Imagine it: You’re about to depart for an international flight to attend a wedding, and the day before your flight your bridesmaid’s dress is left on the train, rolling down the rails towards some unknown destination. It’s enough to strike fear in any wedding party’s heart.
This is exactly what happened to Jasmin. Her boss is a regular rider on the Union Pacific West Line and accidentally forgot the dress on the train after hemming it for Jasmin. After contacting Metra’s social media team and a lot of communication with Union Pacific, Jasmin was able to be reunited with her dress just in time for her trip and shared her experience on Twitter.
Here’s her story:
So, I have to tell you a story about my experience with Metra today. And it's a good one! Get your popcorn... ready?
Tomorrow, I'm leaving to the Netherlands to be bridesmaid in my friend's forest wedding. Exciting, right? I have everything I need packed except for my bridesmaid’s dress because it needed to be hemmed. Which usually never happens for a woman my height, but I digress.
So, my boss, who is an expert seamstress, offered to hem my dress. I accepted, she's awesome, it was a no-brainer so I gave her my dress last week. I reminded her that I needed my dress by today for my destination wedding adventure. And she promised it would be done by today and she fulfilled her promise, but then today took a turn for the worse.
You see, my boss takes the Metra to work each morning. So, she very thoughtfully pressed my dress for me and set it down on the top shelf of her train car in its garment bag so it wouldn't wrinkle. My thoughts wander usually and as fate would have it, so did hers. She was thinking of her morning meeting as she walked off the train car… without my dress.
She walked for a few more steps down the platform before the realized her mistake and ran back to the second car from the end. When she arrived onto the car that was holding my dress hostage, she heard a dreadful voice: "The doors are closing." She had to make a choice: either stay on the train that was heading to god-knows-where (she was already at the last stop of the route) or her get off.
She got off...
The doors closed behind her and off went my dress... down the tracks. Freshly pressed, to god-knows-where...
After crying, some thorough panicking and a lot of questions, she found out that my dress would likely end up in the "yard" if found. She stopped at every information booth and spoke to every person possible at 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning. She returned to our office sans dress.
After making some phone calls and sitting through her meeting, she came over to my desk to tell [me] what had occurred and apologized profusely. Teary-eyed, she told me she would pay whatever it cost to get me another dress before my flight tomorrow.
I immediately got to work on ordering a second bridesmaid dress from ASOS and getting an international shipping address from the bride without causing a meltdown.
Ok, so after a lot of probing - I got the shipping address and ordered the dress with overnight shipping, praying that the shipment would find its way to the woods (a serious shipping concern). Broke the news to the bride who only mildly freaked out (thank god for her) and then I got to work on messaging Metra on twitter about my ordeal and literally begging for assistance looking my perfectly hemmed dress. And...
Holy $&@!, I got a response! A fast one and I couldn't believe my luck. That's as good as finding the dress, right? Maybe not but it gave me hope! And then something wonderful happened, and my dress was indeed still in the second to last car on the upstairs shelf!
Now, I'm celebrating of course! I spoke to Adrian G. and he assured me I could pick up the dress today. The little vein on the side of my head finally stopped throbbing! So, after some coordination, my boss and I (yes, she's still alive and well) went to get the dress.
Angelo, a Metra employee who had spoken with my boss earlier that morning, was holding my dress until we arrived. He was so helpful, and happy that diary of the traveling bridesmaid dress had come to an end! He even took this picture for us after my "reunion" Metra moment!
Thank you to every Metra employee involved. I am so incredibly appreciative for your help, I honestly cannot thank you enough!
Next stop: Amsterdam! What a day #allaboard #MetraBridesmaidDress #Chicago
We’re thrilled you got your dress back safe and sound, Jasmin! Have a great trip!