If weddings aren't already anxiety-inducing, one bride had to endure the ultimate nightmare. After a fairy-tale ceremony in June, her wedding dress, a 150-year-old heirloom, went missing after she dropped it off to be dry-cleaned. Thanks to the magic of social media, however, she got a happy ending.
The BBC reports that Tess Newall left her gown — which was the same one that her great-great grandmother Dora wore in 1870 — at Kleen Cleaners in Edinburgh last September. Then, in October, the dry cleaners went out of business.
After posting about the situation on Facebook, Newall feared she'd never located the dress again since Kleen Cleaner was being liquidated. "It seems that the dress was taken to be sold so it could be winging its way anywhere. Please share this far and wide in case anyone stumbles across it!" she wrote. The post was shared over 200,000 times. According to commenters that were keeping an eye out for the gown, Newall's tale even made headlines in France.
As luck would have it, the dress wasn't being sold somewhere on the bridal black market. After months of believing that the gown was lost forever, it was right where Newall had left it: Kleen Cleaners. It turns out her story had come full circle. Thanks to her post, someone involved with the property took a closer look.
"My parents received a phone call this afternoon from the landlord of the property where the dry cleaners is, whose nephew had read about the dress," Newall told the BBC. "He really searched, and he found a pile of old lace which he realized was what he thought was the dress. My parents went straight there and were just overjoyed and couldn't believe it was the dress, not cleaned, and still with its ticket."
While Newall won't be reunited with her dress just yet. "Procedural reasons" have it headed to Glasgow before being dropped off at her parents' house. Still, she's glad to know it's safe and sound. Facebook commenters agreed, sending well wishes to the new bride when she amended her original post with the good news.
"My family can't thank you all enough for creating this frenzy which allowed us into the shop before it was too late, and are over the moon to be *almost* reunited with Dora's dress," Newall wrote in an update.