Washing your wedding dress

One of the September 2014 brides washed hers in the bath and it came up really well! See if you can find the September 2014 OMs thread, she took pictures before and after. Good luck! I hope it works ☺

Thanks Mrs Shep - I have tried to find that thread but have had no such luck. Hopefully in a few hours time I will see some results myself on my dress!

I've heard that machine washing on a gentle cycle inside a white duvet cover works. I wasn't brave enough to try it though!

I dragged my butt through my discussions :-)

https://www.hitched.co.uk/chat/forums/t/465202.aspx?PageIndex=11

Thanks for this!!! I was goggling for "washing dress" and similar in the title which is why I probably missed it. Soaking it in the tub hasn't done anything much. To be fair it is really grim. Might pluck up the courage to chuck it in the washer at the weekend. Thanks for your help though!

How are you doing HAG? Long time no see

Hmm, not sure if I'd risk the washing machine but I did hand wash parts of my dress and it turned out okay. My dress was pretty much spotless after the big day, I just had a bit of deodorant marks under the arms but came out with a bit of diluted detergent and warm water!

My wedding dress only cost me £250, but I loved it so much that I had to pay the dry cleaner bill to get it cleaned. Best money ever spent. It's now packed away beautifully in a box in my loft ready to get out in 10 or so years when I want a trip down memory lane!

Ali G - Just had a little nose at your report. Lovely

Let me know how you get on with the washing machine. I need to clean the bottom of mine before I wear it again in the summer (we're having a photo shoot with the lovely DW) The lace overcoat is the worst so I'm going to try a gentle handwash and hang it outside when the weather gets a bit better.

I am good thank you Erin! I have been trying not to be distracted lately (hence not being around) as I'm still finishing off my studies but needs must and all that. How are you? How is everyone in fact?

Hmm. I think I am going to soak it in the bath again at the weekend and take to the worst bits with a toothbrush. If I can't get it out with water and soap, I can't imagine that the dry cleaners would be able to make is disappear either. If no look in the tub, its going in the washer! I will take some pics and hopefully show my dirty before and beautiful after!

My dress is currently in the washing machine!!!!

On this lovely Friday evening when I should be doing some studying I went crazy and put it in the wash!

The bodice has lots of detailing on it so I wanted to protect this the most. I put a vest top over it, securing it by tying it to those underarm hander things, and then put a pillowcase over it. I then put it all in a white duvet cover, plonked it in the wash with some delicate washing liquid, set it to a short cycle on a 30 wash with no spin. It'll be finished in 30 mins so now I have moved on to some wine whilst I anxiously wait.

Here are the before pictures of my really mucky dress (I know the bottom got dirty because I gave up on shoes but I have no idea where the other much has come from!). Its gross. It needed cleaning. I hopefully, fingers crossed, have cleaned it perfectly!

Wow, that did get surprisingly dirty! Got my fingers crossed for you that it comes out well!

Yeaaaahh. Although I was roaming around the garden barefoot most of the day... However, it did make me think how clean the floor was in the venue too. Mind you, people wouldn't have had clean shoes from being in the garden all day. Gross. Oh well! We had fun!

Its out. It survived! The scum on the bottom hasn't quite come out thought (TBH I thought that would be a long shot on a 30 wash). So tomorrow I'm going to pre-treat the bottom with vanish and chuck it in again!!! No beading appear to have come off, it doesn't appear to have shrunk, and it smells lovely! Hopefully I will have more of a positive update after round 2!

Thanks for coming back, I'm not sure that I'll be putting mine in the machine but I'll definitely try the bath method.