Couple fighting coronavirus in healthcare wins $50,000 wedding giveaway
“I don’t know how you thank somebody like that,“ the couple said. "I don’t know how you accept something like that.”
BLUE MOUNDS, Wis. (WMTV) - Local vendors pitched in to give a free wedding to a couple working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
Jennifer Wann, the owner of the wedding venue Prevailing Winds Lodge, had the idea for the giveaway, despite major losses this season due to the coronavirus. “It’s the reason we exist right? We’re a community. We’re here to support each other. It’s easy to get into the grind and the stress of all the things that are going on, even beyond COVID. So to be able to bring light to someone who didn’t anticipate it, it was a really special thing.”
Reaching out to about 20 different vendors, Wann said she got the immediate “yes.” Vendors are providing catering, photography, videography, tent, music, cake, makeup, spirits, a honeymoon package—and more.
Altogether, Wann said, the wedding is valued at $50,000.
Daniel Harris and Elise Hovelson were chosen as the winners.
“I don’t know how you thank somebody like that,” Hovelson said. “I don’t know how you accept something like that.”
Harris and Hovelson planned to get married over the July 4 weekend, but the coronavirus forced them to cancel their wedding entirely and commit to longer hours at work. Both are emergency room and urgent care physician assistants in Illinois.
Harris described, “We’re seeing patients every day with (coronavirus), people are getting impacted everywhere. We try to keep a brave face and be resilient.”
Wann explained the reason she and other vendors chose this couple as the winners: “Something about them kept pulling us back, pulling us back. They’re both in the urgent care-ER setting. When they came out… it sealed the deal.” She described them as “humble, respectful and grateful.”
She surprised them with the news on Friday, exactly a year away from their new wedding date.
Hovelson said, “I remember them saying things, and I don’t think I was hearing them.”
There was perhaps even greater shock for Hovelson—because Harris entered the giveaway on his own.
She said, “It feels like they gave it to the wrong person because you’re not used to getting this kind of stuff. You’re like, ‘What?’ People care. They care about you.”
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