Transporting wedding dress.

[Zosha]

Hi,

I'm just wondering what the best way is to transport a wedding dress? We will be coming from Australia. Can you put your dress into carry on and put it in an overhead locker (the thought of this worries me!) or are you better off packing it into luggage?

 

[Disney_Alli]

Since most brides get their dress steamed once they reach their destination most stores suggest you can squish it into a suitcase or a box the size of a carryon and bring it on the plane that way... Personally though I'm just going to carry mine in its bag and ask if it can be hung. If (as I suspect will happen) they don't have any full length closets on the plane the attendants will often let you pre-board with your dress and put it in an overhead bin by itself then you can close it and other passengers won't be able to put anything on top of it.

 

[PrincessJosie]

I have heard of people shipping them in advance. Ask your wedding planner if you can ship it to her and then just have it steamed when you arrive.

 

[bamacmac]

Hi,

I'm just wondering what the best way is to transport a wedding dress? We will be coming from Australia. Can you put your dress into carry on and put it in an overhead locker (the thought of this worries me!) or are you better off packing it into luggage?

I have no idea what is actually best from any kind of experience, but I think it would be super hard for me to check a suitcase with my wedding dress in it! I would be so worried something would happen to it while it was out of my hands. It seems to me your best bet would be pack it carefully in a carry-on by itself and definitely allow plenty of time for it to be professionally steamed after you arrive! I think that is the only thing I would feel comfortable with. Not sure I could ship it either. Knowing my luck that would be the one time something crazy happened to something I shipped! Good luck!

 

[2Tiggies]

I have heard of people shipping them in advance.

I did this. It was hassle free and saved me giving up my entire carry on allowance on the plane. The airlines I checked all had a policy whereby your dress would become your carry on item. If space on a flight isn't an issue, then rather take it yourself but the shipping option works well otherwise. You can buy dress boxes with the associated packaging on eBay.

 

[elphie101]

I have heard of people shipping them in advance. Ask your wedding planner if you can ship it to her and then just have it steamed when you arrive.

Shipping in advance is not done by your planner nor Disney - it is done by Carolyn Allen's, a local dress shop recommended by Disney planners for their brides (well, there may be other businesses that offer this, but all I know of is CA!). You can have your dress shipped to them, then delivered to your room already steamed for you. We chose not to do this (as my mother was paranoid it would be lost in the mail - so I said it was on her to get the dress to FL then!) but here's an episode of the Disney Wedding Podcast covering the whole process.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

Shipping in advance is not done by your planner nor Disney - it is done by Carolyn Allen's, a local dress shop recommended by Disney planners for their brides (well, there may be other businesses that offer this, but all I know of is CA!).

There are indeed others. We sent my dress and my husband's ensemble down to Carolyn Allen, but my planner also suggested we try Loftis Productions.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

I carried mine onto the plane, traveling from West Coast. Staff on airplane put it in closet all by itself.

 

[orion2185]

my wife carried hers onboard from Sydney-LAX-LAS-ATL-MCO
we did stop in between those

did not want to check it at all. Theft or damage to the dress was not worth it to us. Also the airlines have a very small amount of compensation- should something happen. Naturally the dress was worth more than this amount nor could it be replaced

just ask the head purser about putting the dress in one of the storage lockers. If your nice and dont demand it...they should be more than happy to hang it up for you. You just have to remember to get it when exiting the plane.
all of our flights the crew was very helpful and always took the dress. Which is great cause it would not fit in the overhead bin without folding and stuffing the dress up there.

but do have a plan b should they not take the dress


It's a real pain having to carry the dress between flights...and don't forget security check points
make sure you at least double bag the dress (those xray belts are DIRTY)
be prepared to have to go to the secondary check and for them to want to open the dress bag and have a look (unless you are TSA pre-check)

also be sure (if it has straps) to attach the straps to your hanger- to keep them dress from coming off the hanger

and of course be prepared for every random person to come up to have a chat about your wedding

you can try and ship it ahead of time
we did look at that quickly once...but the cost and since we were making mulit stops...just felt like it was left to chance for something to happen

 

[disneemama]

I carried my daughters gown in the garment bag from the bridal shop. There were 4 people with me on the plane so I was able to l fold it in half and lay it in the overhead without a problem. Didn't even need to be steamed. (fit and Flare type) Fly to and from no problem and no charge on Southwest. <3

 

[Zosha]

Thanks for all your responses everyone. It unfortunately won't be a Disney wedding, it will be in Vegas followed by a couple of weeks at WDW. I just need to get it over intact from Adelaide Australia, to Las Vegas in one piece - after that I won't really mind how scrunched it gets! ;-) I'm sure there will be a company who does steaming in LV so I'll start looking in to that! Thanks once again all!

 

[nonnahs]

i plan on doing something like shown in this video, not sure how well it'll work but i'm really not comfortable with mailing or checking my gown!!!!