Finding the dress was pretty easy. However, the hard part was hustling to get alterations done. From the research I had done, alterations generally could take *as little* as 3 months. That is, for the *first* fitting.

I really didn’t have much time with November and December being big holiday months. But there was a big part of me that was scared to let me dress out of my sight. I thought if my dress was going to end up missing or I splurged a bit too much over the holidays, I’d have to get a different dress.

I ended up calling the department store where my sister purchased her Maid of Honor dress to get a referral. Initially, I was told the dress could be ready in 2 weeks. That was music to my ears.

But when I went to get my alterations, it was more like 2 months. Fortunately, there weren’t too many alterations needed. I just needed to get it shortened and taken in (that was a welcome surprise!).

For 2 months I kind of worried about my dress, but in the end, everything turned out fine. The alterations ended up costing more than my dress, though. The owner was nice enough to give me a first-time customer discount. So, that was nice.

Fast forward a couple of months. My dress had been hanging in a garment bag in my closet complete with stains. I had heard some women have their dresses cleaned and boxed. Again, I saw $$ in my eyes. The cost for the service ranged from about $150 (you mail in the dress to a box given to you by the service company) to about $600+ to drop it off somewhere local.

Some questions I asked myself were:
1. Do I have any emotional attachment to the dress?
2. What would the benefit of boxing the dress be? Is it worth it to me to shell out more money for preservation?

For the first question, it was surprisingly no. I pretty much felt like I needed a dress, it fit the bill, and I bought it. It wasn’t my “dream dress” or anything like that.

For the second question, I suppose transportation was a plus. However, I could also easily stuff it into a box or carry it.

I ended up sending it to a local dry cleaning place.They told me it would be ready in a month.

Part of me thought I would just never come back for it. I ended up picking it up about a month after the promised date. It cost just over $100 for the cleaning. I didn’t inspect it or anything.

I think that while I do not have an emotional attachment, I may want to look at it in the future. I have seen sites where they make new gowns out of it. But I am just not ready to let it go.

I’m satisfied knowing it’s clean, that it won’t have years of set-in stains.