Woman lends her wedding dress to complete stranger who wanted it for her dream wedding in South Africa

Editor's note: This article was originally published on January 17, 2023. It has since been updated.

For a bride, choosing the right wedding dress means a lot. She wants the dress to be as perfect as possible and will go to great lengths to find the perfect dress for her special day. It was the same for Simone Crouch. She "tried on about 10 wedding dresses" and they were either not the right fit or did not have the cut she was looking for. Crouch said that "none of them made me feel good," as reported by GMA. And one day as she went through Instagram, she found what she was looking for. However, she couldn't get the dress from that source. 

Soon, she saw another woman named Emily Heath who wore the dress on her wedding day three years ago. Crouch messaged her on the platform. She said, "I reached out to Emily and she responded to me and I got like a glimpse of hope." Heath and Crouch felt like they were "meeting up with old friends" and that they have known each other for a long time. Crouch then requested to buy Heath's wedding dress. She initially declined but later agreed to lend it to her as long as Crouch returned it. So, Heath shipped the lace-grown to Crouch's mother in the UK. Her mother then brought the dress to Johannesburg for her daughter's wedding. The dress was from the Rue de Seine brand.

Crouch was surprised to see that the dress "fit like a glove." Crouch said, "It just fits like a dream. So I cried and … I was so excited that it was going to be a reality for me." Once the dress was finalized, Crouch invited Heath to her wedding in December and she happily agreed to be part of her big day. Heath said, "Just the feeling that I got to, like, add that piece to her wedding day … made me feel really good and it made me feel like I had done the right thing, sending my dress down there." Heath shared this amazing story of her wedding dress on Tiktok on December 29, 2022. It garnered more than 4.2 million views. The video is captioned, "Sisterhood of the traveling wedding dress." "Heath said, "I'm really glad that that piece of it resonated with people because it's definitely something that it was, you know, a big leap of faith." Crouch added, "I think the story of this is the kindness of two people and how it's brought along a friendship."

People on Tiktok loved the way Heath went ahead and helped Crouch. @catherinanderson1 wrote, "What an amazing life-changing experience because you stopped and were willing to think.. what if I didn’t say no? Love this." @kayleywhittaker said, "love women supporting women. this is so pure. crazy where life can take you with your own kindness." @22_kelz said, "Wow this is beautiful!!!! From cape town and this brings tears to my eyes…. I know I will have to travel to buy a dress because there's not much in SA." @life_at_the_nest said, "Wonderful story!! You took one step into the unknown and it opened a wide door of love and joy! 🥰." @mtn_mama_78 wrote, "This is my favorite thing I've seen on this app in a long time!"