When bride-to-be Jenna Yorkovich's fairytale wedding came to a screeching halt weeks before the big day, she turned her planned walk-down-the-aisle into a happy ending anyway.
A canceled wedding became a night out celebrating Ronald McDonald House families and volunteers at Nicollet Island Pavilion in Minneapolis.
"I decided that even though I had just made one of the hardest decisions in my life, that there was no reason to sit around and be sad forever, but rather to turn one love story into another," Yorkovich, 23, told the Star Tribune.
After cancelling the wedding seven weeks before it was supposed to happen, the Maplewood bride and her family found out the money they had already paid for the venue and food were non-refundable.
After taking a few weeks to deal with her heartbreak, Yorkovich said she started thinking of ways that her dream wedding could be put to good use.
Yorkovich first thought of her church, but pulling together a large event so quickly was problematic. As an employee of Children's Hospital in Minneapolis (Yorkovich wants to be a pediatric nurse), the Ronald McDonald House was the next organization to enter her mind.
"I see on a daily basis how incredible [Ronald McDonald House] is for so many families with children in the hospital," said Yorkovich. "It just so happened to be volunteer appreciation week when I called so it seemed to be a meant-to-be circumstance."
More than 150 people, including the Yorkovich family, attended the volunteer appreciation event Friday. Ronald McDonald House volunteers help serve warm meals and provide a home away from home for 5,000 families with hospitalized children every year.
As for the honeymoon? That was non-refundable, too. Yorkovich and her mom are currently on a beach in the Dominican Republic.
