One lucky couple will win a free wedding for themselves and 48 guests.
Several Whidbey Island businesses have joined together to hold a contest for the wedding that includes the venue, the cake, invitations, photos and music. The party is valued at $16,000.
Couples nominate themselves by submitting their photo and story. The public votes online to narrow the field to the top 10.
From those finalists, one couple’s name will be randomly drawn at the Weddings on Whidbey and Events Tour on Nov. 8. The first 100 couples who enter receive one general admission ticket to the tour in Freeland.
“We didn’t feel comfortable making that final selection,” said Sherrye Wyatt of Whidbey and Camano Islands Tourism. “Everyone is qualified. Everyone deserves this wedding. This is a way to narrow the field and draw from there.”
The contest aims to showcase Whidbey Island as a destination for weddings.
“People know about the San Juans,” said Gloria Mickunas, who owns event planning business Whidbey Party Girls and who is one of the contest’s organizers. “The San Juans have been marketed so well, everybody knows about them. Whidbey is kind of like this child that no one knows about.”
The island already does a brisk business in weddings from spring through summer and early fall, Mickunas said. As many as seven weddings are held during summer weekends. When hundreds of guests show up for a wedding, all the lodging on the island can fill fairly quickly, she said.
The winter months can be slow. Mickunas thinks that’s a shame. She said that the central part of the island is in a rain shadow and the cooler weather allows for layered clothing and hearty meals.
“For me, I love a winter wedding,” Mickunas said. “The fall, the winter, the colors, the vibrancy, the island just comes alive.”
The wedding will be held at one of the newer venues on the island, Dancing Fish Farms, near Freeland. The date is locked in at Jan. 17.
Mickunas said she hopes the contest will raise the island’s profile a little bit. She said there are people in Seattle who don’t even realize the island is just a short ferry ride away.
She came to the island more than a decade ago from Los Angeles on a holiday and never left. She said there’s natural beauty, no crime and little traffic.
“Our traffic congestion is the ferry just let out,” Mickunas said. “Oh geez, we got behind a tractor and need to wait a couple of seconds.”
To learn more visit www.WinAWhidbeyWedding.com.
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