Whangarei bride-to-be Shelley Reymond is hoping her "something borrowed" won't have to be a wedding dress, after the one she ordered was lost by a courier company.
"My mate suggested I get a leather cat woman suit to go down the aisle in, or imagine walking down the aisle in nothing but a garter," Ms Reymond said.
Despite the jokes, she said the experience has been anything but amusing, with the wedding day in less than a month.
Ms Reymond sent her measurements to a China-based tailor in July, factoring in the 15 days it would take to make the dress and the wait for the courier.
The dress was in fact delivered in this timeframe - on August 15 - but not to Ms Reymond. The courier has no idea what happened to the dress. Ms Reymond did not want to name the company as she felt it would reflect badly on it, when it was likely to be an individual driver's fault.
The company is investigating and the driver who delivered the dress had since done a drive-by of the house to jog his memory, but still could not recall who had signed for the parcel or where he had delivered it.
"The person had signed it to look like my name and the name was signed correctly. Because my name has [an unusual spelling] the person would have had to look at the name on the box," Ms Reymond said.
She said the incident had cost her two days off work for stress and "two weeks' good sleep".
"I held it together for a week and until just the other morning.
"I rang the police and filed a claim, when I did that the waterworks let loose," she said.
The courier company will reimburse Ms Reymond $330 for the cost of the original dress and she has ordered another one in the hope it will arrive in time for her October 3 wedding day.
"I'm a plus-size woman so had to get the dress made. If I really had to I'd go to Auckland to find something, but it's not like we're really wealthy."
Ms Reymond and fiance Anthony Head appealed for the person who had the dress to come forward.
Contact us
Help get Shelley's dress back
Phone the Advocate on 470 2875 or drop it at 88 Robert St, WHG
Know where it is?