Acts of Kindness
Community Donates Entire Wedding To Groom With Cancer
We need more acts of kindness like this in the world.
Cedric Jackson
05.17.18

Weddings are expensive, and it’s hard to save up enough money to have the perfect wedding.

Imagine trying to afford a wedding and plan one while also learning you have cancer. That is exactly what happened to Holly and Eric Genzen. Holly shared their story, saying:

“It all started last fall when Eric got the diagnosis that he had another brain tumor, and shortly after that he proposed and then we started looking into how expensive everything was, and we started to really wonder, like, if we could actually pull off what we wanted to do.”

Amanda Basteen
Source:
Amanda Basteen

When some of the vendors in their city learned what was going on, they stepped up to create the perfect wedding.

Each of them donated their services to ensure that every aspect of the wedding was covered. They wanted the couple to have a stress-free wedding. Holly said that it was just like she had always wanted, and she never expected so many people to offer to help them out. She said:

“It was perfect. It was a day that we could never have put on ourselves, and the best way to explain it is what you dream of as a little girl, when you’re, like, 5 years old, of what your wedding day will be.”

Amanda Basteen
Source:
Amanda Basteen

Eric admitted that he was a little stressed with all the wedding details and was relieved to learn that he didn’t have to worry about anything.

He said:

“This could be messed up and that could be messed up. We can pick the wrong venue, the wrong church, the wrong cake, and have everything be wrong, and the truth is I have the perfect woman that I’m marrying, so I’m going to walk away from the winner either way.”

Amanda Basteen
Source:
Amanda Basteen

Whitney Leighton, owner of Little Blackbird Bakery, created the couple’s wedding cake.

She explained how she worked with them to come up with the perfect design and how she enjoyed being able to help them out. She said:

“I was so excited creating this cake just because I knew the story behind why I was doing this. And it just gave a little bit more of a reason for me to want to make this just the perfect cake for them.”

Amanda Basteen
Source:
Amanda Basteen

Eric said that the couple thought about getting married in a courthouse because it was quick, easy, and affordable.

Then he realized there wouldn’t be any photos or memories of the ceremony. He also felt like a lot of other things would be missing. He said:

“Their involvement makes it to where there’s a photo album. We went from a courthouse to an actual photo album with beautiful pictures, beautiful backgrounds, beautiful decorations.”

Amanda Basteen
Source:
Amanda Basteen

Everyone who helped with the wedding was thrilled to be able to do so.

Videographer Laura Beekmann said:

“We’re all just small businesses. We don’t have huge, deep pockets to pull money from, and for all these individual businesses and individual people to give an entire day of what it is that they do to pay their own bills is amazing. I’ve never seen it happen before. And it was just really, really cool to be a part of.”

Amanda Basteen offered her photography services to the couple. She explained that their story touched her heart and she just wanted to give them memorable photographs that they could keep forever. She said:

“One of my best friends let me know about her friend Holly, whose husband had cancer. She said he may not make it to their wedding day. They have three beautiful children and it just struck a chord with me. I’ve been shooting weddings 10 years and had never had the opportunity to give my services to anyone before, so I volunteered. We had limitations shooting that day because of his light sensitivity, but I wanted to make sure to get them the best photos possible.”

Amanda Basteen
Source:
Amanda Basteen

Eric and Holly enjoyed their wedding day, and they are beyond thankful for all the vendors who went out of their way to make it special for them.

They are focused on their family and trying to make the most of each day. They don’t know how many days Eric has ahead of him, but they know that they will face them all as husband and wife thanks to their community.

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