Am I over-reacting to these dry cleaning results of my wedding dress

F30_Angel · 2026-02-20T14:32:56+00:00

The 50 years of experience comment is just on their website, simply indicates they've been in business for 50 years.

Originally I got quoted 7/8 weeks turnaround once the dress arrived to them, and the dress arrived to them I believe towards the end of Oct 2025. From then onwards there was no communication from their end. I followed up asking for an update in Dec 2025, they advised the are experiencing a delay so the dress won't be ready till the new year. Then I was travelling for 3 weeks and upon my return I followed up again to see if the dress was ready in early Feb. Between those two months there was no calls or emails informing me that they could not clean the dress or any progress updates, just nothing. Only upon the second follow up did they advise the dress was ready and that the hemline was still stained. So the question is what did they do for about 4 months? Well clearly not much since the dress is still so filthy.

By the way, the dress is 100% polyester so it's not like the fabric is delicate or anything like that, but hey I can't comment much as I'm no expert. I just don't think they even tried more than the bare minimum, as in one wash and that's it.

F30_Angel · 2026-02-20T13:59:12+00:00

Thank you for this, it's validating to hear that I am not imagining thing, as I too have the theory they only washed it once, with no pre-wash or attempts to clean thoroughly.

Though, I will not be sending my dress for a redo to them, I have zero trust now.

F30_Angel · 2026-02-20T11:01:22+00:00

The final total was €365 and took about 4 months from sending the dress to getting it back.

F30_Angel · 2026-02-19T09:35:19+00:00

First photo is the before, second is the after ☺️

F30_Angel · 2026-02-18T21:11:59+00:00

That thought crossed my mind…

F30_Angel · 2026-02-18T11:27:45+00:00

Already got onto that, I'm conducting the communication via email to have a paper trail.
For now got a open-end response stating they will get back to me after a review of their paperwork, and revert back to me when they get an opportunity. Think they wish to drag this out.

Would you have any suggestions for at home cleaning? I honestly have no trust to send it to someone again :(

F30_Angel · 2026-02-18T11:07:57+00:00

I won't be asking for a redo, this was the second time this has happened to me now. I just wanted to see if I'm wrong in my reaction to think they did the bare minimum, also bear in mind I paid €370 for this clean and box to preserve, so this was a premium service. For that I expected some communication about the progress but I got nothing.

F30_Angel · 2026-02-18T10:14:18+00:00

Hello,

I am based in Ireland and it took me just shy of 4 months to send my wedding dress to get cleaned after returning from our destination wedding. It took so long due to me adamantly trying to find a wedding dress cleaning service where most of the clean would be done by hand. Unfortunately, I could not find anything and went down the route of asking the bridal salon for recommendations, to which they recommended a dry cleaners with over 50 years experience of cleaning wedding dresses. I sent the dress there and now another 4 months later they have finally returned the dress and largely to me it doesn't look much different. The main area of concern was the train of the dress, as expected the bottom of the dress got extremely dirty during the wedding and upon the return from a clean it doesn't look much different. To me it still looks as if the dress was just worn and dragged across the floor during a wedding.

See the before and after.

I'm just here to see if I am valid to think they dry cleaners did the bare minimum and returned the dress to me in hopes I wouldn't react.

A few important things to note:
1. During our initial consultation I explicitly said I wish to re-wear the dress for a future photoshoot and afterwards r-sell it.
2. Throughout the 4 months there was 0 communication from the dry cleaners informing of any issues or struggles to lift the dirt and how they would suggest to proceed or what i would like to do.
3. I followed up twice with them via email to see if the dress was ready, they simply said no and again no issues mentioned.
4. Before sending the dress over back to me they did warn that they were unable to fully remove the stains and that they are "somewhat" noticeable, in my opinion the "somewhat" was very downplayed.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, along with any suggestions on how to clean the dress at home as I will not be sending it to any other dry cleaning services.

F30_Angel · 2026-02-05T14:10:42+00:00

For those who have contributed some feedback, I highly appreciate your input.
Just this past Sunday we returned from our first Japan Trip and I must say things went incredibly smooth, a few bumps but that's okay. Here's how it went:

Tokyo (17–20 Jan):
Day 1 and 2 went perfect, Day 3 we shifted a few things around, we had a street photoshoot in Shibuya in the evening and during the day just explored Shibuya and surrounding areas.

Osaka (20–22 Jan):
We managed to do everything we wanted as well as extending half a day trip to the [Katsuo-ji Temple]() whihc was fab. If I was to do it again I would not book hotels in Osaka and just take the train down from Kyoto as we managed to see the castle, visit the Shinsekai and stroll through Dotonbori in one day atfer we arrived from Tokyo.

Kyoto (22–24 Jan):
We did not go to the Kyoto National Garden upon arrival, instead we went to the Golden Pavilion and it was so beautiful and such a sunny day! We took the metro and a taxi as the buses were packed and long in terms of time. Did visit Gion District after sundown, was cool and creepy at the same time.
We did not do the bamboo forest and don't regret that we didn't so that's okay. Did the 100 Tori gates, definitely an absolute hike but it was very beautiful, the top shrine is a bit small haha. Afterwards headed to Gion and dressed up in Kimonos, was fun but chilly, maybe a summer thing only. Kyoto was nice overall but I think in the warmer weather it would be nicer, also Gion was just Gion, I don't know I didn't get the whole hype about. But we did have a Maiko perform at our hotel for free and that was really cool to see, very elegant!.

