Jeff Schwarz “The Stain Wizard”: Wedding Gown Rescue helps a reader with a wedding gown rescue in one of his latest letters.
Dear Stain Wizard,
I don’t have time to scrub the hems of wedding gowns. Do you have a soak formula I can use.?
Vicki,
Edmonton Alberta Canada
Dear Vicki,
This time of year, hopefully, you are seeing a lot of brides coming into your shop. I don’t think drycleaners charge enough for this service. Proper stain removal, cleaning, finishing and preserving is time and labor intensive. Get paid.
Make sure you get a 50% deposit down when you take the gown in. (That way the bride will return to pick it up).
I’m sometimes amazed at the number of gowns still hanging in cleaners, some for years. Never picked up.
If a bride tells you the cost of the gown, the starting price for cleaning should be 10%. (Doris Easley, who just celebrated her 100th birthday, taught me that 20 years ago).
A $10,000 gown, is minimun $1,000 to clean, finish, preserve, package and return.
Sharon Dutcher of Faye’s Cleaners in Idaho made the front page. For a wedding dress the bride had a paint ball fight at her reception…in her wedding dress. That gown looked like a package of Wonder Bread. It was every color of the rainbow and then some.
“The Stain Wizard”: Wedding Gown Rescue
