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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview With Nataniel Hughes, Ericka Armour
Aired June 23, 2002 - 09:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a wedding is a momentous occasion, but it can also be an expensive one. I would think a bare bones, 100-person affair would be at least five figures these days, probably more. Now a Georgia couple is among growing legions that have figured out how to have someone else pay. What a good idea! Their secret, sponsorships. Ericka Armour? Armour?
ERICKA ARMOUR, BRIDE: Armour.
O'BRIEN: Armour, I was thinking of love. And Nathaniel Hughes join us. Congratulations. You're getting married when?
ARMOUR: July 6.
NATANIEL HUGHES, GROOM: July 6.
O'BRIEN: Oh, boy got some goose bumps right now?
ARMOUR: Oh, yes.
O'BRIEN: And the goose bumps brought to you by?
ARMOUR: Actually, we have 15 different sponsors, so.
O'BRIEN: Fifteen different sponsors.
ARMOUR: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Well, tell us, take us back to the beginning here. When did you decide this was a viable concept?
ARMOUR: Well, I started this in April of last year, so it's been going on. My sponsors have gotten quite a bit of coverage. So it's been going on over a year now that I've been working on it.
O'BRIEN: Yes, but I mean where did this idea come from? Did you read it somewhere?
ARMOUR: It came from an Oprah segment.
O'BRIEN: An Oprah segment. That's it, OK.
ARMOUR: Yes.
O'BRIEN: So you're watching Oprah and somebody talks about sponsoring a wedding.
ARMOUR: Right. They had couples that had creative ways of saving money, and they had a couple that had a corporate sponsored wedding and so then bells started going off, you know.
O'BRIEN: And, Nathaniel, when you were presented with this idea, were you a little skeptical?
HUGHES: Yes, I didn't think it would work at all.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
HUGHES: But we're here today.
O'BRIEN: All right, well we've got a few items here that are typical to the average. Let's see, the wedding cake, Betty Crocker, no?
ARMOUR: No, Cakes Lamour (ph).
O'BRIEN: See that's where I got confused. Naturally.
ARMOUR: The cake, our wedding cake and groom's cake will be donated by Allison Nesnick (ph) of Cakes Lamour. We have some handmade gifts here, handmade paper stationery and that's from vtapdesigns.com (ph).
O'BRIEN: Right.
ARMOUR: A local company, Wedding Angels in Roswell, donated my veil and my tiara, and we were actually brought here today by our limousine company, which is First Choice Limousines, and I'm accompanied by Stephanie Coachman (ph) and Erica Pines (ph) of One Step Consulting, Leda Jordan (ph) of Jordan Cooks (ph).
O'BRIEN: You notice she's getting all these in.
ARMOUR: And we also have another caterer, Aunt TT's (ph) Catering, and she is working in conjunction with JP's Market in Canton.
O'BRIEN: I think you forgot the Mapleton (ph) Bottle Shop.
ARMOUR: And we do have, yes, the Mapleton Bottle Shop is one of them and the list goes on and on.
O'BRIEN: All right, I'm sure your sponsors are out there listening. She did her duty.
ARMOUR: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Aside from the fact that you've managed to get yourself on CNN, which probably makes it all worthwhile for everybody, when you called them up, how did you pitch them on this?
ARMOUR: Well, what I did was I put together a proposal. It was a three-page proposal and it started by saying, Ericka Armour and Nathaniel Hughes request the honor of your services, and in exchange this is what we have to offer.
And basically, what I offered them was I included their information in my invitation package. It will be included with my thank you notes. It will be included as part of my centerpieces. There will be scrolls on the tables, on the buffet. There are various wedding favors that have their information listed on it. I also include their names in press releases.
O'BRIEN: Yes and would there be a booth announcer there to give little announcements as the wedding goes on, Don Pardo (ph) you know?
ARMOUR: Actually...
O'BRIEN: Wedding cake brought to you by...
ARMOUR: Actually no. It will be very elegant. There won't be big banners. The blimp won't be flying overhead you know. So, yes but they will get their acknowledgement.
O'BRIEN: All right, what do you say to those who would say you know this is just not good manners or whatever, a line has been crossed here, whatever?
ARMOUR: Right.
O'BRIEN: I'm sure you've heard this.
ARMOUR: I have heard this and my thing is, I don't think a line has been crossed. I think that it was more important to us to purchase a home than to spend $10,000 on a wedding, but it was also important to me not to give up my dream of having my fairytale wedding.
O'BRIEN: So it's a win-win.
ARMOUR: That's right.
O'BRIEN: You're having your cake...
ARMOUR: And eating it too. That's right.
O'BRIEN: OK, and how much will it cost you out of your pocket then?
ARMOUR: We will spend under $1,000.
O'BRIEN: Oh my gosh.
ARMOUR: And we have gotten about $15,000 in sponsorships.
O'BRIEN: All right, Ericka Armour, Nathaniel Hughes, we wish you well in your marriage. Will the marriage be sponsored or are you going to do that unsponsored?
ARMOUR: Well, we're hoping to get the honeymoon sponsored.
O'BRIEN: Anniversary trips, who knows. We'll see you on the anniversary trips, all right.
ARMOUR: Yes, so we are still looking for sponsors. So they can contact me, actually goingtothealtar@aol.com.
O'BRIEN: Well, we got one final plug in there. It wouldn't be appropriate if we didn't. Thank you very much. Good luck to you both.
ARMOUR: Thank you.
HUGHES: Thank you.
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