article: Tess Newall, who had worn her great-great grandmother's dress at her wedding in June, posted a plea on Facebook to help find it, which was shared more than 300,000 times. Luckily her dress was found but what is the appeal for brides of choosing a dress once worn by a relative? Three women explained why they had ditched trawling the bridal shops for the perfect dress in favour of a borrowed gown. Kate Ridgway, from Stockport, made the decision to wear her grandmother's wedding dress in 2014. "I remember it from when I was a child," said the 27-year-old. "I always knew nan had kept it and I tried it on for dressing up, but back then I thought it was a horrid lacy thing." However, when she got engaged to her now-husband Stu, Joan Chatfield, known as "Nanny Chat", asked if she would like to wear it on her big day. "I was heavily pregnant at the time, so I couldn't try it on," said Kate. "But she had always wanted me to wear it." Then, three days after Kate's eldest son was born, her nan passed away. When she travelled down to Sussex for the funeral, her mother handed her the box with the vintage wedding dress from 1951, and everything fell into place. "When I tried it on, it fitted perfectly," she said. "I had it cleaned but I didn't have to do anything else to it. "I had tried on brand new wedding dresses and I had fallen in love with one, but this felt different and so special. "It meant so much to us as a family for me to wear it and, as you can imagine, it made for a very emotional day." London-based digital designer Emily Clark also hopes to start a tradition of her own by using her mother's frock for her wedding this October. The 33-year-old said her mother's dress, which was first worn in 1980, had played a big part in her childhood. "I used to dress in my mum's wedding dress from the age of five or six to - if I'm truthful - until I was 15. "It's one of a kind, it's a dress you wouldn't be able to find now and you wouldn't be able to replicate." The dress was bought by her grandfather, who died last year. She said the dress would act as a way of commemorating him at her wedding to fiance Andrew Stewart. The dress is currently being altered, and when she heard that Mrs Newall's had gone missing at the dry cleaners she says she "did panic". She added: "I just think it's wonderful that they've had it returned." For Rachel Cohen, from Edinburgh, the discovery of her grandmother's dress in the loft spurred on the idea to go retro. "I knew there were dresses up there amongst a lot of random stuff," she said. "I even found one dress which much have been from a previous generation, but it just couldn't have been worn." However, the one Granny Marie Waterston wore in
summary: Social media was captivated by a 150-year-old wedding dress that had been lost after a dry cleaners went bust.