Traveling with wedding gown

Jenn5531

I'm leaving in Friday and I'm stressing out about traveling with my gown. What do I pack it in? I have it in the garment bag from Davids Bridal. Do I put it in a carry on suitcase? Please help!

aggiespartan

littlevegaswedding.com just did an article about this with some good tips. 

Jenn5531

Thank you!

vegasgroom

The five options are:

1) Ship it
2) Carry it on and get a flight attendant to put it in a hanging closet (typically this only works if it's a carrier that has a first class cabin and nice flight attendents)
3) Carry it on and put it in overhead
4) Carry it on and buy a seat for it
5) Pack it in your suitcase

My wife did the additional seat because a) we flew Southwest and the extra seat was only $150, which was about a third the price it would have cost to ship and insure, and b) she'd freak out not knowing where it was not only because of the price but it also had her mother's wedding veil.  We were doing steaming and pressing in Vegas anyway so wrinkles didn't matter.

I see the luck of getting a flight attendant to stash it in a closet work about half the time; you never know, although if you fly first class then it should work fine.

Other than that, overhead can work if you're around nice people, or can fail if you're around asses who could care less and cram all their junk in the overhead regardless of your dress.

Most people on this board tend to ship and steam in Vegas.

aggiespartan

Someone on this board (I think Jayjaay) just shipped her dress and had an awful experience. 

We are flying first class and my dress isn't that big, so I'm planning on putting it in the first class closest.  If it won't fit there, I'm pretty sure I can put it in an overhead bin. 

I'm more worried about my fiancé's tux because it will wrinkle easier than my dress. 

jayjaay

My wedding was 10/18 I just carried mine on put it in the overhead, I had priority seating in business class - Had no issues coming or going

destinationtake2

I carried mine on the plane and very nicely told the flight attendants what it was and they kind enough to hang it in the closet for me. Whether it was in the closet or overhead there was no way it wasn't going to be in the cabin with me. Checked in my suitcase or shipped ahead of time gave me too much anxiety. And as it turned out, SD's luggage was lost that trip. We got it the next day but it proved why I needed to keep my dress with me.

aggiespartan

Hm, I don't know who had the bad experience shipping the dress, but it sounded like a nightmare.  

Either way, I would just take it on the plane.  

amelisha

The airline we're flying (Westjet) has wedding dress specific info on their website. They don't have closets (single class cabin), so they ask you to wait to board and then lay your dress along the top of the overhead compartment on top of the luggage already there. They don't recommend putting it in checked baggage and they include the dress bag as your "personal item" of carry-on, so you are still entitled to another regular-sized piece of carry-on.

However, Westjet is well-known to have great customer service and extraordinarily helpful flight attendants, so that helps and I have seen them assisting other brides with their dresses on flights.

If you check your airline's "travel information" section on their website, they may have recommendations specific to wedding dresses.

vegasgroom

I'm definitely not a fan of checking it in your luggage; we've had our luggage stolen from McCarran before.  Security there is non-existent.

vegasbride2015

vegasgroom said:

I'm definitely not a fan of checking it in your luggage; we've had our luggage stolen from McCarran before.  Security there is non-existent.

Good to know. Now I am considering taking my luggage on board.