A Dress’ Second Life: From Mother To Daughter
Dress preservation is important for many reasons. When you invest in your wedding dress, this investment goes far past your wedding day. For generations to come, your dress, if properly preserved, should be just about wedding-wear ready. However, what happens if you have a vintage wedding dress that isn’t adequately maintained?
For Christina Tigani, a recent bride, that’s exactly what happened! Before her second wedding, which she didn’t have a specific dress in mind to wear, she was chatting with her father and sister about her mother, who had passed away in 2018. The idea of wearing her mother’s dress came up organically, leading Christina and her sister to look for the dress to see its condition.
Though not preserved properly and wrinkled and yellowing, Christina was determined to bring the dress back to life. After all, her parents were married in 1968, so the dress needed some love!
She started searching for businesses around her that could help but didn’t find one that could handle the work or required her to ship her dress, which she didn’t want to do. On the verge of attempting to clean it herself, Christina searched the internet and found Owl Cleaners, located about two and a half hours away.
Christina brought the dress in, and Heather and her team took out the wrinkles, removed the yellow staining, and made it look new again! It seemed so unique that some relatives at Christina’s mom’s wedding didn’t even realize it was the same dress!
Even more, Christina’s gown came in missing an embroidered chenille trim on the bottom hem edge, which was super popular in the 1960s and very hard to find. Heather cares immensely about each individual gown, so she went to three stores in search of it and found an entire bolt in the back of a trim bin.
“It [the trim] was an exact match, so I purchased the entire bolt since I knew I would never find it again; they don’t make it anymore. This is the high level of attention that I give every bride. I had to make her gown right and perfect!”
Christina’s experience is similar to many others. When wearing a vintage dress, especially one not professionally preserved, it’s essential not to attempt to clean it yourself and take it to a professional. Here are some other pieces of advice Christina shared with us:
- Always call a professional (especially Heather) who will be honest about the work and do a great job.
- Look into getting the dress preserved after the wedding to be appropriately stored and ready to wear one day again.
- Wearing a vintage dress can make your special day that much more special.
For Christina, it felt like her mother was at her wedding, and she is so glad she found Owl Cleaners (especially as she was preparing to preserve it herself!).
“The whole experience with Heather was fantastic. Heather was upfront and always communicated with me throughout the process, and the work exceeded my expectations.”
If you’re an expecting bride or you’re still holding onto your wedding dress without it preserved, call Heather at Owl Premier & Bridal today to learn more about how you can benefit from our services!
Stay up to date on all of our wedding gown preservation stories and more through our Instagram, @owlpremierandbridal.