Wedding dress mix-up discovered 30 years after wedding

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. -- When Karen Topp's daughter got engaged on July 4, Topp wanted to pass along the dress she wore at her own wedding in 1984.

But when Topp pulled out the box she thought contained the dress, the gown inside was not hers.

"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.

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.