– After Groom Cancels Wedding, Bride Turns Reception Into Party For Homeless Families:
One bride-to-be recently turned her broken-hearted misfortune into a very special day for a group of homeless families in Seattle, Washington.
Dana Olsen, 29, had been planning her special day for nearly a year when her fiancé, Brendan McCarthy, approached her with crushing news: not only was he having second thoughts about the marriage, he was backing out of the wedding ceremony altogether. Though Dana was devastated, she decided her setback could be turned into a blessing for others in need.
Brendan’s frigid feet came after it was too late to obtain a refund for the lavish party her family had almost exclusively funded, estimated to have cost at least $32,000, so the jilted bride had an ingenious and generous idea: she invited 150 women and children from Mary’s Place, a local homeless shelter, to attend what was to be her wedding reception.
“I love that hopefully a lot of people will have a really fun night. I mean, if we can’t have a good night, I hope that they have a great time,” Dana, who understandably didn’t attend the event, told KING5 in Seattle.
As Dana’s mother, Karen, who did attend the gala, told KOMO, “She just wanted to marry the guy she loved, and that’s not happening. And if she can’t have that, she is very happy to share it with someone else.”
“I wish it were going to be my wedding,” Dana said, “but if I’m going to have a really bad weekend, at least I want to help someone else have a really good day. In some small way, I can take this horrible thing and try to turn it into something positive.”