Bride will have a Dr. Pepper sponsored wedding

by Stephanie Sobotka | June 27, 2008 at 12:29 pm | 306 views | 5 comments

Weddings can be ridiculously expensive. A Virginia Beach hairdresser decided to auction off a spot to be a bridesmaid in her wedding on Ebay. Her idea raised national attention, and Dr. Pepper decided to place a bid and won! The Dr. Pepper Snapple Group has decided to donate $10,000 toward her wedding and provide refreshments for the April 2009 wedding. I wonder how many other corporate sponsored weddings will happen in the future.

Without a doubt, weddings can be a bit pricey, especially if you and your groom/bride to be only make a combined salary of $32,000 a year.

That's why a Virginia Beach hairdresser decided to auction off an opportunity to be a bridesmaid in her April 19, 2009 wedding.

It turns out that 23-year-old Kelly Gray and fiance Karl Gau, who were looking to keep their wedding budget at or below $7,000, will now have a much more elaborate wedding than originally planned thanks to a major soft-drink company.

The idea sparked media attention across the country, as well as the attention of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, which placed the winning bid of $5,700, then upped the ante to $10,000.

Kelly says she, "...was contemplating doing a bake sale and my bridesmaid said: 'We need to auction something (on EBay). There's Dr. Pepper cans and Cheetos bags for sale, so let's just go ahead and do a bridesmaid'. And I did not think anything would happen out of it - nothing."

When the bidding closed at 7:27 p.m. on Wednesday, the winning bid was $5,700. The winner: "drpeppersnapple".

Gray and her fiance had planned to keep the wedding budget under $7,000 by using an iPod, instead of a DJ and baking their own wedding cake. Now they can plan for something a bit bigger.

A representative for Dr. Pepper Snapple Group says they'll even provide drinks for the April 19, 2009 wedding.

Flag this story

Upload

Make your good story a great story. Click here to add your photos & video to this story.

Crowd Power

Scan the web to add photos and videos to this story or add them from the NowPublic Archive.

rpshen

at 12:33 on June 27th, 2008

that is an awesome idea

amyjudd

at 12:43 on June 27th, 2008

My dad works for eBay and I remember him talking about this story. What a crazy idea! I guess it will cut down on costs and who doesn't want free refreshing Dr. Pepper on their wedding day?

I'm not sure I would want one, unless some very expensive red wine maker offered to sponsor mine... ;)

michelle.sundvick

at 12:55 on June 27th, 2008

hahaha that would be amazing Amy.. Rachel was mentioning how much it cost to have champagne at her wedding and I couldn't believe how ridiculously expensive it was.

Eclectic_Photo [ KellyT ]

at 05:53 on June 28th, 2008

I photographed a wedding in October where the couple chose to toast with Diet Dr. Pepper instead of champagne. Apparently it was the groom's beverage of choice in college, so they wanted to incorporate it into the wedding.

Eclectic_Photo [ KellyT ] has contributed a photo to this story.

l'imperatrice

at 19:59 on June 29th, 2008

Although this couple is no longer married and the groom has since lost 300 pounds (he's a pretty trim guy now), this is a cute moment I captured just after their wedding ceremony. While waiting for the wedding party to gather for professional photos, the groom is taking a rest break with his new bride and a Dr. Pepper.

l'imperatrice has contributed a photo to this story.