Shannon McNamara
Shannon McNamara is a mother of two grown daughters from Franklin, Texas. She also works for two different nonprofit organizations, GraceWorks Ministries, and Williamson County Public Library System. Shannon is also a loving wife to a husband who she married back in 1986.
Shannon’s Vintage Wedding Gown
On her wedding day, Shannon wore a traditional ivory gown, beaded at the front with long sleeves. The dress had an open back and a high neckline. She also wore a headpiece that matched the color and the style of the dress. Her dress designer applied a fascinator to the top of the headpiece that not only held the veil, but it was also decorative. She had no idea on her wedding day that her dress’ adventure wasn’t’ over.
White Way Cleaners
After the wedding, Shannon sent her vintage wedding gown off to a dry cleaner called White Way Cleaners. They offered a service where after the wedding, they would seal up the dress for storage. This was the best way to preserve the dress. Today, White Way Cleaners no longer exists. It has been replaced with a Mexican restaurant.
30-Years Later
Shannon’s dress remained in storage for 30-years. The day that Shannon’s daughter, Caroline, got engaged, Shannon became nostalgic and decided to pull out her wedding dress. She and her husband always said that when one of their daughters got engaged, they would open up the dress box and relive the memories from their wedding. Shannon opened the box, and the dress inside was ivory, but the sleeves and the decorations were completely different. The dress in the box had bows on the sleeves, but hers didn’t. Shannon’s dress was a long sleeve dress, but the dress in the box was short sleeves. She couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t her wedding dress that was in the box.
Kim Jones
Shannon wasn’t the only person who was holding onto the wrong dress for 30-years. Kim Jones is a woman from Nashville, Tennessee, and she got married a month before Shannon. She also took her gown to White Way Cleaners to have it cleaned and sealed up. In 2012, Kim brought her wedding dress out of storage to show her daughter Emily. Sadly, she got the same unexpected surprise as Shannon. It turned out that Kim had Shannon’s dress, and Shannon had Kim’s, but back in 2012, Kim had no idea who had her dress.
Kim’s Search
Kim did her best to try to find the person who had her dress. She even contacted the local newspaper to see if they would run a story on it so that she could find out who had her dress. When her search came up empty, she tried to locate the dry cleaner. Unfortunately, after 80-years in business, the dry cleaner had closed. For years, she held onto the stranger’s dress. Finally, when Shannon noticed that she had the wrong dress and took to Facebook to figure out who had her dress, Kim’s search had ended. A friend had contacted her about the dress, and finally, the women were going to be able to get their dresses.
Meeting
It turned out that the women went to the same high school, and they were both friends with Kim’s daughter-in-law’s mother. The two women set up a date to meet so that they could exchange dresses. They were both so happy that the other had taken such good care of the dresses.
Caroline’s Wedding
Now that Shannon had her wedding dress back, Caroline could wear it to her wedding. The only problem was that the dress was dated. It was in style back in the 80s, but it wasn’t modern enough for her to wear the way that it was. She decided that it needed some altercations to make it more modern. Shannon had no problem with her daughter making alterations because she saved the dress precisely so that her daughter could wear it on her wedding day.
Rachel Ray
Shannon and Caroline were going to be on the Rachel Ray Show, for the Bridal Reflections segment. Shannon had no idea what the dress looked like after the alterations. Caroline planned to do the big reveal while on the show.
Tears
When Shannon saw Caroline in a modern version of her dress, she broke down in tears. When she first opened up her dress, she was sure that Caroline would never be able to wear it. Now here, she was, on the Rachel Ray Show, looking at her daughter in her dress after a few alterations. Shannon says that it was one of the most beautiful moments of her life. She cannot wait to see her daughter walk down the aisle in the dress. A Mom Saved Her Vintage Wedding Gown For Decades – Then Her Daughter Completely Transformed It, and it was beautiful.
