Wedding Garment Care

Almost all wedding dresses and suits will wrinkle and crease during storage—even if you're not traveling, but especially if you are! We steam and press all wrinkles, separate layers of fabric so it flows properly, and prep all embellishments so they pop. Accessories like veils and shawls should also be prepped to look their best for the big day.

Spills such as soda, wine and cake (often caused by a guest and unnoticed by the bride) contain sugar and can dry without leaving a visible mark. Sugar is not dissolved during ordinary dry cleaning and caramelizes over time into ugly brown stains. Your dress can also be damaged by biological fluids, such as tears and oils. Left untreated, your dress will yellow and develop stains and even holes in the fabric. 

Our specialists carefully hand clean every gown separately with gentle chemicals that dissolve the different kinds of stains.  Then your gown is rinsed in pure solvent until it is completely clean. 

This is when your clean gown is carefully packed for longterm storage. Your layered with acid-free tissue in a museum-quality gown chest that is also completely acid-free. This protects your gown from the air and light that cause unprotected gowns to yellow.

At Pratt Abbott, we do all our work in-house so your dress never leaves our hands. We communicate with you throughout the process and you can always reach a real person when you contact us. We are Maine's only certified wedding dress experts, and we have extensive experience will all types of fabrics, cuts, and details. We work on  everything from high-end couture dresses to vintage dresses to budget-friendly dresses, and we have encountered just about every type of stain. In short, your dress is in the very best hands when you choose Pratt Abbott Wedding. 

We use the ecofriendly GreenEarth^® Cleaning Process to gently and safely clean your wedding dress. The use of any solvent, no matter which kind, generates carbon emissions—even if only from the electricity needed for the machinery. We asked Carbonfund.org to calculate the carbon emissions from your travel to and from our location to the cleaning and preservation process to the wedding chest itself. Our donations to Carbonfund.org offset the entire carbon footprint, and Carbonfund.org uses our donation to fund worldwide reforestation projects.

Our trademarked MuseumCare^TM wedding chest is completely acid-free, not just pH-neutral. Chests that are only pH-neutral are not safe for your gown. They can re-acidify because the neutralizer is water soluble and will dissolve.  Never use ordinary boxes and tissue. They are heavily acidic and cause yellowing. In fact, ordinary boxes and tissue can “scorch” gowns, which leaves dark brown streaks wherever the fabric touches the box.

Yes, we are experts in wedding dress restoration and can do a lot to renew yellowed gowns to their original hue. 

Absolutely! We apply the same level of care and expertise to your prom, pageant, or other formal gowns. Gown preservation is especially important for couture and vintage dresses.