How do you pack and iron your Wedding Dress for overseas wedding?

[GoodSoul]

Hi,

I''m flying off for a 2nd wedding reception overseas and is wondering how I am going to pack my dress. Do I pack it in suit case and check in? How should I iron it after? It''s a long haul flight and it''s going to be pretty wrinkled I guess.

I totally forgot about this issue till my DH brought it up.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Any suggestions would be great!

 

[choro72]

Does your dress have lots of material underneath? I put it in the garment bag that it came with together with the hanger. Then made a fold approximately at the hem of the dress, together with the train. Then I kept folding and folding upwards, until the end is roughly the size of the suitcase. No folds sideways. I put it in the check in luggage on the top, and it was the first thing I took out when I arrived.

Mine looked fine after all of this, because it''s very puffy and lacy that a few wrinkles isn''t that noticeable. If your dress gets wrinkly, then I heard that hanging it in the shower room will steam it very nicely.

I also heard that you may be able to ask a flight attendant to hang it for you in a closet or something, but I didn''t want to deal with that. This may be a better option for you if you are worried about lost luggage.

 

[shimmer]

I was afraid to check in my dress so I carried it through 2 flights, 10 hrs. It was heavy and stressful, if I did it again I would just check it and deal with it if it didn''t arrive, or ship it ahead of time, but I didn''t consider this until too late. I stuffed it in a suitcase on the return trip, lol. The plus side was that airport security was really friendly, which is rare. When I got there I still had to have it pressed (hanging in the shower for 3 days did nothing) so I would plan for that just in case.

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Jeez, I hate traveling with complicated gowns! I find that if I wrap the dress in a dry cleaning type bag [or rest the bags around the dress if it is very billowy] before gently folding it and putting in a suitcase keeps the dress unwrinkled. I have no idea why. Maybe because there is little fabric to fabric contact?

Good luck!

ETA Have you considered one of those space bags that you suck the air out of? They advertise "no wrinkles" if you pack something that way. It may be worth consideration.

You could also wrap the dress in acid-free plain tissue paper before you fold it or put it in the bag.

 

[CDNinNYC]

If you''re able to, I''d bring it onboard in a garment bag and lay it flat in the overhead compartment or the closet. Any wrinkles you get can just be steamed out at your destination. This option would guarantee you dress gets to where it needs to be and avoids most of the wrinkles it would get from a suitcase.

 

[jjdav]

Please don't put the dress in checked luggage, I've personally had luggage misdirected both on domestic and international flights, I also know friends who have lost theirs - while most airlines are pretty good about tracking them down or providing restitution, I say why risk it if it's going to add extra stress?

Misdirected luggage may take a few days to arrive. Just tell the flight attendants that you have a wedding dress, in my case they congratulated me and hung my garment bag in the closet (just remember to reclaim it).

If you're staying at a hotel, they can help you with finding a dry cleaner... If your dress does not wrinkle much, I would recommend steaming it in the bathroom when you're showering or if absolutely necessary, you can iron it with a towel between the dress and the iron and set the iron on low (towels are usually cotton so can withstand the heat, and also catch the water in case it leaks from the iron).

Best of luck!

 

[panda08]

I''d ship it or pack it as a carry on and then find a place to press it out after arrival. Like Shimmer, I carried my dress in a garment bag through two flights. I wanted to avoid having it pressed again but holding the dress upright the entire time through the airports was a total hassle. If I knew then what I know now, I would have shipped or packed it.

 

[cocolaw]

don''t check it!!!!!! def. carry it on. i had to do that just today. it was a pain but at least you have it when you get off the plane!

 

[GoodSoul]

My dress is quite streamlined without any crinoline but has a train. So it''s quite long and creases can be obvious since there is no lace or beads on it at all.

Initially I wanted to carry the garment bag as well and is NOT looking forward to it. I had a tough time when I collected my dress as I parked about 3 blocks away from the bridal shop. I am just such a lazy person!! I love to check in everything!! Hahahaha... I will have to ask DH to help for sure.

choro72, shimmer,CDNinNYC, jjdav, panda08, Cocolaw Thanks for chiming in and all the suggestions!

