But when Topp pulled out the box she thought contained the dress, the gown inside was not hers.
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"I thought when she started talking about wedding planning, wouldn't it be nice if she wore something from my wedding," Topp said of the dress. "...It had a sweetheart neckline, very 80's puffy sleeves, lace, simple at the bottom, the veil was absolutely beautiful. I loved the headpiece."
Topp said that it took a few seconds to realize that the dress wasn't hers. She said she compared the dress in the box to her wedding album, which confirmed the mistake.
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"How does this happen? So, I was thinking I've got somebody's dress. I wonder if somebody else had the same experience with her daughter," Topp said.
Topp said her family does not remember the exact dry cleaner that preserved the dress.
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While Topp's daughter might not want to wear the dress, Topp hoped to at least take something from it, even if it's just a bead.
"I was really hoping Emily would have a chance to have something from my past," Topp said of her daughter.
Topp asked that anyone who took a wedding dress in the mid-1980s to a Highland Park or Deerfield dry cleaner to check their box. She has also posted about the mix-up on Facebook.