We get this question all the time. A lot of people have heard from friends or family that the best thing to do is "let your wedding gown breathe". The typical reasoning to do this is often given as "it is good for the fabric to breathe".

Sounds reasonable right? Well, not exactly. 

The reasons are actually pretty obvious when you really think about it. Fabrics don't breathe, they have no lungs. Yes, air can circulate through the fabric but there is no benefit to get from allowing this to happen and it can be downright bad for wedding dress fabric.  Air carries contaminants and isn't clean plus it carries dust, microbes and other harmful chemicals. You fabric is a nice little place for all those nasty things to settle down on. After years of this or even months in some cases, you start to see the materials deteriorate and yellowing occurs. You can thank the "breathing fabric" for that one. 

That is why we always recommend wedding dress preservation. When your wedding dress preservation box is sealed it doesn't allow air to circulate through the fabric. That means no chance that any harmful things can filter through and make a home on your dress. When you add the fact that preservation also cleans your dress an removes any stains from the wedding night, you quickly start to realize why it makes sense. 

The other benefit of sealing your wedding dress preservation box versus leaving it to breathe is that moisture is kept out. Water of any type can ruin your dress fast and when you add the potential for mold and mildew that comes from moisture, it just isn't worth the risk. 

So sealing your wedding dress in a wedding dress preservation box that is air-tight is starting to make sense. The final reason for doing this versus just leaving your dress out is that a preservation box also keeps out insects and creepy crawlies. Other than these critters being nasty, they can eat fabrics and ruin a dress. .  We have reports all of the time of brides who have opened up their storage boxes and found insects in their bridal dress.  Spiders, earwigs, pill-bugs, and beetles are the most common complaints.

So next time somebody suggests that you "let your wedding dress breathe" do the smart thing and ignore them. For what is a small amount of investment, you can get your dress properly preserved, cleaned and put in an airtight box and not worry about it ever again. 

They way it looked the first time they tried it on, the way it felt on their special day and the special meaning it had. It is an important treasure. There is something especially wonderful about having the gown preserved because it becomes not just a lasting memory but also physically preserved forever. That is why wedding gown preservation is often high on the list of priorities once a bride gets home from the honeymoon.

While many brides know about bridal gown presentation, a lot of women don't realize that you can keep a wedding dress in pristine condition even after many years of storage, if it was properly handled from the start and stored correctly. On the flip side, a dress not taken care of immediately can be ruined faster than most people think. For what is a small investment in gown preservation you can save yourself the agony of stumbling on your yellowing wedding dress one day in a few years when it is too late. 

One reason we hear most often from brides is that they want preserve the wedding dress so that they can pass the dress on to another family member, maybe a daughter when she gets older. This can even be heartbreaking if a daughter has spent years dreaming about being able to wear her mother's wedding dress for the occasion of her own special day. Good gown preservation will help to assure that such disappointment does not happen and that the heirloom bridal dress can be happily and proudly worn again. 

The other reason to preserve a wedding gown is that stains happen on wedding days. Yes, that is correct. A bride spills something small on the dress during the wedding, it occurs all the time (most of the time actually). Even if the dress looks clean there is likely to be areas of body perspiration on the fabric which will cause discoloration over time and can even cause the fabric to become brittle. 

If preservation steps are delayed, then stains have a chance to oxidize. These could be both seen and unseen stains. The bridal gown should be cleaned as soon as possible after the wedding to make sure it is preserved in its best condition. It seems like something to remember, but with everything going on it can be hard to have this detail listed. A bride gets back from the wedding and leaves the wedding dress in a regular garment bag. Weeks go by and it is often forgotten about and is not properly stored to prevent deterioration. Unfortunately, this unintentional inattention can make proper dress preservation really hard after the fact. It is important to plan gown preservation early and have it on your list for when you get back from the honeymoon.

Another important thing to remember is that you can't just dry clean a wedding dress at any dry cleaner. Proper wedding gown preservation requires both cleaning of the dress and also storage in an acid-free box. These steps should be taken as soon as possible after the occasion and it is best to seek out the services of a company that specializes in preserving wedding dresses.