Dry cleaning a sample dress?

[Elspeth7]

Hi there, I'm getting married in 11 months and I've just seen a beautiful dress I'd like to buy. I can order it new for £1800 or I can take the shop sample for £900. Obviously that's a fantastic saving and with weddings generally being so expensive I would love to save so much. However the sample is 1 size bigger than I would order so alterations would need done, and it needs cleaned. It's grubby around the train where I guess it's been dragged along the shop's wooden floor. I rang a large company who have quoted me £230 for specialist dry cleaning - that seems a lot but it's still a saving on a new dress. Is it a risk though? Has anyone had a wedding dress dry cleaned and how did it turn out?

I had my dress cleaned afterwards and it came up really well. Mine was a sample too although it didn't need cleaning before, it looked like new.

Do you know how much the alterations will be?

Do you have an idea of what alterations are needed? I'm only asking as mine was a sample and had a train and the shop said it would need to be dry cleaned. But when I spoke to the woman who was doing the alterations, she said that since it needed to be taken up the grubby bits would all be gone as they were just at the bottom where it was dragging along floor.

Same here. I had a Jenny Packham sample and the train was grubby inside but alterations removed that part and it was absolutely perfect. I'd speak to a seamstress first about what you'd need doing.

Terrington Burchett are fantastic if you need a good dry clean though. Their pre wedding cleans start at about £150.

Thanks. No I don't know the alterations price yet. It will still need some alterations to the top even if I order it new in my size and the length will still need taken up, so I'll book the seamstress in anyway. I guess I'd just be paying a bit more for the alterations if I take the sample at one size up.

Oh thats good to know. Mine could well be the same, I'll have to go back to the shop and check that out. Thanks!