Will salt water ruin my gorgeous Reem Acra wedding dress? Advice please!

nsblum · October 5, 2010

Hi Ladies, so of course I am freaking out because we are taking our trash the dress photos at the end of October, and now I am so worried that the ocean water may ruin my dress. I don't really want to "trash the dress", but I do want amazing, unique, fashion type photos, and from what I have seen, pictures in the water are AMAZING. My dress is all beaded on top, with a tulle bottom, no beads from the hips down. I called a cleaning company here in NYC and she made me nervous and was like yeah, it could ruin it, it could get moldy, it could change the texture of the fabric, etc, etc. She freaked me out. We are flying back down to Turks just to have our TTD session with Ileana from Tropical Imaging. I'm not so concerned with sitting on the sand or anything like that, but the water scares me. I think if the dress was taffeta or satin, or organza maybe it would leave a water mark, but tulle? Does anyone have any experience? I love my dress and have no plans of selling it, or wearing it again, but I just want to keep it nice and pretty and know that I have it, and that all the time I spent perfecting this perfect Reem Acra gown wasn't wasted. Please help calm me down!

Soon-to-be-Mrs.D · October 7, 2010

Hey - I'd call the place where you got your dress from and ask! Or maybe you can contact the designers store? To me, I wouldn't think tulle would be affected too much by the salt water, but I have no idea. The TTD pictures are always GORGEOUS! you're going to have a great time!

roo66 · October 7, 2010

I can only imagine that im you washed it straight after in the shower and hung it by the tabs it would be fine.I think anyone giving you an opinion i.e the bridal store are going to be very cautious.Good luck enjoy your time you lucky thing.xx

teruotor · October 27, 2010

If it is a silk dress, I would not recommend getting any water near it. Perhaps you could get another dress for the ttd photoshoot. That is what I plan on doing.

nsblum · November 15, 2010

Hi Ladies, I am back and wanted to let you know that I did it! I went in with my gown up to my knees, and all seems fine. The tulle dried in seconds, I swear and the lining underneath took some time, but I left it outside on our balcony down when we were on the island for 3 days, and packed it up and brought it home. The water never touched the beading. I need to get it cleaned now and put away, how sad. Here is a link to our pictures! LOVE THEM!

http://www.brilliant.tc/2010/11/turks-caicos-trash-dress/

Ileana is AMAZING. I told her that if she leaves Turks, I will follow her to wherever she goes to take pictures of us.

And to our slide show:

http://vimeo.com/16853019