, use the same strategy.
Wait a day; go back for a second look before you reject it. If a dress just
doesn’t feel right or you just don’t like it do not yield to pressure
from the store staff, friends or even Mom. It is your dress, your day,
you decide. After you have chosen your wedding dress, the clerk or
the shop’s seamstress will take measurements of your bust, waist and hips,
and determine if the dress needs to be taken up. Just about every wedding dress
needs some alterations. You will also need to go in for fittings, usually at
least three times. Make sure, if your alterations are not free, that you get
a written estimate. Find out if you will be able to “borrow” your
dress for a portrait sitting, and return it for pressing afterwards. Pay with
a credit card so that if anything goes wrong, you can dispute the payment. You
have another big decision to make. What about your headpiece and veil? The sales
staff should be able to assist you in choosing a headpiece that goes with your
dress. Veils come in several lengths and styles, and again the staff can help
you decide which is best for you.
The veil you choose for your wedding depends on the
dress you have chosen. If you are wearing a street length casual style
dress you wouldn’t choose a cathedral or chapel veil, both of which trail
the floor. By the same token you wouldn’t wear a flyaway veil, which barely
brushes the shoulders, with a formal dress with a train.
Don’t forget you need to get the right lingerie,
shoes and jewelry, to go with your beautiful wedding dress.
Before we leave the bridal salon, there is one more detail
to attend to, your bridesmaids dresses. When choosing these
dresses, you need to take into consideration the ages, complexions, and body
types of your attendants. Fortunately today’s bridesmaid’s gowns
are no longer the cookie cutter dresses all in the same color, that nobody would
ever wear again.
Some options for bridesmaid’s dresses are to choose a color and fabric
suitable for all of the women and let each of them pick a style that she is
comfortable with. Or you can choose a simple a-line or empire waist dress that
flatters all figures, and let the girls choose the from a color family, say
purple, the options could be lilac, lavender, plum, mauve and orchid. If you
do choose to have all attendants wear the same dress, they can personalize the
look with small beaded purses, scarves, jewelry or shawls.
Also, be aware that the colors and your bridesmaid’s
wear have to complement the color scheme of your reception, you don’t
want a red plan for your reception in red if your maids are wearing green, unless
you are going for a Christmas look.
The wedding is over, now you have to decide what to do with
that beautiful, expensive dress. You can put it on a hangar in the back of your
closet, where any stains will set and be very difficult to remove at a later
time. You need to ask your bridal shop or wedding consultant in advance for
the name of a gown preservationist. Many dry cleaners claim
to clean wedding gowns, but most are not experts in preservation.
There are two cleaning methods used by preservationists. Some
use the wet cleaning method, this entails washing the dress
by hand with a mild cleanser, that removes visible and invisible stains (champagne
and sugar) Other companies use the dry cleaning method, where
stains are pre-treated and then put in a dry cleaning machine. Once the dress
is cleaned, it is wrapped in white acid free tissue paper or unbleached muslin.
Ordinary tissue paper has acids that can stain and eventually eat holes in your
dress. Then the wrapped dress is in is placed in an acid free or paperboard
box. Sometimes the box has a viewing window of acetate. Store the box in out
of direct light to keep the dress from becoming yellow.
Having your gown cleaned and packaged by a reputable preservationist
can cost between $200- $400 depending on where you live. Before sending your
dress off to be done, ask if the work is done on site. Also find out if you
have to sign a disclaimer and sometimes say that the company is not responsible
for damage done during the preservation processes, You should seek out
a preservationist who will guarantee her or his work.
To help preserve your dress never wrap it in plastic,
don’t hang it on an ordinary wood or wire hangar, because the
dress could stretch and distort from its own weight. Don’t try to clean
stains, this could cause them to set.
If you are all tapped out after the wedding you can do things
to prolong the life of the dress. Wrap the dress in unbleached
muslin, or a white sheet, and store in a sturdy box under your bed. Then as
soon as you possibly can take the gown to a professional preservationist. Some
day your daughter may want to wear it on her wedding day.
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