Could you let a group of students plan your entire wedding? For Erin Stone and Scott Smith, partnering with USC’s HRTM 362 Wedding Planning & Management class was a no-brainer.
The HRTM class holds a competition every semester for engaged couples who apply to be chosen by submitting their love story. This year, three couples were finalists and stood in front of the class on Tuesday afternoon to hear if they won the “rustic-elegant” themed wedding.
Kevin Deloach, a fourth-year human resources and management student who’s enrolled in the class, announced the winner by reading their love story outloud. As soon as Stone and Smith recognized that their story won, they began smiling and wiping away tears.
“There is something special about your first love,” Deloach read. “Whether you end on good terms or in tears, years later, your first love always puts a smile to your face and a butterfly in your stomach. Scott is that person for me.”
Stone and Smith’s story then went on to say how the couple began dating at 16 and went to each other’s prom. After moving away for college and losing touch, Stone married a man named Patrick and had a daughter, Cameron, with him. However, 15 months later, Patrick was diagnosed with cancer, and eventually lost his battle with the disease.
“No one dreams that they will be a 29 year old widowed mother of a three-year-old, but there I stood,” Stone wrote.
Stone wrote that she and Smith crossed paths over the next few years and began talking regularly. When Cameron met Smith, they spent the afternoon talking about Patrick and watching cartoons.
“Over the next two years we have fallen deeper in love than I ever thought we could. He told my mother that I was the one that got away. Now he tells her how lucky he was that we have had a second chance at love,” Stone wrote.
The couple got engaged this past Christmas Eve, and Stone said she knew about the HRTM competition because her sister competed a few years ago and her foster daughter was in the class two semesters ago.
Once Cameron realized that her parents won the competition, she exclaimed “We won?!” to a laughing crowd.
Annette Hoover, who teaches the course, then gave the future bride a bouquet and pinned a boutineer on the groom.
“We had a lot of applications and it was a very tough competition,” Hoover said.
The winning couple then viewed different wedding outfits that they could choose from, provided by Evelyn’s Bridal and Britton’s. Upon seeing the flower girl dress, Cameron excitedly said, “I love being the flower girl! This dress is long! Mama’s gonna get the white one!”
The HRTM class will plan the wedding by breaking up responsibilities by committee. With about 81 students enrolled in the course, those committees focus on everything from transportation and entertainment to finding the perfect cake and flowers.
Hoover told the couple that the class also had a few surprises up its sleeves, including the location of the honeymoon. They were given one clue, “Pack lots of bikinis and board shorts.”