Bride-To-Be Calls Off Wedding At Last Minute! Donates £2.5k Venue To Couple She's Never Met

A bride-to-be called off her engagement a week before the big day and donated her 'dream' wedding venue to a couple she had never met.

Kolbie Sanders turned heartbreak into generosity by offering up her £2,500 venue to strangers after she split with her fiancé Skylar Cotton.

The 24-year-old university student wrote on Facebook that she had just 24 hours to find a couple prepared to get married at the wedding venue.

She was inundated with messages from hundreds of husbands and brides-to-be desperate to win her big day.

After whittling down the applicants to a shortlist of 45, Kolbie, from Lindale in Texas, US, plucked lucky winner Halie Hipsher, 22, out of a hat.

Insurance worker Halie's story stood out because her grandfather Edwin Truett Hipsher, 81, is suffering from pancreatic cancer and doesn't have long to live.

Halie said: "As he is nearing the closing of his chapter this donation will put us a year ahead of schedule and he will be able to attend."

The mother of seven-month-old Riley will wed Matthew Jones, 24, an oil field worker, at the Belle Vue wedding venue in Tyler, Texas, this Saturday.
And touchingly, Kolbie will be guest of honour.

Kolbie, a student at the University of Texas at Tyler, called off her own wedding to Skylar, 25, an oil well worker, when she realised the passion had left their relationship.

She said: "There was no scandal. We fell out of love and it didn't feel right to get married. We were together for four years and engaged for one and a half years but we grew apart.

"I woke up one day and realised I didn't want to marry him. We had both lost passion for one another.

"It was short notice but you can't get married if you feel it won't work out in the long run.

"The venue told me that I could still get married there at some point in the future and keep my booking but by that point I thought, 'I'd like another couple to enjoy it'.

"Skylar and I are still really good friends and he was on board with me donating the venue."

Her generosity was however also matched by a local photographer, caterer, florist, hair stylist and makeup artist who offered their services to the winning couple.