vendor reviews: gown cleaning & preservation

Eight locations and quality wedding gown care brings success for Sketchley Cleaners

Reviewing Dan Yantzi, Owner & Wedding Gown Cleaner at Sketchley Cleaners

When you've put so much of your time, focus and emotion into finding the perfect dress... it only makes sense to keep that dress in pristine condition for years to come. Because Sketchley Cleaners has all the advantages brides are looking for - with eight locations in the

Kitchener-Waterloo area, reasonable prices and a reputation of quality - we had to find out more about what Sketchley Cleaners can offer to area brides. We sat down with Owner, Dan Yantzi, to find out more about why brides often leave their locations saying their gowns look as good leaving Sketchley as they did leaving the gown shop...

Personally speaking...

The Sketchley Cleaners' name has been in the Kitchener-Waterloo community for over twenty years. Dan's entrepreneurial spirit and desire to turn the business into a success, found him purchasing his first Sketchley Cleaners location in 1992. Dan chose Sketchley because after living in the area, he knew it to be a long-standing, popular name in the community. He started by purchasing one location, then two... "I live in this community. Everyone knows the Sketchley name. It seemed obvious to me... I just knew." In 1995, Dan purchased the cleaning facility of all of the remaining stores in the area.

Dan says that while some services may be the same, he offers a different level of care that you won't find elsewhere, "The quality that we use will stand the test of time."

All the staff and family at Sketchley are trained to treat everything as if it were their own. Attention to detail is top priority.

Sketchley for brides

Aside from the dry cleaning of all clothing, Sketchley Cleaners offers the cleaning, stain removal, and boxing (preservation) of bridal gowns.

When a gown comes to Sketchley, it may be slightly tarnished with dance floor dust, or it may have coffee and red wine stains on it. In fact, Dan told us that gowns with long cathedral length trains are not uncommonly completely black on their bottom side. From red wine and coffee to blood from a paper cut, Sketchley has seen and cleaned just about everything. "Some of the gowns that come in look like they've gone through a mud puddle," he laughed.

Because of the extensive detail in each gown, Dan does all the gowns for the entire area personally. "I take pride in my work and make sure that each gown is cared for up to my standards." In fact, only two other people will handle the gown while it is on their premises.

The cleaning process

Because the dry cleaning process for a bridal gown involves hours of delicate work and processing, Sketchley asks for three to four weeks to clean and preserve your gown. All prep-work is done entirely by hand. "We can easily spend nearly an hour, just getting a gown ready to be cleaned," says Dan. "We use good old fashioned elbow grease and cleaning products."

Once finished, the gown goes into the cleaning machine on its own, meaning that everything else at Sketchley has going is stopped for that one gown. It wouldn't be uncommon to see Dan at Sketchley personally cleaning wedding gowns. He does approximately 100 dresses per year, and to maintain quality he doesn't ever take on the care of more than 200 dresses.

Presenting...

Once your gown is dry cleaned, it is pressed meticulously and ready to be boxed. There are regular and large sized boxes. The one you will need will depend on your gown. Large boxes accommodate full gowns, especially those with long trains.

When you leave with your gown, it should be as beautiful as the day it left the bridal salon. Dan says that if you do choose to give your gown to your daughter in twenty years, it should still be just as beautiful. "We let our quality speak for itself. I know that if people are happy with our service, they will pass that along to everyone else. We are here to serve the local market, and we stand behind our service."

Good to know...

Some cleaners use pins to hold the gown in place for presentation purposes. Dan insists that they never do this, as the pins can rust and ruin the dress. Sketchley removes all pins before sealing your dress in the preservation box.

8 convenient locations

Kitchener locations

324 Highland Road West (corner of Highland and Lawrence), 519-593-2306

1405 Ottawa Street East (corner of Ottawa and Lackner), 519-893-9499

Hiway Centre at 1375 Weber Street East, 519-894-8288

645 Westmount Road (corner of Ottawa & Westmount), 519-579-7261

Deer Ridge Centre at 4293 King Street East, 519-650-4558

Waterloo locations

Beechwood Plaza at 450 Erb Street West, 519-888-7240

94 Bridgeport Road (corner of Bridgeport & Weber in Zellers Plaza), 519-888-9013

585 Weber Street North (corner of Northfield & Weber), 519-888-9025

To contact Dan...

You can take your gown to any of the eight Kitchener-Waterloo locations, and be assured that Dan will take special care of your gown and you can pick it back up (clean and boxed) at the same location you dropped it off at. Sketchley Cleaners' head office location is at 60 Bathurst Drive in Waterloo. You can reach their head office by phone at 519-725-9844.

Check out Sketchley Cleaners' brand new website for more information and descriptions of their different cleaning services at www.sketchleycleanerskw.ca.