Earning the ‘Best Bridesmaid Ever’ badge is no easy feat, as the list of bridesmaids duties can go from dress shopping and hen party planning to on-the-day jobs like keeping your bride hydrated, hyped and looking gorgeous. But nothing is more important than protecting the dress, so it looks amazing all day long.

That’s why we have compiled a list of 13 wedding dress hacks and tasks that everyone in the bridal party needs to know whether they’re the bride, bridesmaid or mother of the bride. Following these tips will ensure the bride’s wedding dress and the bridesmaids’ dresses stay wrinkle and stain free – no matter what happens. Believe us when we say, you’ll thank us later.

1. Travel Smart

If you to travel with the wedding dress or bridesmaid dresses by car, train or plane we advise investing in the appropriate packing essentials.

You will need:

• A wedding dress and accessories travel box. Sturdy and convenient, these allow you to flat pack your dess and they’re also accepted as carry-on luggage on airlines – meaning you can place your dress above your head on a flight or train journey. These are also very useful for delicate items like headpieces and a veil. Find them on Etsy!
• Padded hanger(s)
• Garment bag(s)
• Lint roller
• Travel iron, or preferably, a steamer

2. Call Ahead

Make sure that everything needed to deal with wrinkles is at the venue by calling ahead to speak to a staff member or the wedding coordinator. Although, we’d be slow to leave anything to chance and would bring our own items every time if possible (although difficult with a destination wedding), it’s useful to know whether the venue will have a spare.

What to ask the venue:

• Do you have a good quality iron or steamer?
• Do you have an ironing board?
• Is there a wardrobe space suitable to store the wedding gown?
• Do you have padded hangers?
• Do you have a mannequin?

3. Minimize Strap Stress

Those tiny loops inside the wedding or bridesmaid dresses aren’t just for show. Use them to avoid stretching or pulling on straps when hanging the gowns. Always use the built-in loop on the train to hang it properly too, as it keeps it pristine and avoids unnecessary creases.

4. Elevate the Train While Hanging

Use a chair to prop up the train when hanging the wedding gown. Drape it over the chair, so it stays clean and doesn’t drag on the floor. You never know what dust is lurking.

5. Protect the Fabric

When opening or closing a garment bag, be sure to place your hand behind the zipper when zipping up or down to prevent the fabric from snagging or tearing, especially with delicate lace or tulle.

6. Always Wear Gloves

You might have noticed the bridal stylist donning a pair of white gloves when handling the dresses in the bridal boutique. This is because delicate materials like silk and lace can be at a higher risk of staining, even sweat can transfer from clean hands. Imagine if you had an invisible residue of makeup on your hands and were helping to close a pristine white dress? Disaster.

7. Hang the Veil Correctly

Ideally the bride’s veil would have its own hanger and storage bag. Simply clip the veil comb to the hook of the hanger and allow the veil to hang freely. Then find the centre of the veil and pull it backwards over the over the horizontal bar, folding the lower half of the veil over itself. Then spread it across the hanger evenly to minimise creasing.

8. Have a Hairpin (or Crochet Hook)

Many wedding dresses have lots of tiny buttons running down the back as these are a lot prettier than a zipper. However, to get the loop around these buttons efficiently you need pretty dexterous hands.

One of our best wedding dress hacks is to have a hair pin or crochet hook on hand on hand. Pop the head of the hair pin through the elasticated loop, grab the button with it, and pull it back through the loop. This will save you so much time and heartache and you also won’t have to handle the dress as much, which might be difficult if wearing gloves.

9. Prepare For a Stain Emergency

From red wine spills to makeup related incidents, no one wants to be faced with a stain on their big day – but accidents can happen. So you can be prepared for all eventualities, we’ve put together a guide on what to include in a handy wedding day stain removal kit so you don’t get caught in a pinch. Or if you have a specific stain you need to fix in a flash, we have a whole guide on how use your emergency stain removal kit on your wedding day.

10. Know How to Pee

Depending on the dress, peeing could be as easy as hiking up the skirt and going as usual, or it could be an undertaking involving several bridesmaids, an Ikea bag and a She Pee. More on those wedding dress hacks in our how to pee in a wedding dress guide here.

If you’ve got a big ballgown, the problem is with volume, it’s too much fabric to hold up while peeing. If you’ve got a mermaid-style dress that’s fitted below the knee, pulling it up enough to sit down is hard. A slinky dress could opse a shapewear concern, and a jumpsuit might need to come off entirely. Different dresses will present their own issues, so there’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution. Assess the dress and work out if hiking it up is possible and/or quicker and easier than taking it off and putting it on again.

11. Be on Wrinkle Duty

With sitting, dancing and whatever else is going on, dresses are bound to pick up wrinkles throughout the day. If the ceremony and reception are in the same venue, put the hand-held steamer somewhere that is easily accessible for just before the wedding photos in case the dress or suits are creased. It’s easy to give them a quick once over.

If the bride is popping upstairs to refresh her makeup and hair, then offer to refresh her dress and/or train as well. Or if there’s a second-look dress change for dancing, this might need to be refreshed before putting it on.

12. Know How to Tie the Bustle

It’s really important that if you have a train, you ask the bridal stylist how to tie up the bustle at your final dress fitting. A bustle uses hooks, ties or buttons sewn into the train to secure it or any extra fabric, off the ground and into the back of the dress to create a uniform hemline and keep it from dragging across the floor. There are lots of different bustle types that involve tying, folding and fluffing, so you’ll want a full demo on how your particular bustle works.

13. Pack it Up for Cleaning

This is more of a task than a wedding dress hack, but one that is still very important not to put off. After the wedding, get the wedding dress professionally cleaned immediately. (We have a list of the best wedding dress dry cleaners here!).

Stains will be harder to remove the longer you leave them on the gown, not to mention that organic material like mud and grass (especially from little paws!) can have microorganisms in them that will eat away at delicate fibres causing irreparable damage. If you don’t have time to do it – delegate the task!

Check out our guide on how to make your wedding morning relaxed. We have lots of handy checklists including a full wedding planning itinerary and a to-do list covering the entire day from morning to night.