Perfect strangers stormed her wedding — and she couldn’t have been happier.
Meagan Archard’s fantasy of saying “I do” in Asheville, North Carolina was almost roiled by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
But thankfully, 50 strangers helped save her big day by turning up to the event when invited guests were unable to attend.
“Believe it or not, we didn’t know half of the people there,” Archard told Queen City News. “Maybe it wasn’t the day I had imagined — but it was perfect.”
Archard and her husband Eric tied the knot on Oct. 13 — just two weeks after Hurricane Helene caused disaster in Asheville.
The couple was originally slated to get married in October of last year, but postponed the nuptials after learning they were expecting their first child.
After Helene — a Category 4 hurricane that has caused at least 228 deaths and nearly $88 billion in damage — Archard believed she would have to push back her wedding once again.
“It was like a roller coaster of feelings,” the mom-of-one explained. “You know, on one end, obviously, we’ve been planning this wedding for two years and we wanted it to happen of course, and on the other end… what is morally the right thing to do?.”
“At the end of the day, after two years, to me, it was just a wedding,” she said. “Whether it happened or it didn’t, I just wanted to make sure that my vendors were okay.”
Archard’s vendors insisted that the wedding should go ahead.
“That was kind of the mental turning point for me,” the bride declared.
But before she was set to walk down the aisle, a second natural disaster occurred.
Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida on Oct. 9 — four days before the Archard’s ceremony.
The Category 3 storm stopped dozens of the 100 invited guests from traveling to North Carolina from Florida for the couple’s big day.
“We were doing okay and then we hit this mental hurdle again,” said Archard. “We were like, ‘What is happening?,’” said Archard. “Then we kind of had this idea to invite strangers to come to the wedding.”
Instead of canceling the ceremony, a crafty Archard decided to invite 50 strangers from her mom’s work to fill the venue.
Those strangers were actually healthcare heroes from Mission Hospital in Asheville, where Archard’s mother works as a nurse. At the time, the mom-of-the bride and her colleagues had been working around the clock for more than two weeks, attending to folks in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
“It has been a very challenging month,” said nurse Paige Younkin, who, along with several dozen of her co-workers, jumped at the chance to attend Archard’s wedding, sight unseen.
“It was great,” said Younkin.
“Not only were we able to socialize, dress up, see each other and have fun,” she raved. “But [we] got to spend some really happy times celebrating with [the bride and groom].”
And unlike most brides who’d treat strangers — or wedding crashers there to score free grub and booze — like nuisances at their weddings, Archard treated Younkin and her work pals like Tinseltown royalty.
“We called them the Hollywood extras,” said the newlywed. “That was their nickname throughout the whole night.”
“I would go up and say, ‘You must be a Hollywood extra. I am Meagan nice to meet you,’” continued Archard, who credited the unknowns for keeping the party going.
“It just ended up being lighthearted and fun,” she gushed. “They never left the dance floor.”
“It was very uplifting.”
