Tim Adams and Shelley Oswalt of Independence Township hope a last-minute surge puts them over the top in a contest for an island honeymoon.
“Shelley’s had a rough time ? this would give her something really positive to take her mind off things,” said Adams, who entered them in the national Jekyll Island Dream Wedding Giveaway.
He wrote an essay that qualified the couple as one of six finalists for the grand prize, an all-expense-paid luxury wedding on the island off the Georgia coast. More than 600 couples entered the contest.
Winner is determined by online voting at JekyllDreamWedding.com.
On Tuesday, they were in second place with 40 percent of the almost 50,000 votes cast ? about 1,700 votes short of first. Vote deadline is tomorrow, Sept. 22.
So far, they have received almost 20,000 votes.
“It’s nice to see the outpouring of support from people,” Adams said.
He met Oswalt less than a year ago. They fell in love, got engaged, and started making wedding plans, but when Oswalt was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, her treatment became the couple’s focus and the marriage event got put on the back burner. She started chemotherapy sessions in late August.
They have never been to Jekyll Island before. Adams ran across the contest online while looking for honeymoon ideas.
The contest prize is valued at more than $72,000. It includes rehearsal dinner in one of Jekyll Island’s most beautiful homes, wedding ceremony in the island’s historic Faith Chapel, reception at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel’s Crane Cottage, and several other special amenities.
Jekyll Island was an exclusive getaway for prominent families of the early 1900s, such as the Rockefellers, Morgans and Pulitzers. Today, Jekyll Island is a premier wedding destination for everyone.
‘Our lucky couple will celebrate their union with a vintage-themed, Jekyll Island wedding that includes all the style and amenities that characterized the best of the high-class social events of the 1920s,? said Terrica Skaggs, owner of Cocktails + Details, managing event details for the contest.
? Phil Custodio