She turned a negative into a positive.
An Indiana bride turned what could have been a sorrow-filled day into an opportunity to give back to her community.
A party for the homeless wasn’t what Sarah Cummins envisioned when she thought of her wedding day, but after the nuptials were canceled, she was left with a $30,000 non-refundable venue and plenty of food she’d already paid for.
Instead of letting it all go to waste, Cummins, 25, contacted local shelters to invite the homeless population to enjoy the 170-person reception she had spent two years planning.
“I was obviously really upset and the thought of like just not doing anything for the wedding that I spent so much time planning for sounded really awful, so I wanted to do something with it,” Cummins told InsideEdition.com “I just wanted to see if I could donate the food because I already paid for it.”
Some shelters don’t allow people to donate cooked food so Cummins decided she’d use her wedding day venue as a place for the homeless to eat. She said she wanted to have a party to bring awareness to a group that is so often overlooked.
“I was like, 'Why don’t we just have like a giant party and invite everybody that’s in the shelters that I can get there and really just give them a great experience as well as me still being able to see all the things that I planned and all the things I picked out, put together?'" Cummins said. “So I think it was just kind of a win-win for everybody involved."
Cummins said she ended up playing some music on her iPad at the venue, and some people even danced.
“I didn’t really feel like dancing myself just because I was still really sad," she said. "It was still an emotional time for me, but some of the guests wanted to, so I mean why not?"
Cummins had been engaged for two years before the planned wedding. She did not reveal what had happened between her and her would-be groom.
“It’s a tragedy for me, for my life and for his too, I’m sure" Cummins said. "And it seems like so much wasted time. I think if a wedding is going to end I think the way that it did was probably one of the best outcomes you could hope for.”
She added that the party has helped her in the healing process.
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