Something (unintentionally) borrowed. Did you get married in Greenville late 1985 or early 1986? Did you have your dress cleaned or preserved at Mayhew Laboratories, Inc. on Bradshaw Street? If yes, keep scrolling. If no... still keep scrolling, because this is a good story.
Maggie Payne is getting married in March 2026, and like many brides do, she wants to pay homage to her mom by incorporating her dress into her big day. Mayhew Laboratories, a now-closed dry cleaner, had preserved it following her parents’ wedding in December 1985. It was then packed away for four decades, but when they recently pulled it out for Maggie to try on, it was someone else’s dress — not the one worn by Maggie’s mom, Connie, 40 years ago.
“I can see how the gowns may have gotten mixed up,” one TikTok user commented on Maggie’s video, which currently has 67,000 views. “They look so similar at first glance.”
We thought the same thing, but notice how the lace on the sleeves is different, along with the shape of the detail along the neckline.
There’s no way to follow up with Mayhew Laboratories because the Bradshaw Street business closed. It was founded in 1940 and specialized exclusively in cleaning wedding gowns. According to the founder’s obituary published in 1991, one of the dresses worn by movie star + Greenville High alumna Joanne Woodward in “Three Faces of Eve” (which earned her a Best Actress Oscar) was cleaned there.
What better way to reach 80,000+ Greenvillians to track down the dress than to slap this story at the very top of the GVLtoday newsletter, right? Let’s help Maggie and Connie get this dress back to its owner — and hopefully find theirs in the process.
