Brooks: When an Isanti wedding venue left a young couple out in the cold, friends and strangers saved the big day

In the end, Kaitlin and Justin’s wedding day was everything they wanted and nothing like they’d planned.

They’d planned to marry at a lovely, airy barn in Isanti. That venue, the Circle B, went belly-up in April without warning, without explanation and without a refund of the nearly $10,000 deposit they’d put down for their Sept. 14 wedding.

Kaitlin Gulstad and Justin Lynch, and every other couple who’d planned dream weddings around the Circle B, scrambled to make new plans — often with less money and little time. Their weddings were days, weeks, months away. Wedding guests had booked plane tickets. Vendors, caterers, photographers and florists had been paid to come to a venue that no longer existed.

The Circle B and its owners, Wayne and Angi Butt, had let them down. By the start of the June wedding season, the Historic John P. Furber Farm in Cottage Grove, another wedding venue operated by the Butts, spiraled into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Family, friends and Minnesota’s wedding industrial complex rushed in to help. The other vendors returned their deposits, even the nonrefundable deposits. Complete strangers reached out and offered their own backyards as last-minute wedding settings. Venues across the state scrambled to find spaces that matched the upcoming wedding dates. Brides and grooms adjusted, adapted, hustled and held on to their senses of humor. One by one, came the wedding days.

On Sept. 14, Kaitlin married Justin in his parents’ Coon Rapids backyard overlooking the Mississippi River, the same spot where his parents exchanged their own vows. At their side were family, friends, a pair of well-dressed alpacas and vendors who moved heaven, earth and calendars to make the ceremony and reception possible on short notice. The alpacas, wearing wee wedding outfits, paced down the aisle with the wedding party and went on to absolutely dominate the photo booth at the reception afterward.

Nothing had gone to plan, and nothing could have been lovelier.

“I think it was maybe meant to be this way,” said the newly married Kaitlin Lynch. They signed their marriage certificate at the same fireplace where his parents, his aunt and his sister all signed theirs. Another chapter in the family history. “Now when we have kids, we’ll be able to show them, ‘Mom and Dad got married right there. They got married at grandma and grandpa’s house.’ ”

The difference between a dream wedding and a wedding nightmare may come down to which parts of the story you retell to your children and grandchildren. The Lynches have a story about resilience and perseverance and a beautiful wedding day. They’ll have stories to tell about the the alpacas and pranks the guests pulled at the reception and the way the wedding DJ rickrolled an entire dance floor. If the grandchildren ask about the time they planned two weddings in the space of one, they’ll have more stories to tell about the myriad of people who stepped up to help them, than the two business owners who didn’t.

So many small businesses reached out to stranded Circle B couples. Reception halls, caterers, photographers, florists, officiants and wedding cake bakers. One of the calls came from Mounds View, from the Mermaid Entertainment and Event Center, offering room for a reception, free of charge. The guest list for the wedding ceremony had to be pared down to fit in a backyard but now, thanks to an unexpected act of kindness, the couple was able to celebrate with everyone they invited to their original reception.

Through the stress, Kaitlin Lynch looked for the joy, and found it in the little moments. Like when staff allowed them to have dancing, bowling and axe throwing, not to mention wildlife.

“You have to accept what you can’t change,” she said. “In a stressful situation, I look [for ways to turn it into] a game.”

Their wedding day at the Circle B probably would have been gorgeous, a picture-perfect backdrop for the sort of photos you see in bridal magazines, movies or on Instagram.

“Once it’s taken away, you kind of take a step back and think, ‘Well, OK. What parts of this are actually important and what parts were just for show?” Kaitlin Lynch said.

What was important to them, it turned out, was getting married and getting all their favorite people – plus a few alpacas – together to celebrate with them. A picture-perfect wedding barn didn’t even make the list.