If you are reading this you obviously care about the environment and perhaps even had a “green wedding." Have you considered what to do with your wedding dress now that the big day is over? The greenest thing that you can do with your dress would be to pass it on to another person in your family or future generation to wear it again.

So how can you preserve your dress and the environment at the same time?

Traditionally wedding dress preservation starts with cleaning to make sure that stains and soil do not become a problem in the future. Depending on what type of fabric your dress is made from, dry cleaning may be the only option. Regular dry cleaning is not good for you or the environment as the solvent that is used by over 90% of all dry cleaning firms is a known carcinogen, pollutant and not very environmentally friendly.

There is a process what very few dry cleaning firms use that does a great job of cleaning and is very environmentally responsible; it’s so good that the Sierra Club even suggests its use. This technology is manufactured in Chicago by a company called Solvair, and uses liquid carbon dioxide in place of dry cleaning solvents. Cleaning in liquid carbon dioxide is the green future for the dry cleaning industry that has been labeled as “dirty” for some time. 

After the cleaning, the next step -- the preservation process -- is the easy part. Some “so called" experts insist that in order for your dress to be preserved it needs to be sealed in plastic, vacuum packed and pickled in nitrogen. Plus these methods seal your wedding dress in plastic and tell you not to open the storage container. Hogwash! Not one of these methods is used by major museums for long-term fabric storage, and you should not let them anywhere near your dress.

Museums use simple methods, the finest quality materials and a storage vessel that you can open at any time. You should be able to view your dress and remember your big day whenever you wish. Imagine if your photographer told you could not open your wedding album because your photos would fade and fall apart!

A few years ago being able to clean and preserve your wedding dress in an environmentally responsible way would have been very difficult. Now with carbon dioxide cleaning technology it is a little easier, if you know what to look for and where to go.

Written by Gerald Pozniak, Garment Care Expert, President of Jeeves of Belgravia and Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park

Read more by Gerald Pozniak: Can Dress Cleaning Be Organic?