Extend your wedding day bliss by knowing when to wash (and preserve) your wedding day gear.  Here are some deadlines based on recommendations from our local vendors —

• Wedding Gown.  Your wedding gown may look clean at the end of the day, but it’s those invisible stains that leave your gown with yellow spots.  If you have visible stains, wash and preserve your wedding gown within seven days after wear.  If you have invisible stains, drop it off at a reputable dry cleaner when you return from your honeymoon or within a few weeks.  Now, every dry cleaner in town has a wedding gown in their store window.  That doesn’t mean you should trust them with your gown.  Treat your wedding gown like an investment — Research the dry cleaners; ask them about their cleaning methods; and talk to them openly about their treatment of stains.  You may get a little sticker shock, but it is well worth it in 20 years when your future daughter is glowing in your gown.
• Hosiery (after every wear).  I recommend hand washing your hosiery or placing them in a net bag in your washer’s gentle cycle.

• Shapewear (after 1 or 2 wears).  Well, the experts say after 1 or 2 wears — I prefer after every wear.  This is another item that I recommend washing in the gentle cycle.  A gentle cycle wash extends the lifetime of your shapewear.

• Gloves (at the end of the season).  If your gloves are white, you might want to consider having them cleaned after the wedding.

• Pashmina (after 2 to 4 wears).  To keep mine soft, I hand wash our pashminas.