Travelling with a bulky Wedding Dress

Have you thought about sending your dress ahead, as a package? Insure it and book all the tracking options there are, obviously, and I wouldn't send it with the usual postal service, but there are dedicated high-end courier services who handle these sort of things. Honestly, I would be afraid to fly with my dress in case they don't allow it on board and the possibility of the dress travelling in the baggage hold would give me nightmares.

I agree, I would send it ahead to arrive the same day as you

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Hi Chloe,

My coordinator did suggest this, but I was a little hesitant to go this route because I wasn't sure if it would be super expensive...and general nervousness about shipping something that important, but it looks like the most logical choice if I still am unable to pack it into my garment bag after the alterations. Do you have any recommendations on any particular courier services? Thanks so much for your response!

The flight attendants will hang it for you, so you don’t have to put it in an overhead bin.

View Quoted Comment It will probably be expensive, but worth it in my opinion! Even if it does fit in the garment bag, you may be stopped from taking it inside the cabin due to the plane being booked to the limit or forced to put in into overhead, where someone will throw their filthy leaking baggage on it... unless you're traveling first class, I wouldn't risk it. It's not worth the stress. I can't really recommend anything since I don't live in the US... But I would ask the dress atelier which services they use and then go from there.

View Quoted Comment Got it. Very good points, I may very well send my dress ahead instead of risking taking it on flight. Thanks for the advice!

View Quoted Comment I just sent an email to the airline we are going to take, to see if I would be able to do that. Crossing my fingers for a positive response.

I bought my dress in Michigan and flew it back to California in July and my experience was AWFUL. Even though I called Delta Airlines ahead of time to prepare and ask all of the pertinent questions, it did not prepare me for TSA. When getting to security I told them I wanted to be wanded down instead of sending the dress through the scanner, which Delta told me was the appropriate request. They refused and started to yank the dress out of my hands and unzip it in front of my FH. I threw a stink and they let FH go through and walk down stairs so he wouldn't see. However while I was explaining to them that I was requesting what Delta advised me to do I was told, "We are TSA NOT Delta." They then started pulling out my cathedral veil with the same dirty gloves that they had used to lift all of the other bags. I started yelling at this point and thought to myself "Yep, I am getting arrested today."
I was told they didn't care what the item was or how much it costs. After about 5 minutes of arguing back and forth and holding up and entire line they finally pulled me into an office for a private search in which they pulled my whole ballgown apart and didn't even hang it back properly in the bag.
After finally getting through and onto the plane I was told that because its bulky it would not fit into the closet so I had to fold it and put it in the overhead bin, however they would allow nothing else in that bin. That was fine until the lady behind me through a stink because now she had no where near her seat to put her carryon.

Moral of the story, I suggest shipping it as I cried about 4 times that day and luckily didn't need bail money. lol

View Quoted Comment Oh my gosh, how horrifying! I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that! Absolutely awful! I think you have officially convinced me...I hadn't even thought about what would happen going through TSA. Thank you so much for sharing your experience.

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Yes, had I had any clue I would have paid the bridal salon to ship it. Especially with a ball gown I dont want to see another bride go through that!

The best way to guarantee it has room is to buy an extra seat for your dress. Obviously it’s an expensive move but provides the best chance of not getting lost or dirty and jammed. You can pack it up on the way home since you’ll likely get it cleaned anyway.

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@Cool- I had actually just emailed the airline that we are taking about travelling with my wedding gown, and this is exactly what they had suggested. Ticket prices are ok enough right now on the day that we are leaving that I may consider doing this. I have several options to ponder. Thanks for the suggestion!

Hi erista! How did everything work out flying with your gown??

Do you have any tips to share with future brides?

I also found this article which has some great advice:

How to Safely Fly with Your Wedding Dress, According to Pros

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Hi Lynnie,

I ended up calling the airline and buying an extra ticket to bring my dress on the plane with me- which was a life saver in the end. Our flight was completely full, and there was no overhead bin space or room in the captain's closet to store anything, so ultimately it saved me some drama....sort of...lol. The flight attendants were a bit rude to me and my husband when they saw my garment bag on the seat next to us. After having to tell the first flight attendant that we encountered 3 times that I had purchased the seat for my dress, he walked off rolling his eyes pretty hard saying "pffft...whatever." The other 2 attendants that we encountered later were also about to jump on us for having my dress in the seat, but once I explained that I ticket for it, and that it was a wedding dress, they were cool about it and even asked me for the deets on my wedding. All in all, I would recommend purchasing an extra seat for dress, if you are travelling with an exceptionally bulky one like mine (even if you have to deal with tired flight attendants. lol) Even if your dress is smaller, there is still no guarantee that there will be any space in an overhead bin or captain's closet, and you just don't want to risk it getting damaged by a stranger moving it around to make room for their bags in the overhead bin. I hope this was helpful to any other destination wedding brides!