What Does It Mean to Let Your Wedding Dress Breathe?

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.