Preservation of dress & cake!

Heineken Helen

While there seems to be plenty of information online, they all seem to be quite expensive. I'm pretty sure my mother or anyone else in her generation didn't spend a fortune on preserving this stuff and yet they stayed in good nick.

Has anybody got any tips? :oops:

DE483

Cake - from our baker before our wedding - take tope of cake - wrap in one full roll of saran/plastic wrap - then wrap in one full roll of tinfoil. We had our cake a year later and it was like it was on our wedding day. Enjoy

Heineken Helen

DE483 wrote:

Cake - from our baker before our wedding - take tope of cake - wrap in one full roll of saran/plastic wrap - then wrap in one full roll of tinfoil. We had our cake a year later and it was like it was on our wedding day. Enjoy

Thank you, it's a week now (wrapped in foil) so I should really get around to doing that!

DE483

oh - forgot if not obvious - place in back of freezer where there is not a lot of temperature fluctuation. Congrats. As far as the dress goes, I have no idea other than I use the box my wife's is in to help me flatten posters

CJMST3K

DE483 wrote:

oh - forgot if not obvious - place in back of freezer where there is not a lot of temperature fluctuation. Congrats. As far as the dress goes, I have no idea other than I use the box my wife's is in to help me flatten posters

Perhaps in a small box, in the back of the freezer. That would further insulate it.

Heineken Helen

DE483 wrote:

oh - forgot if not obvious - place in back of freezer where there is not a lot of temperature fluctuation. Congrats. As far as the dress goes, I have no idea other than I use the box my wife's is in to help me flatten posters

Haha, that's a great idea (flattening the posters). Well the dress came WITH a garment bag (not a plastic one but it seems pretty good quality).

Freeze the cake? :? really? :oops:

Heineken Helen

CJMST3K wrote:

DE483 wrote:

oh - forgot if not obvious - place in back of freezer where there is not a lot of temperature fluctuation. Congrats. As far as the dress goes, I have no idea other than I use the box my wife's is in to help me flatten posters

Perhaps in a small box, in the back of the freezer. That would further insulate it.

The dress?

Have to add my dress is quite poufy, with layers of tulle so I'm not really sure if it will flatten well :oops: .

DE483

Seriously - as I am now being told - we missed the cake on our first anniversary since it was in another state with the in-laws - we had it two years to the date - it was still good - saran wrap it, tin foil it, freeze it, per the advice of our baker.

The dress is preserved by a laundromat and packed in a box for shipping and storage - I don't think it is flattened but the box makes it easier to move and store.

And ask Hoff - all the posters I send him have been nicely flattened

mickeyrat

Heineken Helen wrote:

DE483 wrote:

oh - forgot if not obvious - place in back of freezer where there is not a lot of temperature fluctuation. Congrats. As far as the dress goes, I have no idea other than I use the box my wife's is in to help me flatten posters

Haha, that's a great idea (flattening the posters). Well the dress came WITH a garment bag (not a plastic one but it seems pretty good quality).

Freeze the cake? :? really? :oops:

oh yes. Thats how its done. If mom and gran had some success , have you asked them?

CJMST3K

Just make sure you don't use a black garbage bag to cover your dress.

My sister found a dress while traveling in Italy, at the time she was proposed to, and after the wedding it was hung up in the closet covered in a black Hefty bag.... and somehow... her "friend" who was house sitting threw it out, and said she didn't realize it was her wedding dress.

...we never got a straight answer about why she was going thru closets and assuming things hanging are garbage, but it devastated my sister.

Lizard

Our cake was not too good after a year and there was a piece missing when we opened it!!

Heineken Helen

DE483 wrote:

Seriously - as I am now being told - we missed the cake on our first anniversary since it was in another state with the in-laws - we had it two years to the date - it was still good - saran wrap it, tin foil it, freeze it, per the advice of our baker.

The dress is preserved by a laundromat and packed in a box for shipping and storage - I don't think it is flattened but the box makes it easier to move and store.

And ask Hoff - all the posters I send him have been nicely flattened

right, I'd best get a move on the cake tomorrow. Have yet to even have the dress cleaned at this stage. But yep, I better contact some local dry cleaners. I've also emailed the designer... but I bet they'll have a super expensive suggestion . Do you freeze the cake all in one bit? Was yours a fruit cake? I thought all the alcohol in them preserves it anyway? Sorry to sound so doubtful but I've genuinely never heard of it!

Mickey, I'd ask if I were speaking to them :oops:

CJM... is this friend still alive?

Ah Liz, the freezer gremlins... I know them well!

mickeyrat

Sorry to hear that helen.

But yes, freezing the cake is the way to go. The ex and I had gotten on of the food vacuum sealers for a wedding present. I believe that was the first thing we used it on. The cake thawed well ayear later. But the frosting was a bit mushed and lost a bit of consistantcy.


I work for a wholesale cash and carry palce. We have frozen cakes that get served at plenty of white table cloth restaurants. They hold up well. For a long time.

DE483

Yes - freeze it. No, not a fruit cake. Chocolate, vanilla, raspberry. I am just telling you what the baker told us. And it worked.

Elusive

Your local dry cleaners should be able to box and preserve your dress. That's what I did with mine.

Heineken Helen

That's brilliant... thanks all

And don't worry about it Mickey

StillHere

i wrapped my daughter's top layer in saran, then in foil then in a cardboard bakery box. then took the whole thing and froze it. THEN after it was frozen i put it in one of those styrofoam boxes like they deliver cold goods through the mail in. know what i mean? then put it in the middle layer out of the way in the deep freeze in the basement. took it out 2 days before the anniversary date and it was perfect.

as for the dress. be careful in letting a dry cleaner or something like that handle it. they all advertise, but we used one and it came out horrible. they are supposed to clean it first then preserve it. but the train of the dress still had stains and the preservative turned the dress very yellowish after a year in storage.

if you go that route i would recommend going in and examining the dress after cleaning but before preserving so as to make sure you are not preserving any stains or imperfections in the dress forevermore.

and also...CONGRATULATIONS

StillHere

oh and i forgot

with my own wedding dress, it was cleaned and preserved and then it was in plastic inside of a cardboard type box with a cellophane pane ...but after years it still got kind of gritty inside there...i don't know how or what it was...but i would recommend wrapping it again in a heavy duty plastic over top of the packaging they give it to you in. and if you are planning on storing it for a long time...maybe you want to use some sort of moth repellant as well.

good luck

RKCNDY

my dress is wrapped in a big white sheet and in a big plastic tub.

I have heard of horror stories about people that pay big bucks to have their dress 'sealed' in a box and when they take it out, it's all yellowed/torn/stained.

Just remember: fabric needs to 'breathe'. You don't want to leave it hanging up, the dress is much too heavy, and will stretch out the bodice. I bought a 100% cotton, king sized flat sheet, put it on the bed, laid the dress on top (face down), and then folded the sheet over one side of the dress, then the other, and then folded up the bottom to the top. I did not 'push down the dress, or squish it, just let the dress lay where it may and gently wrapped the sheet around it. Place in a large plastic storage tote. I take it out once a year to check it, and it still looks great. Oh, don't put moth balls in the tub, I used cedar blocks and charchoal briquettes (the charchoal absorbs odors and moisture)

Can't give you tips on the cake top...we went on the honeymoon right after the wedding, and nobody from home came to the wedding...we just ate cake during our roadtrip honeymoon.

Heineken Helen

StillHere wrote:

and also...CONGRATULATIONS

Thank you


And thank you RKCNDY

Oh wow, I've got a lot to do then... seriously I wish I'd planned something before the wedding!