When you’re an experienced wedding photographer and an unprecedented pandemic shuts down venues and causes all your clients to cancel or postpone their big day indefinitely, you can either accept defeat or search for a new purpose.

Bristol resident Jennifer Neves chose the latter.

“During Covid I was really busy helping clients reschedule their dates, but it was all paperwork instead of being creative,” she said. “I took that opportunity to stay mentally active by learning a new task.”

That new task turned out to be learning the ropes of the dry cleaning business. She apprenticed under the leadership of a friend who owned an established local dry cleaning shop, Ocean State Quality Dry Cleaning.

“I had no idea going into dry cleaning how much it actually entails to create a good clean product,” Neves said. “I kept my mind active that way.”

Just this past Sunday, Neves went live with a website that officially launched The Dry Clean Queen — a company with a vision to turn the traditional model of dry cleaning service on its head. Instead of having people bring their clothes into a dry cleaner, Neves allows them to schedule a pickup on their website (and soon a mobile app), and then she takes care of the rest.

“My actual business is the pickup and delivery. You go on the website, order a pickup, I pick it up and then deliver it back when it’s done,” she explained. “ Right now, I’m doing it all myself in regards to driving and picking it up and delivering, so I can meet every client and explain the process on how to sign up.”

Neves, a former Miss Fourth of July, said that she hopes to get her children and husband (a police lieutenant in Middletown) involved to create a truly family business model. She said that clients can be anybody, from government entities that need lots of outfits cleaned at once, to young students preparing for a job interview, or homebound senior citizens who can’t leave the house.

“They would pick a location, we’d pick up all their garments and then we clean and deliver everything on a hanger back to the same closet. They don’t even see us,” she said. “We just go in and, magically, their clothes are going to be clean a couple days later.”

Neves believes that the modern era has shown high demand for these types of catered delivery services, particularly in a post-Covid era where contactless delivery became the industry standard for many different forms of business.

“We’re trying to concentrate on how to make everyone’s lives easier in an era where everything is pickup and delivery,” she said. “The motto is ‘We save you time, we make it easy.’”

Neves said that she has made it a goal to make their dry cleaning facility as eco-friendly and energy efficient as possible. Such an attitude fits nicely with her hopes of modernizing the business, which has not been traditionally known for being hip or conducive to change.

“Most cleaners don’t even have a website,” Neves said. “We’re trying to create a new generation by creating a website, creating an app. At least 17 dry cleaners closed in RI during Covid…While everyone else is rushing out, I’m rushing in.”

The Dry Clean Queen accepts orders 24/7 through their website, TheDryCleanQueen.com, and you can also reach out through email at hi@thedrycleanqueen.com or by phone at 401-744-5999 for additional inquiries.