Shipping a dress?

tojai

For my sister's wedding, she will need to get her dress from Omaha to Chicago.  She got it at David's Bridal so they already told us they can do a complimentary steam when it arrives because I'm sure it'll be a bit rumpled, but she wanted to figure out the way that would be gentlest on the dress.

She was told that a lot of people FedEx/UPS the dress, and just use a garment bag for protection and have the package labeled as fragile.  And of course get insurance on it.  But if something did happen to it, the insurance is nice but she's more worried about the panic at the last minute moreso than being compensated if it gets destroyed. 

Is shipping the dress a bad idea though?  It does leave a lot to chance ... her other option would be taking it with her when she flies up there but she wasn't too keen on wrestling with a big gown through the airport.  But it may come to that just for peace of mind, especially if shipping isn't recommended. 

doeydo

David's Bridal shipped my dress to me, I think they used UPS or something, and it was just fine.  Personally, I would go for it and ship it with the insurance .

blabla89

I think packing the dress in a large suitcase and checking it on the flight may be her best bet. Personally, I'd feel safer with that than with shipping. It would be out of her hands for less time than if she shipped it. And it probably costs less than shipping.

amelisha

I ordered my dress online from DB and they just shipped it via courier in a big sturdy box, then had it wrapped in a couple layers of plastic inside the box. It was fine, so I can't imagine why you couldn't do the same yourself. If you use a courier or some kind of tracked, registered mail I think the risk of it going missing is very, very low.

However, taking it on the plane is easy too (other than the carrying the garment bag through the airport part, but that's not really a big deal.) Lots of airlines let you carry on a wedding dress as one of your pieces of carry-on, and they'll either hang it in the closest (if they have one) or lay it across the top of the overhead compartment after everything else is in there.) I'm doing this for my Vegas wedding in May and I'm not really concerned about it at all as I've seen lots of other women do it on flights.

novella1186

blabla89 said:

I think packing the dress in a large suitcase and checking it on the flight may be her best bet. Personally, I'd feel safer with that than with shipping. It would be out of her hands for less time than if she shipped it. And it probably costs less than shipping.

I actually think it would be safer to ship it than to check it with an airline. I fly a lot and I've had suitcases destroyed to the point that I had to throw them in the garbage because airline baggage handlers beat the crap out of them. One even looked like it had been run over by a truck and the zipper was broken off so it was wrapped in plastic. And I've had suitcases get lost or show up several days late cuz they were left behind at the airport or put on the wrong flight. 

I've never encountered any of those issues with UPS. 

blabla89

novella1186 said:

blabla89 said:

I think packing the dress in a large suitcase and checking it on the flight may be her best bet. Personally, I'd feel safer with that than with shipping. It would be out of her hands for less time than if she shipped it. And it probably costs less than shipping.

I actually think it would be safer to ship it than to check it with an airline. I fly a lot and I've had suitcases destroyed to the point that I had to throw them in the garbage because airline baggage handlers beat the crap out of them. One even looked like it had been run over by a truck and the zipper was broken off so it was wrapped in plastic. And I've had suitcases get lost or show up several days late cuz they were left behind at the airport or put on the wrong flight. 

I've never encountered any of those issues with UPS. 

That's terrible! Admittedly I ship things a lot more often than I fly, but I've had the opposite issue, with getting lots of packages that look like they've been beaten to hell.

novella1186

blabla89 said:

novella1186 said:

blabla89 said:

I think packing the dress in a large suitcase and checking it on the flight may be her best bet. Personally, I'd feel safer with that than with shipping. It would be out of her hands for less time than if she shipped it. And it probably costs less than shipping.

I actually think it would be safer to ship it than to check it with an airline. I fly a lot and I've had suitcases destroyed to the point that I had to throw them in the garbage because airline baggage handlers beat the crap out of them. One even looked like it had been run over by a truck and the zipper was broken off so it was wrapped in plastic. And I've had suitcases get lost or show up several days late cuz they were left behind at the airport or put on the wrong flight. 

I've never encountered any of those issues with UPS. 

That's terrible! Admittedly I ship things a lot more often than I fly, but I've had the opposite issue, with getting lots of packages that look like they've been beaten to hell.

Ugh I hate when that happens! I've only experienced that with the USPS *so far. I would honestly just drive from Nebraska to Chicago with my dress just to be 100% sure it got there. 

Last summer I drove from the east side of Indiana to Idaho, so Nebraska to Chicago doesn't seem far to me, but I get that for some people it wouldn't be do-able. 

labro

I've carried a gown on a plane As one of my carry ons. The stewards were super nice and kept it in the closet for me. I'd honestly carry on a dress rather than ship it or check it. It wasn't a huge deal. I hooked the hanger onto my carry on suitcase while walking through the airport too.