Devastated Bride’s Mother Invites 120 Homeless People To Banquet Feast At Four-Star Hotel After Groom Called Off Wedding At Last Minute
Whether it’s an elaborate wedding or a simple one, wedding preparations require the utmost attention. So it’s no wonder that it can easily take months for the dream wedding to come to fruition.
And is it fair to back out because you’ve changed your mind? Not at all. Not to mention all the thousands of dollars spent, because the impact on one’s feelings is painful enough.
When a groom got cold feet and called off his wedding, the bride’s family decided to make the best of a heartbreaking situation.
A Sacramento, California, couple was preparing for the wedding of a lifetime in October 2015. Unfortunately, the groom called off the wedding at the very last minute. The bride’s mother, Kari Duane, was saddened by what had happened to her daughter, Quinn Duane. But she didn’t want all the food they had prepared for the 120 invited guests to go to waste.
“I feel a lot of heartache and sorrow for her, but I’m going to take something good out of this,” Kari told KCRA.
The Duane family of El Dorado Hills, California, decided not to cancel the venue and catering. Instead, they generously invited the city’s homeless to enjoy the extravagant feast.
The mother of the bride explained that it made perfect sense to give back to others who deserved it. After all, there is so much more to be grateful for in life.
Although her heartbroken daughter has chosen to stay at home, she watches her new guests arrive and enjoy the sumptuous gourmet feast.
“When I found out on Monday that the wedding would not be taking place, it just seemed like, of course, this would be something that we would do to give back,” she said.
Kari recalled the first person to arrive was a woman who lived in a shelter with people who are either too old to work or are financially challenged and cannot afford to pay rent. The woman arrived 30 minutes early. At that point, Kari knew it didn’t matter even if no one else came. “I was thinking at that moment, if she’s the only person that comes tonight, this was worth it,” Kari said.
Much to her surprise, other people came to the event.
One of them was Rashad Abdullah, who came with his wife Erika Craycraft and their five children, calling the meal a “blessing.” Unlike normal days when they couldn’t even eat three meals a day, Abdullah and his family felt like kings that day. Simply put, the entire hall was overflowing with food. For Abdullah, it was a blessing to experience such a feast, not only for him, but for his entire family.
‘When you’re going through a hard time and a struggle, for you to get out to do something different with your family, it was really a blessing,’ he told KCRA.
His wife Erika also thanked the Duane family for their kindness.
‘To lose out on something so important to yourself and then give it to someone else is really giving, really kind,’ she said.
Another guest, Erika Craycraft, praised the generosity of Quinn and her family, who still had the heart to give back to other people despite them being the ones who lost things.
“To lose out on something so important to yourself and then give it to someone else is really giving, really kind,” Craycraft said.
