Portsmouth bride reunited with dress after car boot sale mix up

A bride-to-be has been reunited with her wedding dress after it accidentally ended up in a car boot sale.

Liv Stirling's nan, Bobbie Clutterbuck, bought the dress as a wedding gift, but when she passed away in February the dress was lost in a clear out.

Miss Stirling, from Portsmouth, then launched a social media campaign to track it down.

Within a day she was reunited with the dress, which had been bought at a car boot sale in Ford, West Sussex.

She had been keeping the wedding gown safe at her nan's flat until the big day next year.

But when her nan passed away, her cousin organised a clear out and said the dress was "scooped up" with everything else.

"I had an absolute breakdown, honestly if you'd seen me at the time with my bridesmaids I looked like a panda, tears streaming, I didn't know what to do.

"It was a nightmare and it was their idea to put it on Facebook," Miss Stirling explained.

She had taken pictures of herself in the dress, which her bridesmaids used to put out a plea on social media, as well as putting calls in to local tips in case it had been disposed of.

Miss Stirling continued: "I started by saying 'this is going to be a really strange request, but have you come across a wedding dress?'

"They [tip staff] were really, really lovely and apologetic and said it wasn't the weirdest request they'd had."

The Facebook post was shared by more than 14,000 people after Miss Stirling published it on Saturday afternoon.

By Sunday morning, she had received a message from a couple who believed they had her dress and planned to meet her at a car boot sale in Arundel.

"I couldn't believe it, just over the moon that somebody so lovely had the dress. They said they believed in fate and bringing it back to its rightful owner and wouldn't take any compensation," Miss Stirling said.

She added: "I just can't thank everybody enough for being so kind, it's been a lovely thing to see on social media. Nan would be thrilled."

Miss Stirling is now busy planning her big day in March next year and said her husband-to-be had been "incredible" by staying off social media so he didn't see the dress.

Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].