The Happy Pod: An island of strangers saved our wedding

Holly Gibbs (0:00)

This is the HappyPod from the BBC World Service. I'm Holly Gibbs, and in this edition...

Kimberly Sink (0:11)

It was a joke at first. I was like, why don't we just invite the entire island? And then everybody actually really liked the idea.

Jayden Sink (0:18)

We went to bed Thursday night, and we didn't have a venue. We didn't have anything planned. Friday morning, we wake up, and there's an entire wedding planned for us.

Holly Gibbs (0:26)

Find out how one island and hundreds of strangers saved their wedding day. Also on this podcast, the Labrador that's been crowned Animal of the Year.

Texa Sim (0:36)

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Holly Gibbs (0:45)

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Arash Mosteghimi (0:50)

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Holly Gibbs (1:01)

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When a storm washed out the only road connecting North Carolina's Outer Banks, one couple thought their dream wedding on Hatteras Island had been ruined. Kimberly and Jayden Sink were left without suppliers, guests and even a wedding cake. That was until they appealed to the local community for help. To their amazement, the island rallied together to put on their special day. And in the end, the couple estimated that between 500 and 800 strangers attended their wedding. The Happy Pod's Riley Farrell has been speaking to Kimberly and Jayden about how it all started.

Kimberly Sink (1:44)

Back when we first heard that we needed to get to the island a little bit early, just because the road was going to possibly be closed, we kind of expected it just to be closed for a day, which would have been Thursday. So by the time Friday rolled around, we thought that all of our family and stuff would be able to make it over. But when we got there and really saw the conditions, I believe there was like winds that were 45 miles per hour. The waves, they were like absolutely just beating the sand dunes at the back of our Airbnb where we were staying and planned to have our wedding originally. It honestly looked like the waves at any minute were going to come over the dunes and flood the backyard. It was very upsetting to kind of see everything piece by piece fall apart. But at the same time, I knew that Jayden did everything that he could in order to put my dream wedding together. He worked hard all year. So you tried to stay positive about everything.

Even if we didn't get to celebrate our wedding, we could have at least made a vacation out of it. But he was definitely more upset than I was.

Jayden Sink (2:44)

Yeah. Imagine if you put aside $30,000. It felt really defeating. All my work that could have went to progressing us further in life, went to this thing that isn't even going to come to fruition. The wedding we wanted was supposed to be intimate. We wanted to be a little bit of a celebration. We were okay with 45 people, but we felt like 45 people was a lot. So the 500 to 800 people that showed up, that was a lot. Oh my God.

I wouldn't have had it any other way, honestly, at this point.

Riley Farrell (3:19)

Kim, how did the idea go of, let's invite the whole island that maybe started as an idea or a joke? When did that become a plan? Take me to that moment.

Kimberly Sink (3:33)

Thursday night, we were all sitting outside on the porch, just kind of talking about how everything was kind of a bummer and how we were kind of discouraged and everything. But then I made, it was a joke at first. I was like, why don't we just invite the entire island and see how it goes?

And then everybody actually really liked the idea. So Jayden went ahead and told his friend Brandon and Brady, and then Brandon's girlfriend Lexi too. She started posting all over the internet, trying to find a different venue for us.

Riley Farrell (4:00)

And what was your reaction on the internet? You know, hundreds of strangers started responding to y'all online. Tell me what you thought about that.

Kimberly Sink (4:10)

I was absolutely astonished. I did not expect the post to get as much traction as it did. And I didn't expect so many people wanting to, you know, go to a stranger's wedding either, but I guess everybody was getting a little stir crazy for being stuck in the house and on the island as well.