I think I am definitely NOT checking in but will have think about whether if I want to carry it on as a garment bag or pack it loosely in a carry on suitcase. Due to the fabric and simple design, I think that regardless how it is handled, I probably have to iron it or get some help on the creases.

Where can I get the Acid paper? Is this really necessary?

Thanks!

 

[Blue824]

Originally I was going to buy a small garment steamer, but my mom told me to call my bridal store and ask what to do first, before spending any $ I might not need to spend. They told me to take it carry on and to hang it and use a hair dryer to get any of the creases that it may get out. I can''t attest to whether or not it works well, as my wedding isn''t for a month. However, in case a small garment steamer crossed your mind, they said they have heard many stories where it will sort of spit a little extra water and mark on the dress, depending on the material yours is made out of. I''m still a little nervous and will probably try and get the B&B we''re staying at to look into a place I can bring it in for pressing if needed... I''ve also been told to call ahead to tell the airlines you''re bringing a dress on and ask if that is OK... not sure if that makes a difference or not but that is what I was told to do.

 

[Delster]

The boutique I bought my dress at told me that for these situations they fold the dress up carefully and then pack it into one of those vacuum pack storage bags. The vacuum packing means it'll fit into the overhead cabin and you won't have to pay for a seat for it or risk the airline insisting on it going underneath, and apparently it also minimises creases. Then when you get to your destination, hang it up near the bathroom and let the steam de-crease it.

ETA I have no idea if this would apply to wedding dresses equally with other clothing, but in my experience rolling things up rather than folding them up helps a LOT with creasing!

 

[vespergirl]

I got married in Bermuda and I treated my dress as a carry-on item. I had it stuffed with tissue and pressed at the at the bridal store, and stored in a garment bag. Then I carried it on the plane, and the flight attendant asked the pilot if I could store my wedding dress in his personal closet on board, and he said absolutely yes. When we arrived at the resort, the dress was in great condition. It was silk, if the fabric makes a difference in wrinkling.

 

[zipzapgirl]

I took the dress in a garment bag as packed up by the bridal shop. They had done all of the tissue stuffing and put in a cardboard frame in the bodice.

It was quite a journey to Italy and I took the dress in a taxi, a commuter train, a bus, carry-on on two planes, and then in a car. Yeah, it was a bit of lugging around, but everyone was super nice about it and I got a lot of smiles. The flight attendants didn''t even have to be asked--they offered--and were very helpful. There were even two other brides on the transatlantic flight doing the same thing.

Once we got there, the dress hung for a couple of days and I used a portable hand steamer to get out the big wrinkles. It really wasn''t that bad. My dress was satin and pretty heavy, so it isn''t prone to wrinkle if hung up.

Luckily I was able to send the dress home with my mom so we could have a little lighter weight for the honeymoon!

 

[katamari]

I just got back from taking my dress on a complicated cross-continental trip (three legs of flights, busses, a three-hour taxi ride) and my dress did incredibly well. I tried to be careful with it at first, but by the end of the trip, I was just shoving into overheads and taxi trunks because I was so sick of dealing with it. I bought a steamer to take with me because where I was going was remote and an iron or professional steaming would not have been possible, but I didn''t even use it. My dress was a silk, too, so I thought it would be a mess.

If I had to do it all over again, though, I would have put it into a carry-on size suitcase, tri-folded in the garment bag. That way, it is protected from being crumpled, but is far easier to deal with than just carrying in the garment bag.

 

[pocahontas]

Date: 9/13/2009 4:47:25 PM
Author: CDNinNYC
If you''re able to, I''d bring it onboard in a garment bag and lay it flat in the overhead compartment or the closet. Any wrinkles you get can just be steamed out at your destination. This option would guarantee you dress gets to where it needs to be and avoids most of the wrinkles it would get from a suitcase.

Ditto CDN! This is what I did and I would do it again! I would have worried too much about things going wrong had I packed it in my suitcase. I didn''t want to deal with major wrinkles so I opted not to pack it in my carry on. The night before the wedding I "steamed" my dress in the shower, which worked like a charm to get rid of the few wrinkles that had formed.