You wouldn’t throw $1,056 out the window—not even if you’re a deliriously happy newlywed, right? That was the average gown price in the 2006 American Wedding Study, the most recent survey available by Brides magazine. After the wedding, many of those gowns don’t get cleaned, thus greatly diminishing their chances of ever being worn again.

“Brides don’t skimp on their gowns but they don’t understand that they’re not protecting their investment if they don’t clean them. They’ll wait two, three, four, five years before they start asking about cleaning, but the problem is some of the stains have started to oxidize,” says Joe Hallak, co-owner of the Hallak Cleaners stores in New York and New Jersey.

There is a direct relationship between time passed and the ability to clean a stain, he says.  A wedding dress doesn’t have to go to the cleaners straight from the reception hall; bringing it in within a few weeks would do.

The actual cleaning is just as important as the preservation process, says John Hallak, Joe’s brother and a partner in the business. “One of the bigger misconceptions out there is that the box the gown is preserved in is the important part, but the box can only preserve the reality you put into it.”

The most common stain on wedding dresses is wine, according to the Hallaks. White wine and champagne, which make less noticeable stains initially, are just as damaging as red-wine stains over time.  The typical cleaning process involves spot cleaning, machine cleaning and steam cleaning. Then gowns are pressed and put in a box to help control humidity.

Wedding gowns also typically have hem soil, especially if it was an outdoor wedding. “Soil has a lot of different components,” Joe Hallak says. “It’s not just dirt; there’s grease in soil, fertilizer in soil.”  Those are things that eat away at the fabric.  Another common wedding stain is lipstick, though Hallak says it is unlikely to set permanently.

The Hallaks also treat gowns with a process aimed at neutralizing sugar residue, including stains from wine or cake frosting.  Once you’ve got the gown in its box, they recommend shifting it around slightly every few years so certain parts don’t fade or develop permanent creases. Wear rubber gloves, though, because fingers are greasier than you’d think, they say.