Something old, something new: wedding gown lost in Hurriance Sandy found at reopened cleaners

Nicole Pagliaro said she thought the dress she wore at her wedding reception was lost forever when Hurricane Sandy destroyed the Staten Island dry cleaner she took it to after her July 2012 nuptials. But after the shop’s owner opened a new store, Pagliaro and her husband drove by and saw the frock in the window.
A lost gown a Staten Island woman danced in on her wedding night has resurfaced nearly two years after she feared Hurricane Sandy washed it away forever.
Nicole Pagliaro’s reunion with the floor-length white chiffon gown came as she and her husband, Michael, celebrated their second wedding anniversary Tuesday.
“I never thought I’d see the dress again,” Pagliaro told the Daily News Tuesday night, adding that she wants to someday see her daughter, Mia Grace, now 18 months, wear it to her wedding.
The 30-year-old nurse thought the dress was lost forever when Hurricane Sandy destroyed the Sand Lane dry cleaner she took it to after her July 29, 2012 nuptials.
She said she bought the dress to wear to her wedding reception, while choosing an aunt’s 41-year-old gown to say her “I dos” in.
“I actually signed my marriage certificate in that dress,” Pagliaro told The News.
She returned the vintage dress to her aunt, Amy Maniscalco, and took the reception gown to the South Beach Cleaners, paying $160 to have it cleaned and put in a secure box.
Hurricane Sandy’s surge that October flooded the dry cleaner with 5 feet of water, putting owner Hector Pacheco out of business.
Pacheco, 30, said he found the dress floating on the water at the back of his decimated shop, but with all his computer records destroyed he couldn’t track down the owner.
When Pacheco finally reopened the cleaners in February in a new location on McClean Ave. in Arrochar, Staten Island, he displayed the dress in the window hoping its rightful owner would claim it.
“I hoped that one day she would drive by,” said Pacheco, who turned down offers from people wanting to buy the dress.
Pagliaro said that last week her husband was driving her to the subway station at 6:30 a.m. when they went past Pacheco’s new shop for the first time.
“We were caught at a light and I nonchalantly looked to my right. I said, ‘Honey, I think that’s my dress in the window.’ He said, ‘No way that’s your dress,’” Pagliaro said.
On Monday, Pagliaro went to the store to reclaim her dress.
“Like every woman does, they have to prove their husbands wrong,” she said. “I walked into the store and said, ‘I think that’s my dress.’”
Pacheco said he instantly remembered Pagliaro’s face and big hug.

Her husband, Michael, added that finding the dress was not only a great anniversary present, it “is another symbol of our relationship surviving everything.”