Harvey cancels Houston wedding; Louisiana city donates another one

MINDEN, La.—A small Louisiana city banded together to hold a wedding for a couple whose plans to be married in Houston were ruined by Hurricane Harvey.

Erin Smith and Jason Doyle of Shreveport, La., were married Sept. 3 in Minden, about 270 miles north-northeast of Houston, The Press-Herald reported .

Smith said the Houston hotel where she’d planned to stay is housing evacuees. The hotel offered to move hurricane victims out of her reserved rooms, but she declined.

“We couldn’t take those rooms away from those people,” she said.

When Smith called a Minden bridal shop to replace the gown already in Houston, the owner asked to arrange a ceremony in Minden, about 30 miles from Shreveport.

Smith had “decided that no matter what, she was getting married this weekend,” said Alicia Adams of Hers Bridal.

“She was going to buy a whole new dress, and so we asked her if it would be OK if we put together a small ceremony for her and she agreed.”

Smith bought the gown, but Adams arranged for Minden businesses to donate everything else, from makeup—which Adams did—and hairdressing to the venue and catering.

“It’s a blessing that this is my only free Saturday for the next three months,” said photographer Misty Swilley. “It worked out perfectly, and I’m all for helping them. I’m a big believer in paying it forward.”

Doyle said, “It’s nice to know that people are going out of their way for this, because there are more serious things than this. For people to take this seriously for us is very humbling.”