The June wedding season is nearly upon us! It’s amazing how even in the heat of the South Florida summer, June is one of the hottest months to get married in Miami – hottest in every sense of the word. Rey’s Cleaners has had the pleasure of caring for absolutely gorgeous gowns recently. This collage highlights just a few of these breathtaking gowns:

So, what to do with the gown once the wedding has come and gone? You wouldn’t want to leave such a treasured heirloom hanging in the corner of your scrunched closet, forgotten and left with stained memories of a glorious night, right? Those treasured memories will always live on in that gown, but stains…well, those are never glorious – especially after they’ve oxidized through the fabric 15-30 years down the line and burnt yellow holes through the once luxurious duchess satin. This is where Rey’s Cleaners comes in quite handy.

Rey’s Cleaners’ wedding specialists treat every wedding gown and fine garment unique to its needs. A silk organza layered and machine pleated Oscar gown couldn’t possibly expect to be treated as a polyester gown with plastic beading would. I’m not knocking the polyester gown I’d like to simply note that polyester is an absolute blessing to clean and care for and normally is quite easy to do so. Silk organza, duchess satin and silk shantung, among others need extra vigilant tender loving care and an extremely fine tuned eye to its wants, its needs and what it’s willing to give. Fabrics have a character and a personality of their own and fine garment care comes in when that is well understood. Thus all wedding gowns (as well as evening gowns and heirlooms but we’re talking about wedding gowns today) are cared for completely by hand and all embellishments the gown may have are specially handled to ensure that every piece is handsomely ready to wear on your special day and/or ready for storage until it can be pricelessly handed down.

Storing a wedding gown and/or heirloom is the next step to post wedding planning. Rey’s Cleaners philosophy in wedding gown preservation is not the chemical ‘preserved’, vacuum sealed in a cheap cardboard box with a plastic window opening that was and is still used in many cleaners across the nation. Please do not submit your gown to this ticking time bomb. Fabrics need to breathe and unfortunately they will yellow over time. There is no guarantee that a box can give that the gown will not yellow and oxidize. What a high quality archival box can do is provide the safest environment possible for the gown to rest and provide easy access so that you can inspect the gown occasionally and check for any yellowing as the years pass by.

A Museum Quality Preservation Box is the only wedding gown storage unit used in Rey’s Cleaners.

Museum Quality’s archival boxes are made from 100% archival quality paper. They are lignin-free and contain 92% cellulose. Museum Quality’s archival tissue is lignin-free and neutral pH.

You may be asking yourself, “What is lignin?” Lignin is one of the substances that make up paper. It is highly acidic in nature and as it ages, releases chemicals that cause yellowing and staining. Naturally, any quality archival paper must have the lowest amounts of lignin, if any, in order to be considered archival quality. This museum quality archival box provides a breathable, protected environment for your cherished wedding gown and/or heirloom. The gown is filled with the archival tissue paper so as to prevent the bodice from caving in on itself and layered and wrapped in more tissue paper and muslin fabric. The most important aspect of protecting your gown, however, is its monitoring.

Museum conservators check their pieces every two years. We suggest, every 2-3 years, open the box and examine the storage materials and your gown.