Atlanta vendors to gift $75K wedding to frontline workers

NORCROSS, Ga. - When you're on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, your personal life falls to the wayside. That includes milestone moments, such as weddings.

But for one lucky couple, it'll be worth the wait.

Two dozen Atlanta area vendors are teaming up to throw a dream wedding worth $75,000 in January -- covering all needs from catering to wedding rings and flowers.

"The dream wedding giveaway comes at a time when there aren't many dream moments," said Alan McNaron, who is volunteering his marketing skills through Orange Identity. "There's a lot of nightmare-type days and evenings, so while you all are on the front lines, we have businesses that can hopefully help you guys have a day and evening that is everything you want."

So, who can apply? -- Any "essential" worker. From nurses to truck drivers and first responders, if you have had to press pause on your wedding plans, these vendors want to hear from you.

The wedding giveaway is the brainchild of Courtney Laramore, after her son Brock's experience in the hospital last year.

"On the last day in the NICU, a nurse heard a heart murmur," Laramore described. "It was very faint; no one else had heard it."

It turned out to be a congenital heart defect, caught just in time.

"We don't know who that nurse was, we want to pay it forward, and that's why we're giving away a wedding to an essential worker," Laramore said. 

Her company, Miss Milly's Event Rental and Design, is one of the participating vendors. She showed FOX 5's Emilie Ikeda their extensive warehouse full of decor. And while the vendors are pre-set, the couple will still have the chance to design the wedding's style.

To be considered, you need to 1) follow @dreamweddinggiveaway on Instagram along with all of the vendors' accounts they are following, 2) comment on why you or a friend is deserving, and share the post on your Instagram story.

Dozens of submissions have already poured in. One Neonatal ICU nurse described how her time in the hospital thwarted the couple's original engagement plans; her fiance also confronts COVID-19 on a daily basis as a first-year resident. 

In another post, a friend nominated a couple who is either running a COVID-19 clinic as an oncology nurse or working long hours as a paramedic.

The deadline to apply is July 17. The team of vendors will narrow it down to 10 finalists, and the public will ultimately choose a winner.

The wedding date is already set: January 17.