When Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida on Sept. 10, 2017, Sophie Roth and Frank Pierce were stormed out of their initial wedding at St. Georgie Island.
“We were all set for the wedding – all our guests had arrived – when we were forced to evacuate the day before,” Roth said. “Everyone had to go home and we didn’t get a chance to tie the knot.”
After being unable to marry in September, Roth and Pierce went back to their everyday lives. They began to remodel their house and save money, with distant plans to marry sometime soon.
Seven months later the couple entered Johnsonville’s SEC Tailgate wedding contest on a whim.
“I just thought it would be fun to test our luck with a contest,” Roth said. “I came across the contest during a google search of wedding contests. My grandmother always told me to enter contests, because ‘you never know you might win,’ so I took her advice and was looking for wedding contests to enter.”
After watching the information video about the contest that featured Tim Tebow, former University of Florida quarterback and Heisman winner, Roth said she knew she had to enter the Johnsonville contest.
Johnsonville received over 350 entries for the contest which was launch in the early part of 2017. Johnsonville representatives sorted through the entries and scored them based on originality, creativity and persuasiveness.
This is the first edition of the contest. Johnsonville, the official sausage of the SEC created the contest after learning of SEC fans challenges when it comes to having or attending a wedding during football season.
“Johnsonville saw firsthand how SEC fans live, eat and breath football,” Johnsonville said. “We also discovered how newly engaged SEC couples struggle to plan a fall wedding, since Saturdays are dedicated to football. Johnsonville wanted to help one lucky couple solve this problem by combining two very important events into one – an SEC tailgate and a wedding.”
Thanks to Johnsonville, the couple only needs to provide the wardrobe for the bride, groom and wedding party. Everything else is included in the contest winnings.
Roth said she and her fiancé were thrilled when they received the news in May that they had won. They are now all set to say “I do” on Oct. 13, the day of the Auburn v. Tennessee game.
The couple is looking forward to trying Johnsonville’s Big Taste Grill and Auburn beating the Vols.
“We are so excited to get married and it means so much to us to have our friends and family around us for this special day on the campus of our alma mater,” Roth said.
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
