After Bride's Luggage Is Lost, Scots Save the Day

After two years of planning and $15,000 invested, Amanda and Paul Riesel were finally ready to tie the knot on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, which would mean an eight-hour flight from their home state of Florida. It ended up taking three days. "It was delay, delay, delay," Paul, 37, tells the BBC, which reports the couple arrived on the island—after stops in Philadelphia, London, and Inverness—around 11pm Monday, the night before their wedding day, with their wedding rings and flowers but without their luggage and attire. "It dawned on me that we would have to cancel and there was nothing else I could do," Amanda, 40, tells the Daily Record. Photographer Rosie Woodhouse had other ideas. "I told them I was sure I could make this work, and Skye is an amazing place," she tells the BBC.

She put out a request on social media and by morning, Amanda had eight wedding dresses in her size to choose from, per the Record. "There were no strings attached, it was just a pure and genuine love for complete strangers," Amanda tells the outlet. The school lunch lady happened to choose a dress offered by a fellow lunch lady (see it here). "Wearing it meant even more to me knowing it came from someone who loves and feeds her students just like I do," Amanda tells the BBC. Paul accepted a kilt, and the couple—also gifted normal clothes to wear—were ready. The wedding was "imperfectly perfect," Amanda tells the Record. "It was exactly what we needed without us knowing what we needed and wanted." She adds "there will never be enough words for us to express how grateful we are." (More uplifting news stories.)