The story we shared in our blog about Classic Cleaners Eagle Creek bride who spotted a rainbow on her way to the church inspired one of our clients from the other end of Indianapolis to tell us about a piece of folklore that caused her to change her own wedding plan.

In modern times, we’re finding, people pay less attention to folklore. When it comes to weddings, though, traditions and even superstitions continue to play a part in the planning. Of course, no one really knows for sure whether certain things bring good luck or bad, but, as the website weddings.lovetoknow.com  explains, brides don’t want to take a chance!

One loyal Classic Cleaners customer in McCordsville recalled originally planning to have each of her bridesmaids dress in a different jewel-tone shade, with the groomsmen in bowties to match, and the same colors replicated in her bouquet and in the table decorations. That most original and colorful concept was scrapped when an aunt shared with her that it would bring bad luck if the bridesmaids weren’t all in the same color dresses. Not actually “buying” that story, our customer nonetheless had all her attendants wear the same color.

Early bridesmaids actually wore dresses similar to the bride’s in order to confuse evil spirits who might want to harm the bride or cause mischief. In fact, we learned, that’s why the groomsmen were there as well!

Another wedding custom related to color choices has some tradition behind it as well – the boutonniere. In medieval times, when a lady fancied a particular knight, she’d give him a token – a scarf, flower, or ribbon – to carry into battle.  The knight was said to be “wearing her colors”.

As you can tell, at Classic Cleaners, we’re really into weddings.   As a member of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists, we can offer MuseumCare™ preservation of wedding gowns, an advanced process endorsed by the Association of Bridal Consultants. At Classic Cleaners, we may not be superstitious, but we love to keep wedding traditions alive!

Do you have a favorite wedding-related superstition or tradition?  Please share it with us.  We want all our readers to have good luck!

 by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

“Once upon a time, women who bought their wedding dresses secondhand to cut costs may have kept it a secret; today they have bragging rights,”  says Bethany Kandel in New York Times’ Field Notes. Kandel cautions the now “in” frugal brides to budget for alternations and dry cleaning bills.

At Classic Cleaners, our wedding gown care professionals know all about the specialized dry cleaning, alternation, and pressing techniques needed for both brand new and “lightly loved” bridal attire.

While a surprising number of brides are buying used wedding gear online, as SmartMoney reporter Joan Magee notes, at Classic Cleaners we’re noticing more and more brides choosing to restore beautiful heirloom wedding gowns, first worn by Mom or Grandma, for their own wedding.

The Australian film released just last year, Second Hand Wedding, was dubbed a “first-class success by reviewers. Apparently, from the time Barbra Streisand lamented her status as “Secondhand Rose“, frugality has made quite a comeback. 

Of course, at Classic Cleaners, our job is making sure all our brides- and all their wedding gowns – make their absolute best appearance (whatever time around)! 

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Recently on this blog, we’ve told two wedding gown restoration success stories:

Classic Cleaners of Indianapolis restores improperly cleaned wedding gown to glorious beauty!

Classic Cleaners restores 1947 wedding gown–beautiful bride wears it with pride!

We use the same processes in Classic Cleaners’ safe, gentle, and highly effective wedding gown restoration service and Classic Cleaners’ safe, gentle, and highly effective cleaning and MuseumCare preservation service for wedding gowns.

The main difference between the two services is this: We restore wedding gowns that have become discolored or otherwise damaged over time, and we clean and preserve recently worn wedding gowns so that they do not become damaged over time. Of course, once the gown is restored and worn again in a ceremony, it needs to be preserved thereafter to keep it beautiful for the next bride in your family.

One of the tools we use to preserve your precious gown is our archival-quality wedding gown preservation box. In this post I’m including two pictures of the box. The first is a professional photograph of the box, which, as you can see, has an inner box with a see-through window and an outer box.

The other photo is not professional (I took it!), but I’m posting it here to show you that we put our preservation boxes on display in many of our stores. In the display models, the outer box has been cut away to show the inner box, but, of course, that’s just for display.

Classic Cleaners’ archival-quality wedding gown preservation boxes have many special features to keep your gown clean and odor-free while preserving its original beautiful color as time goes by. As we say on our wedding gown preservation page (linked to above),

We layer your gown with acid-free tissue and carefully fold it into an acid-free, archival-quality preservation box. We store metal buttons and findings and shoulder pads separately, stuffing the sleeves, bodice, and folds with additional acid-free tissue to prevent hard wrinkles. The preservation box, designed especially for this purpose, allows the gown to breathe, keeping it in perfect condition for many decades to come.

The box itself is made of acid-free materials and lets your gown breathe.

We’ve earned a reputation of having the best wedding gown preservation service in Indianapolis because we take such exquisite care with your gown. For a gratis consultation on your gown, please visit your favorite Classic Cleaners location or contact us at the number below!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

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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