To ask who has the oldest non-cleaned wedding dress

[itsgoodtobehome]

I was just looking in the wardrobe today where I hide my Christmas presents, and saw my wedding dress hanging up there (in a cover). It reminded me that another year has gone by when I have not got round to getting it cleaned. So, it will be 8 years next June since I wore it. I always intended to get it cleaned, but then stuff happened - kids, life, work, and there never seemed like a good time to justify £300+ to get it cleaned. So, it's still there.

Anyone else got a dress still covered in grass, mud, fake tan, wine hanging in their wardrobe, and for how long?

1980, so 37 years and 3 months. Its not too dirty to be honest... just a bit of green moss stains under the hem from where I walked up the church path straight after a rain shower.

8 years. I keep meaning to do it.

Erm 2006 for mine so nearly 11 years.... just can't justify the money to get it done - it's not like in ever going to wear it again.

Mine is from 2012... it has loo bloo on it from the marquee toilets and a lot of red wine. I didn’t want to get it cleaned because it shows what an amazing time I had and I didn’t give a sh*t about the loo bloo... our toastmaster somehow managed to cover it up at the time with some pins!!

Mine's 46 years old.

It was washed the week after I got married and has been in the loft ever since.

Probably good for nothing than very expensive rags now!

Only 5 years and lots of spray tan and hem dirt to boot.
Bloody excellent party.

I've got my gran's with mud stains on it, 60 years old.

Mine is from the 1940s and I wore it in the 90s. I was very careful with it so it doesn't really need cleaning but I would have no idea how to clean it anyway. It's parachute silk.

I'm hoping one of my two kids wants to use it.

19 years for me, however it finally got a clean this year after I opened the bag it was in to show DD, only to find it absolutely covered in mould. I thought that was the end of it, but after a 3-day soak in the bath with Vanish platinum, plus 2 goes through the washing machine, it came up pretty much spotless. Now it's hanging in the spare room doing nothing - I attempted to try it on, but it is a size 8 and I, sadly, am not.

10 years and I've been divorced and remarried. Second marriage I wore jeans..

My mum made my dress for my first marriage and I can't bear to get rid of it.

Mine has spent 23 years in my parent's house and a few months in ours. It was never cleaned but since it's not full length there's no grass stains.

DD tried my dress on recently but it's too big for her (and too small for me). It's an unusual colour so it could be worn for another occasion. I just haven't found the right one!

1987 and still got gravy on it from the waitress pouring it over my shoulder and down my front.

Just over 18 years .

23 years here - mum was supposed to get it cleaned when we were on honeymoon but forgot and I never got round to it. Its in the loft in its original bag. Do have the cathedral length veil hanging in my wardrobe - apparently you can't easily get them anymore so saving it in case my daughter wants to use it.

I got mine cleaned a few weeks after our wedding, it cost about £50 - a local seamstress did it for me, pretty sure she just put it in her bathtub & handwashed it, but she did a good job. I couldn't stand the thought of it hanging in my wardrobe dirty, alongside all my clean clothes! But I'm a bit OCD like that.

Mine is 11 years old and hanging in its bag in a spare wardrobe.

I did actually clean it afterwards though, I remember soaping it with Woolite or something in the bath in our previous house. It had the dust of Santorini round the hem, from when I swept the streets clean around Thira in the evening.

It was a happy time, but I don't know what to do with it now. I was very thin then - in fact the dressmaker had to take in once, and dared me to lose more weight - and I am certainly not thin now and struggle to shift it the way I once could. C'est la vie, and all that.

I just turned mine inside out and put it in the washing machine on a gentle cycle and it was fine. No way was I going to pay that much money to get it cleaned professionally.

OP why would it cost so much to be cleaned?? I had mine cleaned professionally and was a fraction of that! Maybe look into getting it cleaned elsewhere.

Right, you grubby lot, I dare you to put your dresses into the machine ( delicate cycle if you wish) and see how they come up. You aren’t going to wear them again, surely?

I sold mine and didn’t actually consider cleaning it.

Please report back!

I reckon mine would wash really well. Before my mum made it, she test-washed a piece of the fabric and it was fine. Not sure about the lace sleeves, but they are nylon so a 30c wash would probably work.

17 years in one week and a day.

Haven't seen it in that time either, it's in my mum's loft. I'd love to get it back, don't know why I don't just reclaim it.

I am so glad to discover I'm not the only one! I've been feeling guilty about my lovely expensive wedding dress just stuffed at the back of a wardrobe with grass stains on the hem.

It seems a waste to spend even more money cleaning it, but I'm not sure what to do with it. For sentimental reasons I'd like to keep it. But there again I haven't got a daughter, so not as though I can pass it on to anyone.

Mine's surprisingly clean. You'd never guess that I went hillwalking in it the next day!

The main "dirt" is make-up inside the bodice.

6.5 years. Its very intricate tulle with embroidery so would need specialist cleaning and its money I could use elsewhere.

Its not too dirty, just a bit grimy underneath. There a large hole in my veil from a bridesmaids heel though .

1999, its up the loft in a bin bag!