Whether you keep your dress for the memories or to pass on to a loved one or even if you keep it to sell it on at least you have the option. For Jo Wolf that decision was taken away from her as her wedding dress was lost by a removal firm.
Jo Wolf, 44, lost her dress nearly two years ago along with a lot of her other possessions during a relocation from Australia. She has set up a Facebook page in the hope that people will help her on her quest to find her wedding dress.
Jo got married in 2011 in a local church in London. Two years ago she relocated from Australia and used a national removal firm to ship everything she owned. She said: "When the shipment arrived most of the things we were expecting were missing, including my wedding dress, my veil, daughter's flower girl dress, tiara, my bouquet that I had preserved, the 'something blue' aquamarine and diamond bracelet my mum gave me for my wedding. Those items among many other things, my engagement dress as well. The company was meant to put everything into a private shipping container but cut corners and put our belongings into shared container with other people's belongings."
Two years later Jo has still not found her possessions but has taken to Facebook to set up a page in hope that someone may have seen her dress.
She said: "I decided to use the dress as a focal point to try to find our missing belongings as it catches attention, and is easily recognisable if it turned up somewhere. The Facebook page has been fairly successful in as much it has caught attention, people are sympathetic and interested. They do like the page but I wish they would share it more. I've joined almost every lost and found page and wedding pre-loved I can find in case anyone recognises something. I also wanted to expose the dodgy business practices of MetroMovers as they are responsible but don't care and our lawyers have unearthed illegal practices that didn't help our situation and might affect others in the future."
The sentimental value her dress holds is something that can not be replaced.
Jo said: "I am beyond devastated that it's gone. The dress means so much to me as we had a bit of a personal journey to get to our wedding day and it almost never happened due to visa restrictions my husband faced. Everyone chooses their dress carefully and I spent ages finding my perfect dress. Mums like to show their daughter the dress and maybe try it on, or even if I had wanted to sell it, which I never would have, My choice has been taken away. I am the sort of person who looks after my belongings particularly well and still had some things that I had been given as a baby or really young. All my wedding jewelry was in an antique jewelry box my dad gave me at 6 years old. My heart is broken that I have lost so many things that are important to me. I would have loved to give the dress and all my wedding items to my daughter if she might want them in future."
Have you seen the dress in the picture? Let Jo know on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/missingweddingdress/
