RIO VISTA-

A day before Rio Vista resident Shawna Caley was supposed to walk down the aisle, her dress was stuck 3,000 miles away at U.S. Customs in New York, prompting her to get her local congressman involved to save her big day.

She had spent years looking for the perfect dress and finally found one she loved designed by a seamstress in Poland.

“I ordered it four months ahead of time and the seamstress finished it two weeks before,” Caley said.

The dressmaker mailed it off and within days it arrived in New York City’s JFK Airport. That’s where it stayed for nine days. Caley called the Postal Service, who said there was nothing they could do.

The clock was ticking, and Caley says she didn’t have very many options.

“The Saturday before the wedding, my mother told me to contact California representatives and a congressman and see what they could do for me. I thought that was the stupidest thing that I’d ever heard but I’d go for it anyway,” Caley.

She wrote an e-mail to her Congress representative, John Garamendi, and to her surprise, his staff jumped on the request.

“It wasn’t the usual task,” said Brandon Thomson, a district representative with Garamendi’s office.

A staff member from Garamendi’s office went over to the customs building, found the dress, and shipped it overnight.

“We’ve personally experienced when the wheels of the government are running slow, and if we can alleviate those problems, we certainly will,” said Thomson.

Caley says she cried many times when she thought her dress wouldn’t make it on time. When it finally did- she says she cried the hardest.

“I just knew that I was marrying the right person and that it didn’t really matter what I wore. But it was important to me- so I’m glad it got to me,” said Caley.