Chicago Nonprofit Has Married 300 Terminally Ill Couples

When Lacey Wicksall answers the phone at Wish Upon a Wedding, she hears from couples facing unimaginable challenges who still want to celebrate their love. Her Chicago-based nonprofit has turned those calls into 300 real weddings since 2009.

The formula is simple but powerful. Wish Upon a Wedding allocates $2,000 per ceremony and connects couples with local wedding professionals in their hometowns. Those vendors, from caterers to videographers, routinely discount their services or donate their time entirely.

Georgia wedding planner Lydia Leek saw this generosity firsthand when she coordinated a wedding for 22-year-old Skylar Bernstein, who had been diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer. With the wedding date approaching fast, Leek reached out to her network of local vendors.

"I spoke to more than 12 of them, from florists and photographers to cake caterers, and everyone was so willing to help," Leek said. "I didn't have to ask anybody twice. They all just said yes."

That August, Bernstein married her husband Sam Wombough with the Blue Ridge Mountains as their backdrop, surrounded by friends and family. "It was everything I could have dreamed of," Bernstein said.

The Ripple Effect

Every wedding creates waves beyond the couple themselves. Families get to celebrate together instead of only grieving. Vendors discover the profound impact their skills can have beyond business. Communities rally around neighbors they may never have met.

"When you're going through a tragedy, you just need someone to walk into your darkness and do something nice for you," Wicksall told People Magazine. "And that's what we're here to do, to just provide a respite in the middle of the storm."

That respite has reached couples across the entire country, proving that wedding professionals nationwide share the same impulse to help when it matters most.

Three hundred weddings means 300 moments of joy carved out of impossibly difficult circumstances, created by strangers who chose compassion over profit.