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After calling off engagement, woman donates wedding venue to deserving couple

A few weeks before her wedding, Kolbie Sanders ended her engagement. But she wanted to make sure another couple could be happy on that day.
/ Source: TODAY

Just a few weeks before Kolbie Sanders was supposed to tie the knot, she ended her engagement. But that was only the beginning of the story.

Learning she was out the money for the venue and decorations, Sanders made a bold, generous move: Via Facebook note and a video posted early last week, she offered to donate both to a worthy couple. After receiving a deluge of requests, Sanders put all the names into a bowl and drew out Halie Hipsher's name.

Hipsher wed Matt Jones over the weekend with Sanders in attendance, and all three joined Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb on TODAY Monday!

"I don't think it was a decision I had to make, it kind of just came natural," said Sanders, who lives in Tyler, Texas. "The second I knew it wasn't going to be my wedding anymore, I had asked the venue people if it could make this somebody else's wedding."

The hitch: The wedding was in a matter of days, so the bride and groom would have to move fast.

Hipsher, who by coincidence lived just 30 minutes from Sanders, says she never would have even seen the post if her sister hadn't tagged her in it. Learning she'd been chosen was stunning; learning that local businesses were also donating food and flowers and a makeover was even more amazing.

"I was in shock," she said. "As soon as my sister called me I was like, 'All right, this is real, this is my name,'" she said.

But there's a twist: "My grandpa is actually battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer," she revealed, before breaking into tears. They had planned their wedding for a year from now, and this way grandpa could make it to the wedding.

"It was overwhelming," said Sanders of being there for the big event. "I had so many emotions that day."

She also noted that they've bonded over this; Sanders' own grandfather died two years ago. "This was kind of like a big fate story coming together," she noted.

"We're going to have to do a movie about it!" laughed Kathie Lee.

In the end, it might not have been Sanders' special day — but it was special in many other ways.