There's a reason why Landon Borup and Quinn Duane's relationship ended up on global news. Everything started out perfectly well for this couple who met back in July 2011. And like normal lovers, these two were all set on tying the knot and spending the rest of their lives together. What could go wrong, right? Well, a lot.
She Could Never Guess What Was About To Happen >>
Their lives weren't the only ones affected by the waves that they ended up making, even their family and members of their community ended up being affected. As Landon and Quinn's phenomenal tale spread all across social media, the rest of the world soon got into the drama. Here's everything that happened...
The Out-Of-The-Blue Proposal On An Easter Day
After more than two years of dating, it was natural that the couple should consider taking their relationship to the next step. Landon proposed to Quinn, and he chose the most heartwarming way to pop the big question. Most men who are getting ready to ask the question usually plan it around the holidays or a special occasion. Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Valentine’s Day are amongst the most popular engagement holidays. The majority of men also choose to propose during their partner’s birthday. Landon chose to propose in April 2014 when the family had gathered for Easter.
They Had Plans For The Future
Everyone in Quinn’s family was in on the proposal and Landon had gotten them to read sweet statements he had written on slips of papers about why he loved her. Quinn’s mother started by reading a statement that appreciated her generosity. She was followed by Quinn's sister and other members of the family. Her grandfather read out the last one saying that Landon couldn’t wait to plan their future together. That was the moment that he got down on one knee and asked for her hand in marriage. Quinn was overcome by emotion as she accepted the engagement ring.
Planning The Wedding
Dr. Scott Haltzman, the author of The Secret of Happily Married Men, says that long engagements are helpful for individuals who are at different places in life. Haltzman runs a website that provides community support for families, couples, and victims of infidelity. He further explains that waiting for a considerable amount of time before walking down the aisle allows couples to take part in premarital classes. In the case of Quin and Landon, they set a date 17 months after the proposal, scheduling their nuptials on the 17th of October 2015.
The Reception Venue
The reception is a party to mark the completion of the marriage ceremony. It also represents the moment when the newlyweds appear before society (their guests) after their nuptials, and dining and entertaining the guests is a given. Most couples choose to host their reception at a banquet hall or a luxury hotel ballroom. It’s during the reception that guests typically present their gifts to the couple. Quinn and Landon settled for the luxurious Citizen Hotel in Sacramento. They had around 120 guests and had chosen a selection of mouth-watering dishes for the day.
Decorating The Venue
As much as the big day is all about the bride and the groom, the bride’s mother also shares in the happiness. Kari Duane, Quinn’s mom, explained that she had already visualized how the reception room would look like one year prior to the wedding day. The bride’s family often caters for the reception from the food, drinks, entertainment, and down to the wedding cake. They also pick up the tab on the flowers as well as the decorations used for the venue. They are usually also expected to handle payments related to the wedding dress, photography/videography, and special transportation.
A Lunch In Honor Of The Bride
Kari Duane hosted lunch for Quinn and her bridal party during the summer before the big day. Traditionally, the future bride’s parents will host a gathering to celebrate the couple’s decision to solidify their relationship through a lifetime commitment. It typically happens six months prior to the couple walking down the aisle. While they are typically meant to be social gatherings, it isn’t uncommon for guests to present the couple with engagement gifts. However, gift giving is generally saved for the big day and it’s often the guests who leave with favors from these gatherings.
The End Of The Road
The wedding planning process is stressful for a couple, and an estimated 20% of weddings are called off during this stage. It often has to do with disagreements about finances and the payments the different families should handle. Religious differences, omissions of the truth, and disagreements stemming from visits to a prenup attorney can also put a halt on impending nuptials. Unfortunately, Landon and Quinn couldn’t weather the storm. Just a week before their big day, Landon broke things off. It was a devastating thing for Quinn to come to terms with and she was heartbroken.
Mom To The Rescue
On top of going through such heartbreak, Quinn had to go through it over and over again as she broke the news to her parents and their expected guests. It was so close to the big day that anyone would understand if she panicked and acted irrationally. However, her mom came to her rescue for her daughter’s well-being and to see what they could do about everything that they had paid for. Her mother had actually put in $35K for the wedding, and the money was not refundable. She had to figure out a way to put it into good use.
She Took An Unexpected Action
Most couples now take up event insurance coverage to protect them from losses that may occur due to unforeseeable circumstances. Often, the policies are available in the form of liability or cancellation covers. The liability policy takes care of injuries sustained during the ceremony. Cancellation covers handle problems with vendors or the venue and external events that may prevent the ceremony from taking place, like extreme weather conditions. In the case of Quinn and Landon, they had called things off out of their own volition. Even if they had an insurance policy in place, it wouldn’t help much. Kari decided to donate the non-refundable reception to those who needed it the most.
Inviting The Homeless Members Of Their Community
The Duane family chose not to spend their time consumed with anger. They pushed through with the reception but opened it up to people who could use a good meal instead. The family decided to donate the reception to charity by offering the planned banquet to the homeless people in Sacramento. Kari reached out to local homeless shelters asking them to advertise the dinner at the Citizen Hotel. Whoever will attend would be treated to a scrumptious dinner at the four-star hotel absolutely free! They turned a disappointing turn of events to an inspiring gesture.
Giving Up A Hefty Tab
One of the other aspects that most people don’t really think about is the fact that guests also lose out from the canceled events. When the cancellation is so close to the big day, they have often bought gifts and out-of-town guests would have made travel arrangements. Most vendors also require that the couple should clear outstanding payments if the cancelation is 60 days from the big day. However, wedding websites like CanceledWeddings.com have come up with an option to allow couples who have canceled their nuptials to offer their ceremony packages or honeymoons at discounted rates. Quinn and her family chose to give out the costliest part of it.
