Planning a party, especially a wedding, involves coordinating hundreds of tiny details, from the menu to the decorations and from the invitations to the activities. When you’re hosting a large wedding, many venues require a non-refundable deposit, while things like wedding linen rentals need to be arranged months in advance.
So what’s a would-be-bride to do if the wedding suddenly gets cancelled?
Twenty-five year old Jenny Ly of Long Beach, California, faced that exact situation this summer when she and her boyfriend of five years decided to call the whole thing off. But the venue was already booked, the table and chair rentals on their way, the caterers set to serve. The average cost of a reception in 2012 was $13,106, and that’s just the reception, a lot of money to let go to waste in the event of a last-minute cancellation.
Calling off your wedding might feel like a tragedy for most brides, but rather than wallowing in despair, Ly instead decided to turn her own bad luck into a good cause. With some quick thinking, Ly turned her cancelled wedding into a cancer research fundraiser to benefit Relay for Life, using all of the materials and funds that would have otherwise gone to her wedding.
“I could have just cried myself to sleep every night,” she told local news sources, “but I’m trying to turn this bad situation into something else.”
Ly’s fundraiser took place on August 28 at the La Mirada Country Club in Santa Fe Springs, featuring comedy acts, raffles, dancing, and a buffet dinner. The theme of the event, perhaps unsurprisingly, was “Lemons to Lemonade,” and tickets went for $25 pre-sale and $30 at the door.
Ly noted that cancer has touched many people in her circle of family and friends, so the event will not only help her recover from the relationship fallout, but support a cause that’s close to her heart.
Though it might not be a dream wedding, at least the money and wedding linen rentals won’t be for naught. Quality rental companies should have a lot of experience in the business, and setting up for a charity event instead of a wedding ought to be a cinch.
“I’m trying to be positive and a good sport about the whole thing,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to feel bad for me. Everything happens for a reason.”