SISTERS, OR -- A Sisters couple is trying to make the best of their bad timing. Tierra Bunker and her fiancé James decided a year ago to get married in Bend August 19, 2017, not realizing that's just two days before a total solar eclipse expected to attract around 350,000 people to the region. Bunker tells KBND News she checked event calendars before setting the date, "For me, there wasn’t a rodeo, there wasn’t a quilt show and there wasn’t a folk festival, because that is the main thing out here in Sisters. It was a weekend my parents could close the store so that my dad could walk me down the aisle. Then," she says, "It turns into this, there’s a huge eclipse."

Now many guests are having trouble finding lodging, "We just have family staying on property at my parents’ house, camping out.  We’re trying to – people have made reservations, but now they’re told they have to pay more, and it’s just quite hectic." Bunker's grandfather made reservations long ago, planning to stay at the Bend Shilo Inn. She says, "They received a call that said the amount is going to be, like, double what they originally thought it was going to be. He’s going to – I believe he is paying like $300 a night."

"I’ve had people go, ‘why don’t you just change your wedding?’ I’m like, ‘I already ordered my invitations!’ I ordered my invitations before I even knew the eclipse was happening." And, she and her fiancé are pushing forward, despite the chaos, "He could care less; it’s me, you know? I’m more worried about it. His family is coming from Texas; they’re going to stay with us and we’re just going to make it work. And, if people don’t come it’s totally understandable due to the fact that I didn’t realize there was an eclipse."