LAKELAND, Fla — Wedding bells will join the sleigh bells at the annual Lakeland Christmas Parade. For the first time ever, a couple will get married on a float as it makes its way through downtown.
“I’m excited and nervous. Every day that goes by, Joy and I talk, and we’re like can you believe it? I'm like no, I really can't believe it,” said Eric Daniel.
It is the absolute opposite of how Eric Daniel and Joy Richter pictured tying the knot. “We wanted something every intimate,” said Joy Richter.
The groom met his wife-to-be, on a dating app, after years of being unlucky in love.
“Exactly what she looked like in the profile picture. Talking to her and just listening to what she does and how she is, I was like this is it. This is going to be her. I knew then. I really honestly knew then,” Daniel said.
Their plans of a small elopement changed when they entered a contest for a free wedding that would take place at Lakeland’s 41st annual Christmas Parade.
“What better way to take all of our talent, skills, resources, to gift a wedding to a deserving couple,” said Lora Gardner, founder of Polk County Weddings and Event Pros.
Polk County Weddings and Event Pros is a group of small businesses that are planning the wedding. They chose Daniel, who is a teacher and retired deputy, and Richter, a nurse, out of a dozen couples.
“What we wanted to be able to do was really say thank you so much for everything you’ve done, especially over the last couple of years,” Gardner said.
About 40,000 onlookers will witness the whirlwind wedding on December 1.
“I told her, I wanted to do something memorable. I wanted you to remember it, more than just a wedding,” said Daniel. “I was like it’s just going to be crazy when you look at how many people would have attended the wedding, that we didn’t have to send invites, which is a huge money saver.”
