Joseph Grant and Paula Horatio’s wedding at Carmen’s Banquet Centre in Hamilton went from treasured memory to financial disaster when their cash envelope gifts were thrown out with the garbage.

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending — despite a search through some very stinky trash.

Most of the dumpster’s waste “was probably sitting around a good two weeks. It wasn’t pretty,” said GFL Environmental’s commercial operations manager Enzo Aprile, who helped with the rescue mission.

“I give it to these guys. Everybody there. Especially those guys from Carmen’s Banquet Hall,” he said. “The foul smell (from the garbage) — they were covered in it.”

Grant, Carmen’s staff, and waste disposal workers ended up knee-deep in nine tonnes of garbage looking for the missing money from the Saturday reception — and against all odds, found it.

It all started when the Mississauga newlyweds and their entourage packed up after the wedding and inadvertently left behind a garbage bag that contained envelopes and cards with cash and cheques from their 145 guests.

The couple didn’t notice the bag was missing until late the next day when they were about to open their gifts.

They immediately called Carmen’s, but it was Sunday and they had to leave a message. They then drove back to Hamilton, arriving at Carmen’s at about 10 or 11 p.m., and talked to a staff person, who in turn called operations director Matthew Abraham at home.

Abraham put a hold on Carmen’s dumpster so no one could touch it, Grant says.

Grant was asked to return Monday morning. He and Abraham discussed the possible scenarios of what happened, and then Abraham called GFL Environmental for help. At their suggestion, he arranged for the disposal company to do its pickup earlier than usual on Tuesday morning.

It wasn’t a simple matter of jumping into the dumpster and grabbing the bags because the garbage is continually compressed as it goes in.

Carmen’s provided hard hats, work boots, fluorescent vests, rakes and shovels to its staff and Grant to sort through the garbage.

Aprile arranged to take the dumpster to the Quantum Murray’s Thompson Disposal transfer station on Strathearne Ave. so the garbage could be “safely laid out and secured” for sifting.

Abraham said the search was “a bit of a long shot.”

“The way things were shaping up, we didn’t want it to be a lasting memory of their wedding,” he said. “We wanted to make sure we did everything possible to assist.”

They searched the garbage for about 90 minutes to two hours, with no luck.

“My hope was fading,” says Grant.

However, Bassam Balika — the Carmen’s employee who served and looked after the bride and groom Saturday — found the bag of envelopes after Aprile suggested they look again at bags that had already been searched.

“When he found it, I was ecstatic and at a loss for words,” says Grant.

Aprile heard yelling and screaming behind him. “It was pretty lucky … It looked like there was a tear in the groom’s eye,” he said.

The envelopes were stuck together and all wet “from the organic juice from being compressed.”

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The newlyweds recovered 95 to 98 per cent of the cash and cheques — a few were damaged beyond repair.

“Thank God for the new (plastic coated dollar) bills,” says Grant. “We washed them with soap and water and they survived no problem.”

They used hair dryers to dry out the cheques and then took everything to the bank. They were all still usable, “which was a relief to all of us.”