A nor’easter turned a Roanoke couple’s carefully planned beach wedding into a problem of road access, stranded guests and a flooded backyard. As the storm damaged N.C. 12, Jayden Sink and Kimberly Laprad could reach Hatteras Island, but most of the people they expected to celebrate with could not. Friends, a campground, local businesses and island residents stepped in as the couple adjusted their plans.
The couple had planned a small ceremony at a vacation rental in Waves, North Carolina. A nor’easter flooded the backyard and damaged N.C. 12, leaving most of their invited guests on the mainland, WDBJ reported. The couple told WDBJ and wrote in their fundraiser that roughly $30,000 in wedding costs could not be recovered, making it difficult to reschedule.
In interviews with WDBJ and WAVY, the couple described trying to solve the immediate problem: how to get their guests to them when the road was closed. Sink considered boats and other ways to cross, but said they did not seem realistic. The closure also kept the couple from collecting items for the wedding, including cake and bridal makeup, from the other side of the damaged route. What had felt like a difficult but familiar countdown to a beach ceremony became a scramble to decide what was still possible.
Two friends, Lexi and Brandon, began contacting people about venues, makeup, desserts and catering, Sink told WDBJ. WAVY reported that friends posted online asking the community for help and that residents responded within a day. The couple later wrote that a friend’s Facebook post was the moment Hatteras Island learned what had happened.
Help came as a series of practical offers rather than a replacement for the family members stranded across the closure. Stacey Saunders, manager of Frisco Woods Campground, offered the couple a place to hold the wedding. Their fundraising account credits Saunders with providing a venue, lodging and an officiant at no cost. Before the event, WDBJ and WAVY both reported that the campground had stepped in as the new venue. The couple’s account also credits DJ Kel with music and says local restaurants and businesses sent food.
The couple decided that anyone already on the island could join them. WDBJ reported the invitation before the event; WAVY quoted Sink saying the revised ceremony would be at Frisco Woods on Saturday afternoon and that the entire island was invited. That meant people who had been strangers to the couple could be part of the day, even as the original family gathering they had planned could not happen as intended.
Island Free Press reported that Sink and Laprad married at Frisco Woods Campground on Saturday, Sept. 26. Sink said 458 people signed their guest book and estimated 500 to 800 attended; the outlet noted there was no official attendance count. The couple thanked residents and businesses who supplied a venue, lodging, officiant, music, food, flowers and photography.
After the wedding, Sink and Laprad started a fundraiser for Frisco-Buxton Pathway, Inc. Their campaign says donations will provide matching funds for grants to the nonprofit. In his update, Sink framed the appeal as a way to return some of the help the couple received from Hatteras Island. The fundraiser is an effort for future work, not a report of a new grant or a completed path.
Sink’s public thank-you list, reported by Island Free Press, named photographers Kevin Kincer of CREK Photography and Gwenyth Airhart of GwenyGrace Photography among the contributors. The couple also credited DJ Kel, Frisco Woods Campground, Sun Flowers Florist Hatteras and Made With Love barbecue, alongside other people and businesses. The list makes visible how many separate offers helped turn a sudden invitation into a ceremony.
The wedding did not reopen the highway or bring the couple’s relatives across the closure. It did give Sink and Laprad a chance to marry with help from people nearby. Their GoFundMe account ends with a promise that they will return each year.
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