- A woman who discovered strangers' wedding-day photos in an old set of drawers has located the
bride . - Stephanie Yau said her partner James Black had bought her the secondhand drawers to upcycle them.
A woman who found old
Stephanie Yau, 30, told Insider that her partner, James Black, 37, bought the mid-century furniture item on Facebook Marketplace from a seller in their home city of Manchester, England, as part of their upcycling hobby.
On January 2, Black said they found two sheets of photo negatives stuck in the back and used a mobile app called Filmory to convert the negatives into digital photos. Yau then uploaded these images to social media to search for their rightful owner.
In a post shared to Facebook the same day, Yau wrote: "Haven't posted in a while but wanted to use the power of social media for some good!" Her post noted that she had found the negatives behind one of the drawers in the secondhand furniture and that the seller told them he bought it from in a clearance store in Gloucestershire, England.
"It's probably a long shot but I thought it would be amazing to see if anyone online recognizes these people and could perhaps send these onto them?" her post continued, adding that it would be a "lovely blast from the past" for the couple who may have never seen them.
Since posting the request online and asking users to share it "far and wide," Yau told Insider people began to get in touch with leads to help return the images to the couple.
"Some people said they were going for walks in Gloucestershire and would check out the church near them because they think it might be that one," she said.
Yau told Insider that after the BBC shared the photographs in a news story on January 9, she received a message online from the son-in-law of the couple the next day confirming their identity, which she said they currently do not wish to disclose publicly.
He told her the photos were taken at their 1987 wedding ceremony in Sheldon, an area in Birmingham, England, Yau said.
Yau told Insider she exchanged WhatsApp messages with the former bride that evening, who said she had received a message from a friend who recognized her wedding pictures on the news.
The woman also told Yau it was a shock seeing photos of her younger self on the news, but she and her husband are still "happily married" all these years later, according to Yau. "One of my concerns was that they might have split up and you just don't know who it's going to upset," said Yau of her initial hesitance to find the bride.
The couple told her they now have adult children, Yau added. "She used parts of her wedding dress to make christening gowns for her daughters," she said.
They also told her they are not from Gloucestershire, nor did they ever personally own the set of drawers in question, so they now "have their own mystery to solve," according to Yau.
Yau said that while she is yet to speak to the couple on the phone, she has their address, and they can expect to receive the negatives in the mail along with a handwritten letter from her.
She added that the best part about this experience was seeing "the kindness of so many strangers wanting to help." She said that if it had not been for the power of social media, she would never have been able to reach the bride and put a smile on her face.