Silly question about Trash the Dress

[redginger]

I've seen many beautiful Trash the Dress photos on some photographers' websites and it looks like so much fun. My fiance is not too thrilled about messing up his expensive suit. When you trash your wedding dress in the ocean, are you really damaging your wedding dress (or is it possible to dryclean and save the dress as keepsake)? Thanks.

[cookiemunchkin]

I'm sure I will horrify people by saying this... but I came home, turned my dress inside out, and put it in my washing machine (front load... i wouldn't do this with top load) on the hand-wash cycle... and it looks brand new again.  We did the same with hubby's linen suit, looks good as new.

 

Give it a good rinse in water as soon as you get out of the ocean though.  Dont want to leave all that salt sitting in your clothes. 

[daizyduke]

I'm shocked, but impressed that washing it at home worked.  What kind of material was your dress?

[cookiemunchkin]

lol my husband was shocked too... he was like "you're going to do WHAT!!?!".  But I figured the dress was already full of sand (and theoretically ruined) so I had nothing to lose!

 

The dress was satin and tulle with lace appliques and lots of beading

[mochamakes3]

Thanks for posting that you just used the washer. The day of our wedding, before our reception, we somehow ended up taking pictures on a jet ski, so my dress was soaked on the bottom. It was then dragged through sand, dirt, clay and grass. So it was filthy going into our reception. Trash the dress actually cleaned it up a lot. First in the pool, then the ocean, and then back in the pool.

 

I didn't spend a lot so I wasn't going to get it professionally cleaned. Now I can just try tossing it in the front loading machine!

 

Here's a picture of it at the end of the reception:

 

[JayKay]

I was wondering the same thing! I will definately try the washer.

[mochamakes3]

My dress survived the washer last night, unfortunately so did the stains. I'm going to try using stain remover on it and back into the washer.

[82turtles]

Something else I had read about... she put her dress in the whirlpool in the hotel suite after the TTD and let the jets run. That cleaned out all the salt and sand from the ocean. Then she just let it hang dry.

 

Wouldn't work on the stains probably, but it might be a good idea to at least get the salt out as soon as you can while still down there.

[bmadzia1]

Since I'm paying $200 plus alterations for my dress - I REALLY DO  NOT CARE what happens to the dress . I still would like to bring it back with me though. My TTD is the day before we leave - any tips on how to get it to 'dry' a bit before I take it on the plane? And I'm not standing there with a hair dryer ladies...

[Avelyad]

So glad I checked this forum - I want to do a ttd but felt I had to buy another dress. I only paid $350 for my dress and love it, so I wanted it for all of the photos. I guess I don't really care if it's ruined, because it will likely never be worn again, unless by one of my daughters, but I'm gonna give it a go and see what happens!