A San Antonio teacher’s Halloween wedding is in limbo after her gown was stolen from her doorstep. She could order another, but it may not arrive before the big day.
SAN ANTONIO — What was supposed to be a dream Halloween wedding for one San Antonio bride has turned into a nightmare.
Teacher Kathleen Sanchez says her wedding dress — the one she planned to wear as she says “I do” this Halloween — was stolen right off her doorstep.
The first-floor Castle Hills-area apartment she shares with her fiancé, Andres Martinez, is usually decorated head to toe for spooky season year-round. It’s part of what brought them together.
“He was like, ‘What about Halloween?’ I’m like, you know what, we both like Halloween and watching scary, spooky, coo-cooey things,” said Sanchez.
Sanchez fell in love with Halloween as a teenager growing up in Fort Worth. She met Andres on New Year’s Eve last year, and it didn’t take long for the couple to plan a wedding that reflected their shared love of the season.
Their Halloween ceremony was set to take place here in San Antonio, with a big reception planned next Halloween in her hometown of Fort Worth. The judge was lined up. Family was traveling from out of state. Everything was set — until her dress disappeared.
“We were gonna do a big thing at Pico de Gallo and I already bought the cake, already got all the nice things for it,” Sanchez said. “Now it’s at the point where I’m like, do we just have to wait until next year?”
A dress with meaning
The $80 black gown took about two weeks to arrive after she ordered it through Amazon from a third-party seller. Sanchez, who’s eight months pregnant, says the dress was special because it made her feel beautiful and allowed her to celebrate her baby girl — Carmen Rosa, due next month.
“A lot of wedding dresses for women who are pregnant — there’s not that many that look flattering,” Sanchez said. “I told Andres, ‘I feel like I’d look like a mop!’ But this one accentuated the stomach — and of course it was black.”
“I want Carmen to be part of our wedding,” she added. “I want to be like, no, I’m not embarrassed of her. I want her to be shown.”
Carmen’s name is also deeply symbolic — Carmen comes from the opera where Sanchez once performed as “Manuelita” in 2016, and Rosa honors Andres’s mother, who passed away last year.
The dress was delivered Oct. 11 — while Sanchez was in Fort Worth for her baby shower. She arranged for friends to pick up her packages, but when they arrived, the box was gone.
“My friend called and said, ‘Girl, your dress isn’t there,’” Sanchez said. “I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s not there.’”
Sanchez says her Ring doorbell camera had died, and no neighbors nearby had cameras.
“I have my ringer on, I have everything on that says ‘Your package is one stop away,’” she said. “But I didn’t get any notification, no picture, no anything until I checked Sunday.”
She reached out to the third-party seller, who later sent a photo as proof of delivery — but by then, the dress had vanished.
“It’s just the timing. It’s just not feeling like it’s happening,” Sanchez said. “Unfortunately, the dress is gone.”
Sanchez says she didn’t file a police report at first, hoping the package was simply misplaced. But after seeing the photo, she realized someone likely took it.
Since then, Sanchez has searched Facebook Marketplace and other resale sites, hoping to spot her stolen gown.
“I’ve been checking everywhere to see if maybe somebody did sell it or is trying to sell it,” she said. “Even if I have to buy it again, I will.”
A neighbor who saw her post on Nextdoor even kindly offered their old wedding dress — but Sanchez says this was about more than replacing a gown.
“It’s just a dress, but at the same time, I’m just like, ‘But this is my wedding though!’” she said. “It would be a memory so I could say, ‘Look, Carmen! This is what your mommy wore!’”
If she orders the same gown again, the shipping window could cut it close to Halloween — and so far, she hasn’t found the same style in stores or online.
“We’re so close!” she said, tearing up. “That dress was something I really wanted to have — to feel beautiful, feel great and happy with my fiancé, who will be my husband.”
Amazon responds
Amazon tells KENS 5 that if an item is sold and shipped by a third-party vendor, it may not be part of Amazon’s direct inventory, meaning replacement and refund timelines depend on that vendor’s policies and location.
For customers in similar situations, Amazon encourages reaching out to their customer service directly to help resolve the issue. They shared these tips to help protect your packages as the holiday season inches closer.
Sanchez says she’s escalated the issue with Amazon and is hoping to hear back within the next week.
Until then, she’s holding out hope that someone, somewhere, realizes what they took.
“I can pray for you that you did the honorable thing and I won’t report you,” Sanchez said, in case the person returns her dress. “That’s the whole point — I didn’t want to have to do that. Police have way more important matters than a dress.”