It was (almost) the one that got away.
Last month, Arkansas-based bride Bailey Dobson had a bit of what she calls a “meltdown” after her mom accidentally sold her wedding dress to Goodwill — but thankfully, this story has a happy ending.
Bailey’s mom, Nicole, decided to have a garage sale to get rid of some of her daughter’s old prom dresses, according to News 5 Online, but the special dress for her daughter’s upcoming December nuptials accidentally got lost in the mix.
They took what didn’t sell to a Goodwill store in Rogers — which included Dobson’s flowing, v-neck wedding gown adorned with lace.
“I had a meltdown for sure,” Dobson admitted to the outlet. “I had a little bit of freakout.”
In order to try to make things right, the Goodwill branch in Arkansas posted what was happening on their social media pages in an effort to try to get Dobson her dress back.
“We need your help,” they wrote in a Facebook post, including two photos of Dobson wearing the wedding dress. “A wedding dress for an UPCOMING wedding was accidentally donated and was purchased at our Walton Store & Donation Center in Bentonville (1400 SE Walton Blvd) last Saturday, July 29.”
“Please privately message us if you recognize or purchased this dress,” the message continued. “The family is willing to pay for its return.”
And, the efforts worked — in a miraculous turn of events, someone commented on the social media post that the dress was being sold on eBay.
“We had contacted the seller, and she was willing to take it down and give it back to us,” Bailey told News 5 Online. “Thank goodness. She’s been amazing and super helpful. And we’ve appreciated every bit of it.”
Bailey was so thankful to the seller that she even invited her to the wedding on December 19 when she met her at a restaurant to get the dress back.
Of course, there are no hard feelings — Bailey is just grateful to her community to be able to get the gown back.
“Like this is one of those things that you read about and it never happens to you,” she told the outlet. “So I have appreciated and I am very appreciative of like half of Northwest Arkansas has put themselves out there and put me all over their social media and they have no idea who I am.”
And, Goodwill Arkansas seemed to have a similar sentiment.
“First, Goodwill Industries of Arkansas would like to express our deep appreciation to the family for considering Goodwill as the recipient of their donations,” Goodwill Industries of Arkansas President & CEO Brian Marsh told The Post in a statement Wednesday.
“Although it was an unfortunate accident that led to the donation, we are delighted that we played a role in reuniting Bailey with her wedding gown,” the message continued. “With more than 15,000 donated items being processed at our stores on average per day throughout Arkansas, not all unintended donations result in such a positive and heartwarming outcome.”
“As the old saying goes, something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue – that’s what Goodwill Industries of Arkansas is. (As in Team Blue as our organization is commonly referred to) We hope we’re invited to the wedding.”
The Post reached out to Bailey for further comment.
However, funnily enough, this is not the first time something like this has happened in recent months.
In May, southern California native Rebecca Nguyen also had her wedding dress donated to Goodwill by a family member accidentally.
Nguyen had already worn the beaded, spaghetti-strapped dress in her 2017 wedding, but still yearned to get it back.
“It was a complete accident, it was during a rush of a lot things, and mistakes happen, but when I found out yesterday, I was pretty heartbroken,” she admitted in an interview with KCAL News at the time.
Unfortunately, it remains unclear if her search for the dress ended in the same way as Dobson’s.