After Colorado floods, photographer uses Facebook to save weddings
As floodwaters started to tear through areas of Colorado on Wednesday, Sept. 11, wedding photographer Sarah Roshan thought of all of the couples who were planning to wed that weekend.
With entire venues being swept away by the ravenous rivers, she knew there would be many couples left stranded. One of the state's most popular destination wedding locations, the town of Estes Park, was among the hardest hit areas.
Roshan calls herself a hopeless romantic, whose life's mission is to make the world a more romantic place. She almost immediately started calling venues, to figure out which were still operating; which were destroyed. Her phone was also ringing off the hook, with fellow wedding vendors calling to ask about venues. "Everything seemed so chaotic, I just needed to organize it all," she told CBSNews.com.
And so, around 10:30p.m. GMT that Thursday night, Roshan created a Facebook page called "Save My Colorado Wedding." She posted it to a few photographer forums and Colorado wedding groups before calling it a night.
Just hours earlier, soon-to-be bride Lacy Wilkinson and her fiancé, Josh Bundy, received a call from their venue, saying the mountain lodge had to be evacuated and could not host the Saturday wedding. That's when she started to realize her wedding was not going to go off as planned, and started to search for a back up.
After connecting through the Facebook page, Roshan called several venues and quickly scheduled Lacy and Josh at the nearby Spruce Mountain Ranch, where they wed on Saturday afternoon.
By the time Roshan woke up Friday morning, more than 100 messages filled her Facebook inbox. Still in her pajamas, she called on fellow photographers, florists, and other wedding vendors to help her connect with the couples.
The group has since compiled a list of availability for 200 area venues for the next eight weeks. Most of the couples have been able to keep their planned date, without having to move too far from the original venue.
Roshan's Facebook page is now full of comments thanking her for her help. "Your efforts helped me and my fiance to find another venue that same day, and we couldn't be more relieved or happy with how this potentially devastating situation has turned out," wrote newlywed Diana.
"It's been a little crazy and sleep has not been in the cards for awhile," said Roshan. "But what's important is that I'm helping people."
