Think back to your own wedding day. Chances are something went sideways. A late florist, a missing cousin, rain on the one day you asked for sun.
Now picture a bigger problem. A storm closes the only road to your wedding, and nearly every guest is stuck on the far side.
That is where Jayden Sink and Kimberly Laprad of Roanoke, Virginia, found themselves in late September. What happened next took about a day and one island full of strangers.
The couple had planned a small wedding at a vacation rental in Waves, on Hatteras Island in North Carolina, with about 45 guests. Laprad told Outer Banks Insider, a local news outlet, that she grew up vacationing on the Outer Banks with her family. Getting married there had long been her dream.
They reached the island around 4 a.m. on a Thursday. Soon after, damage from a coastal storm closed North Carolina Highway 12, the island’s only road access.
Most of their guests were on the other side of the closure. So was the officiant. So was the cake.
An Invitation to Everyone
Sink recalled that Laprad tried to lift their spirits with a joke. Why not invite the whole island?
It did not stay a joke for long. On Friday, their friend Alexia Wills posted an open invitation online to anyone who could get there, local or visitor.
“You don’t have to know us. You don’t have to bring a gift,” she wrote, according to the Island Free Press, the Hatteras Island news site that first covered the story.
Stacey Saunders saw what had happened to the couple’s plans. She manages Frisco Woods Campground, about half an hour from Waves. She offered the campground’s pavilion, opened cabins to the wedding party, and volunteered to perform the ceremony herself.
She did it without asking her boss. Saunders said it was the first time she had ever made plans at work without checking with the owner. The owner, Ward “Buster” Barnett, said he liked what he heard when she told him.
Then the island went to work. A local DJ offered to play. A photographer volunteered. Saunders asked people to bring a dish to share.
As Sink later described it, the couple went to sleep Thursday night with nowhere to hold a wedding. They woke up Friday to find one planned for Saturday.
More Than 400 Strangers
On Saturday, September 26, an estimated 400-plus people packed the campground. Saunders said she learned that 458 people signed the guest book.
She had known the bride and groom for about 24 hours. She led them through their vows, and they poured two colors of sand into a single container. Then she told them their new life would be a blend of children, family, friends, “and in your case, strangers.” The crowd laughed.
The couple had asked for no gifts. Saunders said the gift table overflowed anyway. There were two cakes, and cupcakes besides.
The food eventually ran low. The dancing went on.
The newlyweds spent about three hours talking, shaking hands, and taking pictures with their new guests. Sink has since said he thinks the wedding they had was better than the one they planned.
Laprad thanked the island in a public post. Nobody had to come, she wrote, or donate, or volunteer for two people they had never met. They did.
What the Island Got Back
The helpers came away with something as well. Barnett said that business was slow with the road closed, and that he was glad the campground could pitch in.
“Maybe we needed something, too,” he said.
The road is open again, Barnett said. Before the wedding, Saunders told the Island Free Press she could not imagine not helping. It could have been any of them, she said.
Something goes sideways at every wedding. On Hatteras Island, more than 400 people answered with a dish to share and a free Saturday. That kind of help is within reach for most of us.
