ST. MARYS -- Two women have been reunited with their wedding dresses after a mix-up at the cleaners led to them holding onto the wrong ones for more than three decades.
Cathy Prior's wedding day was June 3, 1989.
"I think it was one of the first dresses I had tried on," she said. "It was different."
Cathy Prior in her wedding dress
After her wedding, she dropped the dress off at Cascade Cleaners in St. Marys, Ont. She hadn't opened the box until recently. But when Prior looked inside, it wasn't what she'd expected.
"I opened it up and immediately knew it wasn't mine, because this was a high lace collar and mine was a v-neck satin," Prior said.
She posted about the mix-up on social media on Saturday night, hoping to find the woman whose dress she'd been storing for 31 years.
"I kept it and just decided to take a picture and put it on the internet. It was a lark," Prior said. "I woke up Sunday morning to a barrage of texts saying 'I think I have your dress.'"
Kayla Hotson is currently planning her wedding and wanted to try on her mother's dress, also from 1989. After opening the box, also from Cascade Cleaners, she realized she had the wrong dress.
"This is some satin or something and there's no lace," she said. "I don't know what's going on."
Janet Hotson in her wedding dress
She reached out to Prior after seeing her social media post. They exchanged pictures and realized they had each other's dresses.
"I'm kind of shocked," Kayla's mother Janet Hotson said.
The brides met at Cascade Cleaners where the mix-up happened and were reunited with their dresses.
"I was in tears," Janet said. "I was like 'Yes that is my dress.' We opened the dress just to make sure."
Marlene Forman, the owner of Cascade Cleaners, said she doesn't know how the mix-up happened.
"After being here for 56 years, all I can say is this was a terrible glitch," she said. "I'm so glad it turned out the way it did."
"If I noticed it years before, social media wasn't like it is," Prior said. "So, it was meant to be."
The dresses are getting repackaged at Cascade Cleaners. Both women said they plan to check they have the right one before taking them home.