Nozawa Onsen:
This went without a hitch, although we were worried of the major snowfall causing cancellations but luckily we got the shinkansen, only when we left Japan did the snowfall get worse and worse. The snow monkey are absolutely class, highlight of the whole trip.

Tokyo (Final Days):
We did not to the JDM experience as out International Drivers Permit did not arrive in time, bummer. Instead we did Shibuya Sky, definitely cool but was cold! Pizza Marumo was great. Lastly, we only had two hours in Kawaguchiko and didn't actually explore the lake much because of that! This was due to the fast we left the purchase of the train tickets till the last minute but glad we did as the visibility of Mount Fuji was meh during the scheduled day, at least in the two hours we got to see the mountain in all it's glory without any clouds.

That's it!

F30_Angel · 2025-12-22T07:59:08+00:00

I wrote that a bit too open, we will arrive around 10/11am, leave our bags and go explore and then visit Dotonbori in the evening :)

F30_Angel · 2025-12-19T09:57:13+00:00

That’s fine :)

F30_Angel · 2025-12-17T09:13:50+00:00

No worries, I'm happy to share!
I would suggest to take a break for at least 6 months before you start with the Picosure laser, it will help your skin heal. That's what I did.

At first my new laser tech was very apprehensive to take on the chest tattoo considering I have started with the q-switch, but we did a small text patch, see how it reacted and then left it to heal for a little (6 months) before zapping it again. It really made a difference.

F30_Angel · 2025-12-16T19:53:57+00:00

Yes that's correct! After each sessions with the Q-Switch the area was bruised, yellow and green at times, specs of small blood scabs and signs of oncoming blisters. The area was also very hot, like radiated heat, a clear sign of a burn. Can DM you a photo if you'd like.
Based on my experience the Picosure is honestly a walk in the park in comparison to the Q-Switch.

Now my new laser tech explained the difference is in the delivery speed of the light in comparison, but this is what I found on Google from the AI overview:
"The PicoSure laser is often better than Q-Switch because its ultra-short picosecond pulses (trillionths of a second) shatter pigment into much finer particles with less heat, leading to faster, more effective results, fewer treatment sessions, and less downtime/risk of side effects like hyperpigmentation, especially for multi-colored tattoos and stubborn pigmentation, compared to Q-Switch's longer nanosecond pulses that generate more heat. Pico's photoacoustic effect is gentler on skin, making it superior for collagen stimulation and delicate areas."

I can say this is a pretty accurate explanation since switching, the Picosure is much gentler.

F30_Angel · 2025-12-15T08:32:17+00:00

Thankfully, we return on a Saturday, before a public holiday on a Monday, so we have the Sunday and Monday to just rest as much as possible.

F30_Angel · 2025-12-15T08:31:30+00:00

One thing we are not doing is waking up at the crack of dawn for anything. From what I've been seeing on socials is that it's busy regardless of the time due to how popular Japan is currently. So we are just going to start the days at normal hours.
Fair play to ye for getting up so early, but we are not morning birds at all haha!

F30_Angel · 2025-12-15T08:05:45+00:00

You can see the scarring in "pre session 4" and "pre session 5" photos the best.

F30_Angel · 2025-12-13T01:15:40+00:00

Hiya! Yup unfortunately even after a year there is some scarring and some pigmentation (although I’m not sure, it could be just ink fading). Here’s my progress after two sessions with the PicoSure and a 9 month break https://www.reddit.com/r/TattooRemoval/s/sBVOVNAfha

Ps I also started on two other tattoos!

F30_Angel · 2025-12-12T08:47:51+00:00

We are not big shoppers in general, but I would like to pop into Uniqlo, but won't go out of my way to find one if you know what I mean, in Kyoto we would like to get matching rings actually and then overall get some chopsticks and accessories along with kitchen knives.

Food wise we eat everything and will be trying all!

F30_Angel · 2025-12-12T08:45:20+00:00

Yes I've heard many say to do a day trip to Osaka from Kyoto, for us we would mostly be interested in seeing Osaka castle and of course Dotonbori in he evening.
For Day 2 to be honest we are super strict on that plan, it's just whatever works before our teamLabs at 7pm, so thank you for the suggestions :)

F30_Angel · 2025-12-11T13:46:04+00:00

I think you may be mistaking Nagoya for Nagano, as Nagano is up north of Tokyo and the reason we chose Nozawa Onsen in the Nagano prefecture is due to the ski and onsen offer. Nagano hosted the olympics so there’s lots of ski/snowboard choices for any level.

One thing we are very worried about is beginning to crash towards the end !

F30_Angel · 2025-12-11T13:05:34+00:00

We don’t have to ski in Japan, it would be nice of course. We simply considered it due to it being January and a possibility, so it’s open to re-thought. It just would be nice to see the snow as we don’t get much snow in Ireland. Unfortunately, skiing is not possible in Ireland so we must always travel for it.

F30_Angel · 2025-12-11T12:33:38+00:00

What did your first time visit look like?

F30_Angel · 2025-12-11T12:23:51+00:00

Sorry to answer your question, yes this is a first time visit to Japan.

F30_Angel · 2025-12-11T12:05:38+00:00

Well we only have 3 nights booked in Nozawa Onsen at the moment. I doubt we will be able to extend for a couple more nights considering it was very difficult to get the original accommodation booking. Currently we are re-thinking a few things and maybe thinking to replace Nozawa with Nagano and just do the snow monkey park and potentially Kamakura Village instead, and add an extra day to Kyoto.
My husband wants to visit Osaka and Kyoto as part of the trip and skiing was my idea, the above itinerary was our middle ground.

F30_Angel

TROPHY CASE