Nicki Carignan talks in front of the wreckage of future mother-in-law Cathie Wallace's Harrison home Saturday. Carignan had left her wedding dress in the home, which was demolished in the March 2 tornadoes, but she found it undamaged when the storm had passed.Nicki Carignan put on the shoes that she'll wear when she walks down the aisle. She tried on her wedding dress, recently home from the cleaners. Then, looking into the mirror, Carignan began to sob with relief.
Her family's Ooltewah house was destroyed by a March 2 tornado. They lost nearly everything they owned, but the gown survived. By some miracle, when the family came back to sort through the rubble, Carignan found the dress, hanging in the tree that crashed through the roof.
"I pictured it being ripped to pieces," she said.
"Nothing else that was in that closet has been found. There's not even a closet anymore," said Cathie Wallace, Carignan's soon-to-be mother-in-law, who owned the house.
She remembers Carignan yelling to the rest of the family when she spied the dress.
Her fiance, Brian Wallace, offered to retrieve it, but Carignan wouldn't let him. The whole reason for storing the dress with the Wallaces was to prevent Brian from seeing it before their big day on July 28.
She took off before her fiance could try to be chivalrous, racing through the ruined house and up the creaking stairs. Under the opened roof, she crawled under the tree to reach the dress.
"I shouldn't have gone up there, but I had to know if the dress was there," she said.
The garment bag had a wide gash, but the dress inside was safe. A little stained, but safe.
As he waited on the ground to hear from Carignan, Brian Wallace shared his fiancee's concern, saying, "For a moment, I was more worried about that dress than the whole house."
Carignan rescued the dress without Brian Wallace seeing. To maintain secrecy, she's also asked not to be photographed in a full view of the gown until Brian sees it on their wedding day.
"Obviously, the dress is good luck," Cathie Wallace said, "Hopefully, it will bring luck to their marriage."
Carignan explained that finding the dress was so important because it's from a line that recently was discontinued; it is literally irreplaceable.
She also said that it perfectly captures her personality -- flirty, feminine, sparkly.
"When you try on the one, you know it," she said, "Any time I put it on, I never wanted to take it off."