Jilted Bride Turns Her Reception Into An Extravagant Meal For The Homeless

What do you do when your groom-to-be calls off the wedding five days before it’s supposed to happen? If you’re this awesome family from Sacramento, California — you throw an extravagant feast for the homeless.

Kari Duane received an unbelievable call from her bride-to-be daughter five days before her wedding. Her fiancé got cold feet and called it off. Duane had already shelled out several deposits for the $35,000 wedding — and more bills were coming due. Instead of mobilizing to figure out a way to minimize their costs or get some of their money back, the family decided on another route. Five days after the phone call – they found themselves in banquet hall at Sacramento’s Citizen Hotel filled with the city’s homeless.

The food came from the four-star restaurant that sits atop the hotel: cauliflower, gnocchi, salmon, and tri-tip were some of the offerings. “This is not coming out of our kitchen. We love our chef Leo, but he wouldn’t be preparing nothing like this,” homeless mother Tamara Dotson told local news station KCRA when asked about the dinner.

“I think it’s really generous. To lose out on something so important to yourself and then give it to someone else is really giving,” said another woman who was able to enjoy the meal thanks to the change of plans.

The bride was not in attendance — and who could blame her? She’d be totally justified sitting in a vat of wine after a week like that. She and her mother will be going on her non-refundable honeymoon to Belize together — another justifiable reason for an additional vat of wine.

When you give a banquet hall five days notice that your 120 person wedding reception will not be happening, there is no way to recoup that money. Luckily, the family was able to pull together and think of others rather than sulking and hiring a hitman. I’m KIDDING. The family managed to keep some perspective and turn an epic heartbreak into a party — and that is pretty great.