GENESEO, Ill. (KWQC/CNN Newsource/WKRC) – When this bride had her wedding dress sealed and boxed after the wedding, she assumed she would be able to keep it forever. Twenty-five years later, she realized she never owned it.

“We just had our 25th wedding anniversary,” said Faith Nelson, who married her husband in 1999. “I thought maybe I should get my dress out and, well, try it on. So when I went to take it out of its vacuum-sealed, tape-wrapped box, I opened the little window where you can see the dress, and I was shocked because it wasn’t my dress.”

Her correct veil was in the package, but the dress was not the size she had purchased and the JC Penny label was in the wrong place.

“I bought my dress at the Colony Shop in Fort Madison, Iowa,” Faith continued. “She recommended that I take it to Collins Quality Cleaners in Fort Madison, I think it was called there because they wrap everything for you.”

Although Faith admitted her first reaction was to joke about the situation, she said she soon found herself in tears.

“It’s not about the dress. It’s about the marriage,” she said. “But to me, the dress just means that I have two girls. I want to be able to pass it on to them in some way, whether they actually wear the dress or use it for other things.”