​A New York City mother went digging through a New Jersey rubbish tip to try to find her daughter's Oscar de la Renta wedding dress after it was accidentally thrown away, New York Post reports. 

The bride's mother, Lucinda Ballard, told New York Post that they were exhausted after the wedding last weekend and so they gave the dress to their apartment building staff so it could be taken up with their luggage, but someone mistook the word 'dress' for 'trash' and threw it away (how that mix-up happened, no one can know). 

Ballard says she was 'horrified,' but acknowledged that the mistake was 'totally understandable' and felt guilty for letting it happen.  

She told the post that the dress was 'a symbol of a beautiful love story. I can't get let it go to garbage heaven.'

Fortunately, Ballard's building superintendent was able to contact the Sanitation Department who located the exact New Jersey dump location and told Ballard she could try and find it before everything was 'sent off to the Midwest.' 

Ballard, along with a handyman who works in her building and a sanitation supervisor, all jumped into the rubbish tip and ripped through bags until they eventually found it. Fortunately, Ballard said the dress was fine and didn't 'smell of the 10 tons of garbage dumped on it.'

Ballard's daughter, also Lucinda Ballard, posted a photo of the rubbish tip dive on Instagram, calling her mother 'my hero.'

Words: Lane Moore

From: Cosmopolitan.com

From: Cosmopolitan US