How to travel with a wedding dress
How to get your dress to your destination in mint condition?
All weddings pose different challenges; a destination wedding has these same difficulties with a few more thrown in to keep you on your toes. One of them is getting your stunning wedding dress to your destination without it looking like you just got it out of a vacuum sealed bag.
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So how does one get their pride and joy from your home, onto a plane and to your accommodation in mint condition? Here are some of our expert tips to ensure stress free trip with your wedding dress.
First off the bat.
DO NOT put your dress into check-in luggage!
We cannot stress this enough, not only will your dress be as wrinkled as a 110 year olds skin but you risk the chance of your dress not arriving at all. Every year some 25 million bags go missing. Yep, you read that right, in 2020 airlines still manage to misplace a huge amount of bags, do you want your wedding dress to be one of them?
Time is of the essence
When organising your wedding there are a thousand and one things to cross off your list, but please contact your airline before you get to the airport with your dress. Find out what storage options they have available. Some airlines have a closet that you can stow your dress in. Find out what their policies are for oversized carry on, do they have a size and weight limit? To make sure you have smooth check in process it’s wise to find out all this information before you arrive at the airport.
Pro Tip: Whoever you speak to on the phone get their name, write it down with the date and time you spoke to them. This will help you with any policy discrepancies at the check in counter vs what you were told on the phone.
Invest into a high quality garment bag
Generally, your wedding dress will come with a garment bag, if however, it was delivered to you with the standard dry cleaning plastic film then we do recommend to go and purchase a garment bag, one that is water resistant is a big help too. Wedding dresses usually have a lot of fabric and getting your dress into a garment bag can bring about its own challenges. So in order to get it to fit nicely, with a minimum of wrinkles stick the hanger through the top of the garment bag. Hang your dress up so that all the fabric falls naturally. Take the left and right sides of the dress and fold them towards the centre of the dress, while holding that in place gently roll the dress up from the bottom until the base of your dress fits into the bag. Zip it up but take care, you don’t want any of the fabric to get caught in the zipper claws.
Try to get priority boarding
We can’t all afford to fly business class so the next best option is to pay that little extra for priority boarding. This will ensure that you get first choice for the coveted airline staff closet. If this isn’t an option, you’re going to need to learn how to get your dress into the overhead storage bin with as little damage as possible.
Pro Tip: Get the largest hard case carry on bag you can find, then ask your dress maker if they will professionally fold your dress into the bag. Dress makers have a lot of experience in folding their dresses and this will ensure the dress arrives at its destination in prime condition.
Avoid ANYTHING that stains!
This sounds like a no brainer but you’d be surprised. Make sure that your dress has its own bag, don’t put shoes, toiletries or anything else in with it that could possibly leak or rub in same bag as the dress. If you have an early morning flight keep that coffee cup away……all the way away.
Contact your accommodation
You’ve arrived at your destination, the dress made it in one piece and has avoided any stains. Now you’ll want to hang it up as soon as possible. This will help get most of the wrinkles out from the long voyage, but you still want it to look its best. We recommend to contact your accommodation in advance to make sure they have a dress steamer you can use or a dress steaming facilities. If they don’t you can purchase a portable steamer for around $50.