HRTM class gives away Horseshoe ceremony, reception worth $30,000
Morgan Taylor and Patrick Galante describe their love story as something from a fairy tale, and now, thanks to the Columbia community and USC’s wedding planning and management class, they’ve been given the chance to live happily ever after.
Now on its 15th wedding, USC Love Story within the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management announced the winners for this semester’s all-expenses-paid wedding and reception in the McCutchen House Wednesday afternoon.
“I was instantly emotional,” said Taylor, the bride-to-be, on hearing the announcement.
Of the 17 applications, which required either a 500-word essay or a three-minute video, the students in HRTM 362 chose three final couples to attend the announcement ceremony. The winners, Taylor and Galante of Elgin, S.C., submitted a video that features a photo slideshow and a voice-over narration of the couple’s love story.
“I thought a video would be more meaningful,” said Taylor, who works in a corporate office for Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
In the video, Taylor explains how she met the love of her life in high school after experiencing the tragic loss of her father at age 16. Taylor and Galante have been together for the past decade and were engaged in 2009. The couple planned to have a wedding in May 2012, but another unfortunate circumstance arose when Taylor’s grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer. Unable to afford both the medical expenses and the wedding, the couple was forced to postpone the ceremony.
Danielle Cox, a third-year tourism and management student in the course, said she and her fellow wedding planning classmates were incredibly touched by Taylor and Galante’s story and decided they deserved to have the wedding of their dreams.
According to the groom-to-be, who attended Midlands Technical College in Columbia and now works in a dental lab, he and his fiancee heard about the contest through his brother James Galante, a first-year hospitality management student in the HRTM 362 course.
The 66 students in the class divide themselves into committees and plan every element of the wedding, such as the honeymoon, the rehearsal dinner, as well as media and marketing, according to Annette Hoover, who has taught the class since its inception in 2005.
“The students do every bit of planning,” said Hoover, a wedding planner and designer of Eventus. “We break it down into every little group, so no one’s overwhelmed with too much.”
Hoover estimates that this semester’s wedding and reception are worth about $30,000, but the student wedding planners are given no monetary budget. Every aspect of the wedding — from the formal attire and floral arrangements to the honeymoon and bridal suite — is donated by businesses around Columbia, sought after by the students. The only expenses USC Love Story does not cover are alcohol and postage stamps for the invitations, according to Hoover.
“We go out with a W-9 and a donor form, and we explain to them that we’re giving away a wedding, which a lot of people already know since this is the 15th one,” said Cox, a member of the class’s honeymoon committee, which secured the couple a getaway at the Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head.
Cox said all of the donations can be calculated as tax write-offs.
According to Hoover, the community response has been “outstanding.”
“I cannot tell the community how much we love what they do to help us,” Hoover said.
She insists that her class gives students real-world experience when it comes to planning a wedding, showing them what to expect in their future careers.
“They will get frustrated with themselves,” Hoover said. “Sometimes they hate the long time frame in the day, but that’s what goes along with this job.”
The other finalists present at the announcement ceremony were awarded a wedding cake knife and server set, a sixpence and a $2,500 service from Hoover and her planning company.
Taylor and Galante’s wedding will take place April 21 in Rutledge Chapel on the Horseshoe, followed by a reception in McCutchen House.
“I’m overwhelmed, speechless and excited for it,” Taylor said. “I’m ready to do this.”