A husband was well and truly in the doghouse after he accidentally donated his wife’s wedding dress to a charity shop.
Natalie Gelbert had put her dress in a bag ready to take to the cleaners and had also bagged up a selection of old clothes to donate to charity.
But she was left devastated after her husband muddled up the two.
Her dress was sold at the shop and Gelbert thought she had lost it forever, but after a last ditch appeal on Facebook, she has now been reunited with the gown.
Writing on Facebook, Gelbert, from North Carolina, explained how her beloved dress had accidentally ended up at the charity shop.
“My husband accidentally gave my wedding dress to Goodwill and it was sold last Saturday,” she said.
“It was a total mistake and we are actually still paying on it. I’m so so so upset and posting this in hopes whomever bought it might see this. I would really like to buy it back.
“I know to whoever bought it, it was a great deal and sold dirt cheap but to me it is priceless. Very sentimental and something that can’t be replaced.
“It was in a bag in my car ready to be cleaned and preserved, but he got it mixed up with the donation bags.”
Gelbert’s status was soon shared more than 37,000 times and she appeared on local radio and TV stations to tell her story. Soon she was overwhelmed by kind offers from strangers willing to help her.
Some women offered to donate their own wedding dresses to the unknown buyer in exchange for Gelbert’s, while one person offered to purchase the same dress for the buyer, new at $1000 (£795), so Gelbert could have her’s back.
In a later status, Gelbert confirmed that the buyer had been in touch and had returned her dress.
“Thank you to everyone who offered up reward money, their own dresses, to pay for a new one, all the news stations that shared, the radio shows I got to go on, and all the sharing and caring. I really do appreciate it,” Gelbert said.
“Really the amount of love that’s been shown is crazy and how far my story travelled is amazing.
“Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Glad I got it back and I get to continue to pass it down in my family.”
We love a happy ending.