Different Kind Of Guests Arrived
The 90-day mark represents a no-turning-back point during the wedding planning process. It’s when a wedding planner and other vendors, in general, require a 50% payment of their fees. The Duanes were living through the realities of having the unexpected happen, but they were making the most out of the situation. They managed to rally 90 people to attend the banquet. The attendees included parents and their children, grandparents, and single people who had all come together to enjoy the three-course meal. Kari explained that their family felt sad for Quinn, but it was heartwarming to see the turnout.
A Once In A Lifetime Feast
It isn’t every day that we, ordinary people, get to enjoy an extravagant feast at a luxurious hotel for free. The spread included salads, delectable appetizers, gnocchi, tri-tip sirloin, and salmon. Canceled weddings have long been perceived as a social embarrassment, and it isn’t any better in our present social media age. Couples often make every aspect of their impending nuptial quite public and having to announce the cancellation is super awkward for most. Regardless of the heartbreak that Quinn had faced, all that anyone would remember was their kind gesture to donate to charity.
A Lovely Meal At A Nice Restuarant
The guests had come from Next Move, a Sacramento-based homeless shelter. The shelter aims to help homeless individuals and families to become self-sufficient and self-reliant. They offer self-sufficiency workshops covering elements of budgeting, parenting, budgeting, mental health care, living skills, and housing. They have been able to help 50% of their families to find permanent housing, and their average length of stay is 33 days. They were just regular people who had fallen on tough times and needed a helping hand to get back on their feet. That is why the Duanes event meant a lot to them because it offered a night to enjoy a lovely meal at a nice restaurant.
Truly A Blessing
One of the attendees who turned up is Rashad Abdullah, who came there with his wife Erika Craycraft as well as their five children. He said that the meal was truly a blessing because in the hard times that they were going through, the meal had provided an opportunity for him and his family to get out and do something different. He added that it was a rare treat for his kids, which doubled as a form of counseling on the act of giving. Weddings are meant to share happiness with friends and family, and the Duanes proved that it can extend to absolute strangers who could use a smile.
Profound Gratitude
Rashad's wife, Erica Craycraft, also shared her profound gratitude to the Duane family. She said that it was a really giving gesture for Quinn to have chosen to share this event with other people even though she lost something very important. Beyond anything, the Duane family had been able to get other families together. Their kind gesture went beyond just donating a meal. The needy families who had gathered at the venue on that day would forever remember the special occasion. It probably served as a much-needed family therapy session for those who attended.
A Non-Judgemental Gathering
Tamara Dotson, who also attended the event with her baby, said that it was wonderful especially after finding out how the event came to be. She stated that they had been told about the canceled wedding and that someone had donated a meal. She explained that she wasn't judging the free meal and appreciated the fact that they weren’t judged based on their looks or any other criteria when they turned up at Citizen Hotel for the dinner. There was no dress code required, and all the attendees had to do was show up and take part in the great meal.
Paying It Forward
Kari Duane said that her daughter had always been generous, and that’s what inspired her to host the dinner in her honor. She said that she hoped that when Quinn looks back to this moment, she would always remember making the most out of a bad situation. Quinn said that being able to share part of what would have made up her big day was part of the therapy process and a silver lining. She was assertive that she would be able to take away the good from the entire situation as she picked herself back up.
Preparing For A Honeymoon
Quinn wasn’t the only one who had transformed an unfortunate situation into a noble cause. In 2016, Yiru Sun went through a similar heartbreak when her fiance’s suggestion to visit a prenup lawyer didn’t sit too well with her. Sun decided to turn her non-refundable reception deposit of $8K into a luncheon for needy kids along with their families. Sun hosted her guests at the Upper East Side’s Harold Pratt House. As for Quinn, she still had to deal with her non-refundable honeymoon to Belize. Instead of canceling, she chose to pack up and jet off to the exotic getaway.
No Explanation
Unlike Sun who had explained why her nuptials never took place, Quinn decided to keep the information private. Borup, who heard about how the Duane family had transformed the reception into a generous cause, also chose not to comment about what happened. Sun, a New York Life Insurance vice president, also chose not to divulge any details about her former fiance. Sun shared with the people who had turned up at the Pratt mansion that she grew up in poverty but worked hard in the U.S. and got a full scholarship to Princeton University. For Sun, the silver lining was being able to walk away from something she didn’t feel was right.
Skipped Out On The Dinner
Quinn chose not to attend the dinner at Citizen Hotel because it was too soon for her to come to terms with her situation. Like her, Sun also felt frustrated at first. But she had some time to heal and, three weeks later, she came up with an idea. She decided to host kids and their families from the Inwood House with assistance from The Salvation Army. Sun, who wore a white wedding gown for the day, explained that she couldn’t be a princess on her planned dream wedding, but she could offer the kids a fairy tale instead.
The Best Travel Buddy
The dinner wasn’t the only aspect of her failed ceremony that Quinn decided to donate. She even gave the flowers that made up her floral arrangement for the big day to a nursing home. The Travel Industry Association of America estimates that most newlyweds spend about $4,466 on honeymoons, but the luxurious ones could cost as much as $9,954. Travel insurance typically covers cancellations, but non-refundable aspects are still payable out of the pocket. Quinn decided to tug her mom along to the trip to Belize for some much deserved R&R.
Heartbreaks Don't Last
As seen on Quinn’s updates on social media, she definitely made the most out of her vacation in Belize. Her exotic getaway to paradise included some spa treatments with chocolate bliss body wraps. She still had a long road ahead of her to heal from the heartbreak, and she would get through it. Quinn might not have wedding photos to look back on, but she will always have viral news clips and articles to read about how her misfortune touched the lives of many. Perhaps, it’s even what helped her through those heartbreaking moments when she had flashes of the past.