If you were handed $80,000 to spend on your wedding, what would you do with it?
That’s the question Kaisha Sutton and Quinton Huguley have had to answer as they prepare for their celebration on January 2, 2015, after winning Arena Stage’s wedding giveaway.
The contest, which coincided with the theater’s performances of the classic matchmaking musical Fiddler on the Roof, required that couples submit videos and photos of their love story for a shot at winning the wedding of their dreams.
Kaisha and Quinton, friends since their first day of college in 2008 and together for the past six years, got engaged on March 22, 2014, after seeing Cirque du Soleil’s “Michael Jackson: The Immortal” at the Patriot Center.
More than 100 couples entered the wedding giveaway, but it was this pair’s spunky YouTube series about their relationship that won them the package, complete with use of Arena Stage as their venue, a reception for 175 guests, cake, flowers, decor, engagement and wedding photography, a wedding videographer, a bridal suite, event-planning services, and more.
The hardest part of the planning? “The guest list!” says Kaisha. “Both of our families are local, and we have lots of friends in the surrounding DC metropolitan area. There are so many people who want to attend our wedding—who wouldn’t want to attend a wedding that was won in a contest valued at $80,000?”
As they prepared for the big day, the pair decided on two engagement photo sessions: one with the photographer provided by Arena Stage, Cameron Whitman Photography, at the Jefferson Memorial and Arena Stage, and the second with close friend Jeff Brooks of Photog4Naturals at their alma mater, Mount St. Mary’s University.
Caroline Cunningham joined Washingtonian in 2014 after moving to the DC area from Cincinnati, where she interned and freelanced for Cincinnati Magazine and worked in content marketing. She currently resides in College Park.
