The sunlight shone through the trees and hit the table filled with a cake, champagne glasses and other wedding essentials. A dress sat next to the table. Next to it, were Kevin Sinkler and Danielle Dubose.
The couple stood on the Horseshoe, as the Wedding Planning and Management class blew bubbles around them and read their love story to the crowd assembled at the McCutchen House Saturday.
Dubose, who is four years older than Sinkler, met him while she was in high school and he was in middle school. The two went out of touch when she went off to college, only to meet up again and start dating in 2010. Dubose said she knew her his brother before she knew her future husband.
Now, after four years of dating, the two are ready to tie the knot.
But Sinkler and Dubose's wedding won't be like other weddings — everything from the cake to the dress, all the way down to the invitations, is either made by the students in the class or donated by stores in Columbia.
“It’s a lot of really good networking in Columbia because I get to meet a lot of people that supply things for our area,” second-year tourism management student Morgan Tolson said. “I get to see what I want to do. It’s a lot harder than what I think it would be in real life.”
Dubose’s dress has been made, but the cake and other wedding essentials are still in production. Tolson said that after she saw the couple win, she’s ready to get back to work on the wedding, and the rest of the class is ready to get back, too.
“Everything has been hectic so far,” Tolson said. “We didn’t know each other to begin with. It’s nice to finally see everyone on the same page and we know what we are working for.”
The wedding is scheduled for Nov. 20, and the couple is excited for their newly announced big day.
Sinkler is in the National Guard, while Dubose works with BMW. Sinkler graduated from Newberry College and Dubose graduated from USC with a degree in social work.
And as far as the wedding goes, Dubose said she’s excited for the reception.
“You get to be with all your friends, the stress is gone, and you get to have fun,” Dubose said.
To get the wedding, the couple submits their love story to be reviewed by the class and the class chooses who gets the wedding.
Sinkler and Dubose were chosen over two other couples to receive the wedding. As the bubbles swirled around them and the class read their to the audience, the smiled and thought about how they met and their previous four years of dating.
After the announcement, Dubose said she was thankful that they were chosen and are happy to get the process going.
“It means a whole lot. We both graduated from school and we didn’t know where we were going to get the money,” she said. “We were planning on getting married but there was not much of a way we could have gotten anything this extravagant on our own. It’s a blessing.”