Chicago Woman Discovers Incorrect Wedding Dress in Preserved Box from Perruso Cleaners in South Holland 2 Decades Later

CHICAGO (WLS) — Many brides get their wedding dresses preserved so they can have it for decades to come. They’re often told not to open the box, because that could compromise the preservation process.

A woman on the South Side had her wedding dress preserved nearly 20 years ago, but when she finally opened the box, she discovered it was someone else’s dress. She called ABC7 Consumer Investigator Samantha Chatman to try to help locate the missing dress.

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Kandace Keys-Randell was devastated when she opened the box and found someone else’s wedding dress inside.

She said she took the dress to Perruso Cleaners in South Holland nearly 20 years ago to have the dress preserved.

“She said, ‘Do not open the box,'” Keys-Randell said.

Opening the box could cause air to get in, ruining the preservation process, she was told.

“They said, ‘You’ll put it in the box and it’ll last forever,'” Keys-Randell recalled.

So, she left the box in the closet for 20 years. That’s until it was time for her daughter to wear the dress to her first cotillion as a debutant.

My best friend says, ‘You’re looking at all of these dresses. Why don’t you just let her wear your dress?'” Keys-Randell said. “To see her wear the dress I wore 20 years ago would be amazing.”

Hoping to give the dress new life, she and her daughter opened the box to have her try it on.

“Only to open the box and see that it’s not my dress,” Keys-Randell said. “The last time I wore that dress, my dad was alive, and now he’s not. He’s not here. I wanted to see her with her dad wear the same dress that I wore with my dad.”

She said the dress inside the box looks nothing like what she wore.

“I go to call the cleaners and it’s out of business, so now what?” Keys-Randell said.

The ABC7 I-Team tried to reach the previous owners of Perruso Cleaners in South Holland, but didn’t get a call back. The I-Team also contacted Prestige Preservation, which is listed on the box. The company works with cleaners across the country to preserve wedding gowns.

Prestige Preservation told the I-Team it’s likely the dry cleaner mistakenly gave the wrong dress to the client, perhaps due to having two gowns at the same time.

The company said, “We truly wish we could reunite your client with their dress, but without access to the necessary records, we’re unable to perform this type of search.”

“I would hope that anybody who went to that cleaners in August of 2005 will open up their box to see if maybe they have my dress, because I definitely has someone else’s dress,” Keys-Randell said.

Prestige Preservation told the I-Team their packaging has a viewing window that allows customers to see their dress without opening the box, but Keys-Randell said the box was wrapped in plastic, so when she was told not to open it, she did just that.

There was one potential clue in the box. On one of the tags, there’s the name “Taylor.”

ABC7 is hoping this story could help Kandace Keys-Randell find the person who has her dress, so she can give that person their dress.

Sam is on your side. If you have something you want Samantha Chatman to investigate, give her a call at 312-750-7-TIP or click here.