Leaf peeping season is the most popular time of year to visit Asheville and the surrounding mountains, making it a very popular time for weddings. But the devastation from Hurricane Helene has taken a toll on many local event venues and vendors and left couples scrambling for backup plans.
Many have acknowledged their mixed feelings about trying to figure out a Plan B while so many are suffering. Dozens of couples have already moved their Asheville weddings to nearby Charlotte, with event planners, small businesses, and venues stepping up to help in any way they can.
“I’ve heard from more than 50 wedding parties in the last week,” says Lindsay Anvik, co-owner of Babe and Butcher, a popular Charlotte cheese and charcuterie shop and catering company that regularly does elaborate wedding displays.
She has donated a number of boards in the last two weeks while also working with couples to connect them to florists, photographers, venues, and other vendors. That includes helping one couple, who’d spent a year planning their Asheville wedding, plan a new wedding (in just three days!) in Charlotte.
“It can be really hard to know what to do when there is a crisis,” says Lindsay. “Leaning into what you know, which for us is food, was the best way we could offer some help. It warms my heart to be a small part of a newly written story. They’ve had so much turmoil, stress, and anxiety, having to pivot their special day. We love being able to give them one less thing to worry about.”
Haydn Heck and Haley Furguson grew up in the Charlotte area but now live in Colorado. They were excited to get married in the mountains of Asheville. But when the storm hit as they were driving to the mountains, they realized they’d need an alternative for their 130 guests. Friends connected them to Lindsay after she posted on Instagram offering to help displaced couples.
Haley says, “People kept offering to help, saying they’d do whatever we needed. It’s been so nice. They just want us to have the wedding; it means so much.” Her new husband recalls, “We put out an Instagram post, and the next day, we had a cake and a florist. It was all so quick because of the outreach from everyone.”
The couple successfully planned a whole new wedding in Charlotte in just three days, and almost every one of their guests made it. “I feel very grateful and loved by strangers,” the bride says. “It just makes you feel very appreciative that in the darkest times, people want to help.”
Among those helpers is Mary Sue Boyle, who owns Beau Monde. The company is home to four of the most popular event spaces in the Charlotte area.
“When Helene started moving in on Thursday and Friday, we had seven couples calling us,” says Mary Sue. “Two couples said they needed something in the next 18 hours. One couple was on top of the mountain about to get married when things got bad. The bride had her wedding dress, shoes, and makeup bag and hiked down. They left their cars, came to Charlotte, and ended up getting married at one of our venues on Sunday. They’d already paid for the original wedding, so we did our best to work with them.”
Since then, Mary Sue says they’ve received daily calls from other couples trying to figure out how to get down the aisle, and they’re working with as many as possible. She says they’re also trying to help hospitality workers from Asheville who are suddenly in need of so much.
“Of course, we want to help the couples,” Mary Sue says, “but the larger impact for us is that there’s a huge hospitality presence in Asheville, and these people need new homes, new workplaces … it’s gut-wrenching to think about, so that’s been our greater mindset, how can we help the hospitality industry. We’ve been letting them know we are here and we have work. That’s the bigger reach for us. Yes, of course, we want to help the couples, but we also want to help the industry.”
Mary Sue says it’s been a challenging time all the way around.
When the couple stranded on the mountain got married, she tells us nearly everyone in the room was crying. “The toasts that were made — there were tears streaming and hugs. Everybody was just so elated to be celebrating and together in that moment.”
Lindsay says this is precisely why she’s been working overtime helping strangers since the storms hit. “One of the reasons I love being a business owner in Charlotte is how much the community supports one another. It’s why we put roots down and had a baby here. There’s a lot of love in the Carolinas, and it makes me proud to be a part of a community that is so generous and compassionate.”
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