Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The Expensive Wedding Dress Storage Box



I finally went to pick up my wedding dress from the cleaners yesterday after having it cleaned and preserved. I don't know how long it had been sitting at the cleaners waiting for me, but probably for a while taking up space. Apparently, it created more business for them as well because the guy working there said his mom just got married and saw my box sitting there and decided she wanted a box for her wedding dress too. It's important to have a box because this dress will follow me around wherever I go for the rest of my life even though it will never be worn or come out of the box again. That's just the way it goes with wedding dresses.


The wedding bouquet is another thing that is getting preserved and put in a shadow box, but I won't get that back for several months. I'm expecting a work of art with how much it cost and how long it has taken to get it back. I delivered my flowers to them right after the wedding in October and probably will not get the final product until September.

Reem Acra wedding gown
The wedding dress box had Cadence's sniff of approval as it was sitting on the kitchen floor. The cost to clean and preserve the gown was almost $200. According to the receipt, just the box was $50. That's one expensive cardboard box!

 I finally moved the $50 cardboard box to the dining room table. The Murph was slightly curious about the big box, but only enough to ask me where I was going to store it other than the dining room table.


I told him that I guess I'll put it down in the Boy's closet where my other dress is. The one I wore when I married the Boy's dad circa 1988. That box lived at my grandmother's house for almost 10 years before I brought it home to store. After the divorce it ended up somewhere in my basement before I felt sorry for it and brought it back upstairs to store in a nicer closet area.



 I'm still keeping this dress around because my grandmother bought it for me. We had fun going shopping together to pick it out. Believe it or not back in 1987 these giant puffy sleeves were hot. I still have the veil packed away in the box too. I'm not sure if a dress from the mid 80's is considered "vintage" or not. It's definitely retro.

Eve of Milady wedding gown 1987
I hope my boxes live happily together down in the Boy's room. I guess their next home will be in a storage unit until we get settled in a new house. This is why I tell the Murph we don't really need to downsize that much. We have stuff to store and cats to raise.

8 comments:

  1. I'm always the one trying to downsize and "someone" is always trying to upsize.
    That Berthon's box! It's identical to mine. Wonder if Berthon's is still around around and whether their wedding dress box has changed since 1987.

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    1. We are both downsizing here - getting rid of things, decluttering- me a little more reluctantly than him.

      I'm not sure if Berthon's is still around or not. I just took my dress to the closest dry cleaners up the street that the Murph uses. They didn't even know anything about preserving so I said well just clean it then. He called me back and told me that he found out they could preserve it (stick it in a $50 box) so I said okay, do it. :)

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  2. I had no idea that cardboard boxes was such a huge racket. Apparently I'm in the wrong field. But I guess if you want to preserve the gown from your special day, then you really have no choice. I mean, if you paid 5k for a gown, then whats $200 for a box. At least this way it will be preserved forever.

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    1. My husband and I quickly found out this entire wedding planning field can be a racket! Put a picture of a wedding dress or the word "heirloom" on the box and it quadruples in value! Same with all other things wedding related! I did get a good deal on the gown because the shop was discontinuing the designer so I didn't have to pay $5000.

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  3. Ahhhh . . . the famous wedding dress that made you look AWESOME! Glad you had it preserved. I had my wedding bouquet preserved, but it didn't turn out quite like I imagined. It's nice to hold on to good memories. It balances the bad.

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    1. Thanks! I did have it preserved. Maybe one day it will be "vintage". I hope my bouquet turns out okay. It sure does take a long time!

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  4. These boxes are great and sometimes I buy them on Craigs List and ebay. I send my big skirt dresses allover the world in them and they are perfect!.

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    1. I hope they are less expensive on ebay! They are a great way to store wedding dresses.

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