NEW YORK – Over Easter weekend, Ms Joan Daly was at her childhood home in River Edge, New Jersey, with her parents and fiance.

Feeling in a bridal mood, her face still flawless from a wedding make-up trial earlier that afternoon, she decided to unbox her mother’s wedding dress, which for 33 years had resided in her parents’ attic.

Ms Daly, 31, a senior marketing manager at Puig, a fashion and beauty company based in Barcelona, Spain, took a video of her mother, Mrs Jane Daly, momentarily struggling to open the brown shipping box. Once successful, she unboxed the sealed package and explained that, in 1992, she had handmade her dress using various patterns.

Her mother tried on the slightly yellowed gown first, and it still fit. Ms Joan tried it on next, and it fit her too. They added the original veil and tiara, and she walked down the stairs to show her father and fiance, who met her with applause and tears.

“I couldn’t wait to open it, and to have this moment with my daughter,” said Mrs Daly, 62. “To take it out of the cellophane and pore over the details together was very emotional,” she added. “It made me realise how quickly time goes by.”

Her daughter spoke similarly.

“I was wearing something that was alive before I was born. It’s alive again, but differently, now that I had it on,” said Ms Daly, who plans to wear the dress to her rehearsal dinner with a few alterations. “It was special for my dad, who was still in awe that she made it. My fiance got emotional seeing me in it. I knew the video would resonate with other brides.”

It did.

Ms Daly, who got engaged in October 2025 and whose wedding is on Dec 5, 2026, said the unboxing video, which she posted on TikTok, received around 10,000 views and far more engagement than her previous posts.

“Unboxing offers a satisfying, connective content moment,” said Ms Aliza Licht, a social media strategist based in New York, and the author of On Brand:...