“Today’s independent woman doesn’t want to go along with the crowd; she wants to stand on her own merit,” says Lovetoknow.com.

Jill F. said her vows in silver gray

While white wedding dresses remain the most popular choice for many brides, colored wedding dresses are growing in popularity for modern, trendy brides. Lovetoknow reminds critics that white wedding gowns weren’t the norm until 1840, when Queen Victoria chose a white dress for her wedding.

At Classic Cleaners, we know.  In just the past season, of the many beautiful wedding gowns brought in for post-wedding cleaning, one was red, the other a silver gray.

Jill F. confided that she’d never even considered white.  Seeking a non-traditional dress, she’d chosen the one with the most appealing style and fit – it happened to come in gray.

Lovetoknow names five reasons brides are beginning to branch out in their wedding color choices:

• Desire to be different
• Greater selection of styles
• Cheaper prices for party dresses as compared to bridal gowns
• Cultural considerations (where a certain color is traditional or symbolic)
• Ability to reuse the gown for other occasions

 Every profession has its special challenges, and dry cleaning is no exception. 

• The delicate fabric on evening gowns needs special treatment.
• The color red presents its own set of special challenges.
• Beading and trim need to be handled with special expertise.

Dry cleaning wedding dresses is a specialty at Classic Cleaners.  There’s an extra measure of satisfaction, though, when Classic Cleaners technicians can do their work in “Technicolor”!
 

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Customers trust Classic Cleaners to clean and preserve their wedding gowns with the highest level of care–and achieve the highest level of success!

Once our customers see the incredible results we offer, they are sure to come back to us when the need arises. Sometimes the same gown is worn by several brides, as in this beautiful story, and sometimes the customer trust us with more than one dress over time, as in the following example of our work.

This dress was the fourth dress entrusted to us by the mother of four daughters. The photo at the right shows the dress after cleaning but before preservation and packing in an archival-quality box.

The composite photo shows areas of the dress after cleaning (top) and before cleaning (bottom). As you can see, this dress needed a thorough (but gentle) cleaning to return to its original beauty. The gown had yellowed quite a bit since it was last worn (click on the photo for a larger image).

This beautiful gown features delicate lace and thousands of fine beads. Our gentle process protects lace and beads–yet attains these marvelous results. To learn more about Classic Cleaners’ gentle but effective wedding gown cleaning and preservation process, please click here.

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Classic Cleaners partner and wedding gown cleaning and preservation specialist Leon Neal has a very good sense of humor. As a fun way to advertise that Classic Cleaners offers the best wedding gown cleaning service in Indianapolis, he used a discarded wedding gown as a table cloth at his church’s Christmas table decorating party.

First, Leon gave the dress a thorough cleaning, using Classic Cleaners’ special detergents and gentle washing method. Then the women of the church created this whimsical centerpiece-plus-table cloth. Spectacular!

The message, of course, was that Classic Cleaners can almost always get out the toughest stains, even in a beautiful wedding dress. People may not ordinarily use wedding gowns as table cloths, but gowns do get stained during the ceremony (from dragging on the ground) and during the reception (champagne and food).

After you have worn your beautiful gown, take it to Classic Cleaners and have it cleaned and preserved–it will continue to look great for many, many years to come!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Congratulations to Brooke Hynds Mackin, who celebrated her wedding on August 15, 2009. She was the third bride to wear this gorgeous wedding gown, the other two being…

• Brooke’s mother Cindy Timanus Hynds on May 12, 1979
• Brooke’s grandmother Evelyn Galucci Timanus on August 24, 1947

The wedding gown was originally made by Evelyn’s sister-in-law, Mary Gallucci, who, according to the family, was like a mother to Evelyn. When Evelyn was 13 years old, she found a photograph of this dress in a magazine, clipped it out, and asked Mary to make it for her future wedding day. Mary made the dress without a pattern.

Here is Brooke in her gown, which looks virtually as new as it did 62 years ago:

Here is a photo that shows all three brides in the dress (click on photo for a larger image):

How is it possible that a wedding gown of this great age can look so new? Wedding gown restoration by Classic Cleaners can make vintage weddings dresses look virtually like new (click here to learn more).

The technology is truly amazing and produces results like these (“before” on the left and “after” on the right, in case it isn’t clear!):

There is no Photoshop trickery at work here, friends. The dress was really that yellow–and it really is possible to get it that white!

We believe that Classic Cleaners offers the best wedding gown restoration and wedding gown preservation service in the Indianapolis area. You or your loved one can look as beautiful as Brooke did in a classic wedding gown! Please contact us today for a free consultation!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team