This is however no reason to over react and decide to exclude coffee, after all the positive's far outway the negatives and you have a good chance of making it through your wedding stain free. But if the worse does happen and someone walks into you with a full cup of coffee, the lid comes off the cup you are drinking or you mis-drink and coffee drips down your face, it's not a complete disaster. There are some measures that can be taken to avoid having half your photos with a new beige effect added to your dress.
Many people say it is best to simply leave the stain until you are able to get your dress to professional cleaners who will know what to do to remove a coffee stain whilst not damaging the delicate fabric of your wedding dress. So if you just land up with a small stain, a few droplets or it's in a place where it can't really be seen, I would suggest simply leaving it as is and taking it to the professionals as soon as possible after your wedding. But of course if it has spilt right down the front of your dress and there are still photos to be taken, well that's a different story.
First of all it is very important that you do not rub the stain. Any vigorous motion like this will damage the material and push the stain further in. Your best technique is to gently dab soaking up as much of the excess liquid as possible. The quicker you react the better. It will be far more difficult to remove a stain that has already dried. For coffee the best thing to use to remove the stain is water and then to allow your dress to air dry. Club soda can also work effectively. It might not be able eliminate the stain completely, but it will certainly reduce the stain and help in the long run making it easier for the pros to completely remove the stain at a later stage.
Just be warned that it is easier to get stains off synthetic fabrics as opposed to natural ones. If your dress is silk, the fibres are more hollow and they will absorb the liquid far more effectively, which is not great when it comes to stains. With silk and rayons you also need to be careful using water, as they are water sensitive and permanent water spots can form.
If you just want a quick fix and you are happy for the pros to figure out removing the stains later try camouflage the stain with baking soda, corn strach or baby powder. I'd opt for baby powder seeming it's not a food product and at least it'll mean you'll also smell really cute.
Apparently there is also Borax solution, which I don't think we get in South Africa. But if you are somewhere where it is available it may come to your rescue. I'd just be very careful about applying a detergent to a wedding dress. Maybe do a test either on a small patch of fabric in a less noticeable place or on the inside of your dress before you go smearing it all over the place.
Hopefully this blog has helped, should you find yourself at the wrong end of a coffee cup on your wedding day. But maybe you don't even need to worry about the cover up. There's nothing wrong with just rolling with it and working that stain as part of your ensemble.
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