I knew my mother didn’t care about her wedding dress, because every time I asked her where it was she’d say in some bag downstairs. I didn’t realize the extent of her uncaring ways until I actually fished that piece of neglected fabric out of a bag that was old long before 1965. I couldn’t believe how hideous the bag was and how crumpled the dress had been for over 40 years. So for my pet project at work this was a perfect piece to showcase what Omaha Lace Cleaners could do. I took it into my boss and told him that we were going to restore this gown and put it on display for all to see our handy work, it was a perfect situation…until he said “why don’t we split literally cut it down the middle and restore half of the dress and not the other half so people can really see the difference. I went into panic mode, more accurately described as Fight or Flight. There was no freaking way my boss was going to cut up my Mother’s dress and display it like a freak show. And then BAM! I realized that I cared about my mom’s dress with ever knowing that I actually cared. I couldn’t wait to have my company restore my mom’s dress back to its former glory and there was no way I was going to let someone cut it up. So I’ve turned from a calculating marketing woman, to a sentimental little girl who actually wants to wear her mother’s wedding dress. And if I can’t wear it, I want it, whole and in one piece. So I guess what I am saying is you may not want to preserve your wedding gown because you don’t care about it, but I bet future generations are going to care about it even if they think they won’t. It shocked me how protective and sentimental I got over it. Oh…and mom about died when I showed her, her wedding gown.
Here are some before pics:
