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VTalk Radio Spotlight
Today's Guest: Sally Lorensen Conant of The Association of Wedding Gown Specialists.
Today's Host: John Bentley

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ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio Bridal Spotlight brought to you by www.weddingdetails.comyour complete planning wedding source. Now here's your host, John Bentley.

JOHN: Today on VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight we have the executive director of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists, Sally Conant, with us. Welcome to the program, Sally.

SALLY: Thank you. It's delightful to be here.

JOHN: Now a little background about Sally. She's a master wedding vendor. She has also received the International Dry Cleaners Congress Award for Restoration. She was featured on the Get Married program on Lifetime Television and is also a charter member of the Wedding Council. Well it looks like you're a pretty busy gal when it comes to wedding gowns, huh?

SALLY: Well we keep busy, but I have a lot of people who work with me, and we have members of the association to which I belong along all over the country. So I have help.

JOHN: Well how many members are there in the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists?

SALLY: There is close to 100 members in our association. They're all over the country, in the United States, in Canada, in Ecuador, Mexico, and Australia. So when we guaranty the work that we do on a wedding gown, it truly is an international guaranty.

JOHN: Wow. If I'm not mistaken, you're website says that the association is in 500 cities around the world.

SALLY: It's probably more than that. We know that we are in at least 500, but the reason we are not terribly exact is that some of our people have stores in as many as 65 locations and others only have 1 or 2 and many of us deal with wedding gown bridal shops all over the country and in Canada so we're represented in those cities too. It's probably closer to 1000, but I couldn't tell you for sure.

JOHN: Ok, now tell us what you primarily do in the association.

SALLY: Our primary businesses is cleaning and preserving new wedding gowns. We do a lot of restoration of vintage wedding gowns and christening gowns, communion gowns, whatever. We do a lot of restoration of vintage things, but our primary business is women who care enough about their wedding gowns to be sure that it's cleaned and preserved properly so that it's ready either for her to celebrate an anniversary or for the next bride in the family.

JOHN: So that's not all you do, though, you also take care of other garments too don't you?

SALLY: We do. We do all kinds of specialty gowns. Most of us have dry cleaning operations as well as wedding gown preservation operations and so many of us across the country can take care of the ordinary every day dress too, but we all specialize in gowns and that sets us apart from regular dry cleaners who don't see that many wedding gowns and don't know about the pit falls of what can happen to them. The other kids of dresses that we specialize in are dresses that are worn by the mother of the bride or the bridesmaid, christening gowns as I mentioned before. We do anything to do with delicate fabric. We can handle clothes, table linens, uniforms that were worn by someone in the family, whenever you think of something that you would like to have cared for properly, then look for one of us.

JOHN: My father had an uncle who was in World War I, I believe, and if he still has that uniform, you guys could take care of that for him couldn't you?

SALLY: We could, in deed. We would make sure that it was cleaned properly and put away safely so that time won't damage it, nor any kind of pest in the environment. We do lots of funny things. One thing that I did at one point that was interesting; someone in this area collects things that have to do with Frank Sinatra. He is an incredible fan and has a whole set of things that are items that were worn or touched or seen or used by Frank Sinatra, and I actually restored a shirt that Frank Sinatra wore during his performances. The interesting thing about it was that it had a very long tail and then the tail actually snapped together around his legs so that when he was on stage, he shirt could not pull out. It was a very interesting piece.

JOHN: Let's kind of go through the process of cleaning and storing a wedding gown; somebodies new wedding gown. What do you go through in that process?

SALLY: There are three parts to a good preservation and the first one is the most important. It has to be clean. So often cleaners don't realize that there are latent stains that do not automatically come out in dry cleaning. You have to be sure to use chemicals that will dissolve the sugar in those stains before you put the gown into the dry cleaning machine. That's a very important part of getting the gown clean. If you don't do that, years later when you open up the gown, you're going to find that these latent stains have turned a very ugly dark brown and that's not what you want when you have a gown preserved. Second part of preservation once it's completely clean, and as I said, that is the most important part. The second part of a good gown preservation is the materials you use to store the gown. If they're not completely acid free, it's not worth doing, because ordinary boxes and ordinary tissues contain lots of acid. That acid literally scorches your dress as though you had a hot iron. So you want to be sure that the container which your gown is stored is completely acid free and that the tissue used to wrap it is completely acid free. And the third thing is where you keep the preservation once you have it in your home. Do not keep it in the attic, because attics are too hot and not in the basement, because basements are damp, and if a pipe breaks, it's a loss. The water will find your dress so that's not a good place either. It likes to be like you are, comfortable somewhere in the house.

JOHN: Sure. Well, Sally, we're going to take a break, but before we do, though, could you kindly give your website and contact information.

SALLY: We use www.weddinggownspecialists.com as our main website, but you can also find us using www.museumcare.com or www.weddinggownspecialist.com. And the contact information for each of our members is to be found at that website. When you get there click on "Find a Specialist Near You" and a map will pop up. Then you point to the state which you live and the members of our association will appear on the screen.

 JOHN: Great. We are speaking with the executive director of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists, Sally Conant, and you're listening to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight. We'll be right back after these messages.

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ANNOUNCER: We now return you to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.

JOHN: We are in the studio via telephone with the executive director of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists, Sally Conant. Welcome back to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight, Sally.

SALLY: Thankyou.

JOHN: We've been talking about the professional care of wedding gowns, and you mentioned a couple of things before the break about not storing your wedding gown in the basement or in the attic because of humidity and heat and what have you. What about...I know that I have placed items in plastic bags for storing. Is that a good idea?

SALLY: No, it really isn't. Unfortunately, plastic bags give off fumes that will yellow the dress and if it has a metal zipper the bag will be even more inclined to yellow the gown that's inside. This is not a good environment. In a worst case scenario, wrap it in an old sheet. That's a much more protective, better environment for it than a plastic bag.

JOHN: Well what about those items you see sold on television, they're like vacuum sealed? Wouldn't that be something that would be good for it?

SALLY: I don't recommend that either; a couple of reasons. One is that if you vacuum seal anything you are trapping moisture inside and that could potentially cause mildew later on. The other thing about those vacuum pack things you see on tv when you suck all the air out of the bag and compress the gown or whatever else you're putting inside, you're generating wrinkles, and in my experience it's almost impossible to get the wrinkles out of whatever's inside that bag afterwards. It's something about the combination of the plastic and the electrostatic environment and the moisture that's trapped that makes it very, very difficult to press those wrinkles out again. I wouldn't recommend that to anybody.

JOHN: Now let's talk a little bit about this actual association. How long has this association been around. The Association of Wedding Gown Specialists?

SALLY: This group of people got started back in the late 1980's, and has grown ever since. Every year we have new members coming online and we all, as I said, I think as I said before we honor each others' guarantees. That means that when you move to a different state than the one which you lived when you had your gown cleaned and preserved, someone there is going to take that dress out and press it for you at no charge. And there's ongoing accountability, not the same way that the local cleaner down the street who may or not be in business when you want to use your gown again. Someone will always be available via the association to take care of your gown.

JOHN: How long have you been associated with the wedding gown specialists?

SALLY: I've been active with the association since 1991.

JOHN: Great and what about your affiliation with the bridal industry? How long have you been associated?

SALLY: Well pretty much about the same time. I am actually museum professional. I worked in museums for many years and through a series of disasters, Yale decided...that's where I was working in the art gallery at Yale...decided to down-size their employees and I got caught in that down-sizing, and since I like to eat, I had to find something else to do. So this turned out to be a very good environment for me, because of the kinds of things that I learned in museums, of course, apply to wedding gowns. They too are works of art so they deserve the same kind of care.

JOHN: They sure do. The association offers certain benefits. First of all, is there a fee to join the association or is it just the association for the benefit of the consumer?

SALLY: The members of the association are all cleaners, and yes there is a fee to join the association, and they have to continue to be involved in terms of attending meetings and ongoing education really about the care of gowns and fabric.

JOHN: So they're right on top of the leading edge of this kind of...

SALLY: Exactly.

JOHN: Great. Ok. Now you offer free consultation, don't you?

SALLY: We do. All of our members, any one of our members, would look at a gown for you whether it's new or old without charging you. That's part of what we do.

JOHN: And then you also offer a free service to press wedding gown on that particular day?

SALLY: What we do is offer to press the gown; you pay us a fee to press the gown, and then we use that fee as the deposit on cleaning and preserving the after the wedding. So in effect you have a free pressing, because you're going to want to have your dress cleaned and preserved after the wedding, and we simply use the money that you pay for the pressing as the down payment on your gown preservation and cleaning.

JOHN: What about packing for travel?

SALLY: Packing for travel is tricky. We have on our website a page devoted to destination weddings and traveling with your gown. We welcome you to go there and read about how you can travel with your gown. But it becomes tricky when you're going overseas and sometimes your gown is very large and won't fit in the plane otherwise, and so we can offer you also the service of packing it specifically for you to take with you. One of the containers that we use for preserving the gown is exactly the right size to put in the overhead, and we also have all different sizes that will accommodate your dress and you can use that to ship the gown where ever you're going or take it with you as part of your luggage.

JOHN: Sally, I certainly appreciate you joining us today on VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight today.

SALLY: Thank you for calling. I hope that's it's been useful. We're happy to take questions from brides. If you go to our website, you'll find that you can email us or call us. We have an 800 number and we're always happy to talk with brides about the problems they may be having.

JOHN: Great. What is that 800 number, Sally?

SALLY: (800) 501-5005

JOHN: And your website?

SALLY: www.weddinggownspecialists.com.

JOHN: Thank you so much for joining us today, Sally, we appreciate it.

SALLY: You're very welcome. Thanks.

JOHN: This is John Bentley signing off for VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight. Everyone have a great afternoon.

ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the VTalk Radio Spotlight; only on www.vtalkradio.com. Radio for the 21st Century.





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