From the huppa to the dump

Many couples dream of the ultimate, unforgettable honeymoon, but it is highly unlikely than any envision unforgettably spending their first day of wedded bliss at the city dump in blistering heat searching for their wedding gifts, cards and checks.

But last week one Israeli couple did exactly that.

The bride and groom, in their 30s, were married last week in front of some 470 family and friends in what they described to the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth on Sunday as “an incredible atmosphere with many magical moments.”

After the ceremony, the happy newlyweds, whose names and identifying details were not mentioned in the report, collected their gifts and went to the hotel where they spent their first night as husband and wife. Upon arriving at the hotel, they opened the envelopes and counted the money and checks they had received. They did not specify the total, but the bride was quoted by Yedioth as saying, “People had been so generous to us, and everything was wonderful.”

It all went downhill from there. “I don’t know why, but we separated the gifts, putting some of the cash and checks into one plastic bag, and the rest in a second bag along with the wedding cards,” related the bride.

The following morning, the newlyweds woke, went out for breakfast, then returned to their hotel to pack and check out. Several hours later, when they were unpacking their things at home, they realized that the bag with some of the money and the cards was missing; they assumed they’d left it in their hotel room.

They immediately called the hotel, whose staff ran to the room only to discover that the housekeeping crew had already cleaned it, and the bag was no longer there. A visit to the hotel’s dumpsters revealed that the situation was even more dire: the municipal sanitation crew had emptied out the bins and taken the contents to the city dump.

The couple rushed to the dump site and explained their situation to the manager, who enlisted a team of workers to help search for the missing bag. He told Yedioth that while people often show up with tales of lost valuables, including wallets and diamonds, this was different. “When a bride and groom have lost gifts just given to them for their wedding, that really hurts. Essentially, we realized that all of the blessings of the wedding itself were in that bag.”

So the couple spent the rest of the day in the early summer heat with the sanitation staff rummaging through piles of garbage hoping to find the lost bag of checks, cash and cards — in vain. As of Sunday, indeed, the bag had still not been found. The dump manager said his crew will “continue searching over the next few days. I hope that we will be able to surprise them.”