Brides scramble as Holly Hotel is gutted in fire

Holly pulls together to help as fire destroys downtown

Peak bridal season is here and, for one bride, the fire that destroyed downtown Holly could have ruined her wedding day - but the people of Holly weren't going to allow that to happen.

HOLLY, Mich. (FOX 2) - All of the final preparations were being made for Katie O'Keefe's wedding day this Saturday at Holly Hotel. That all changed on Tuesday when a massive fire burned the historic building to the ground. She scrambled but is seeing the silver lining in it all.

O'Keefe fell in love with the historic hotel and was ready to say ‘I do’ to her fiance, Kyle, this coming Saturday. Then the devastating fire ripped through Battle Alley, destroying several businesses and burning the back of the hotel to the ground.

"It’s the height of wedding season - that was my first thought. Are we just going to get married out on the road?" O'Keefe said.

O'Keefe's wedding day isn't going to go as she had planned but the Holly Vault, a business with several venues in the area, connected with her on Wednesday.

"I was going to sleep that night I hardly slept on Tuesday thinking ‘I’m going to get married hopefully under a tent outside somewhere on Saturday - we will make this work, we will just slap it together’. Then the stream miracle worker this fairy godmother shows up and says ‘hey I can help,'" O'Keefe said.

Katie and Kyle will get married at Venue One Eleven, one of the Vault's event spaces. Katie says the owner gave the couple a generous discount and her other vendors are pulling together to make their wedding special.

"It really shows a strong what a strong community Holly is in there just so they’re just so gracious and compassionate to be helping us in our time of need as well as each other," she said.

Now O'Keefe believes the heart of Holly will still be at her wedding, this time just down the street from the historic hotel.

"I feel like the heart of Holly will be there because everyone came together to put a miracle together glasses last minute stroke of midnight everyone came together and that’s what Holly‘s about," O'Keefe said.