It’s a match made in burger heaven: a couple from New Berlin, IL, will have their wedding ceremony paid for by fast food chain Burger King.
When the company heard about the pending nuptials for Joel Burger and Ashley King, they couldn’t resist getting involved, too.
Twenty-four-year-old Burger and 23-year-old King have known each other since kindergarten, but they didn’t begin dating until college. Although Burger proposed to King at a lake, they chose to announce their engagement in front of a Burger King sign and posted the picture to social media.
Originally, the couple wanted to give their wedding guests koozies with the Burger King logo on one side and the date of the wedding on the other. But when they reached out, they didn’t hear back from the company.
Then David Bakke, a writer for Illinois’s State Journal-Register, published an article about the couple, referring to their upcoming wedding as a “Whopper” of an event.
The article quickly went viral, garnering media attention from the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, and even international radio shows.
It also got the attention of Burger King’s executives, and their ad agency published a link to the article on social media and asked followers to help them find the couple. When they did, they set up a meeting via Skype for Monday afternoon.
That was when Burger and King got the news from Burger King that their wedding expenses would be paid for.
The contribution will help Burger and King book a venue, hire caterers, and even rent linens and other supplies.
Burger King also plans to provide gifts for the wedding. The couple’s wedding favors will feature personalized yo-yos, gift bags, Mason Jars, and, of course, Burger King crowns.
None of this would have been possible without Bakke, who had emailed Burger King’s media relations representative, Alison Brod Public Relations in New York City.
Burger and King didn’t find out until the end of the Skype call that Burger King would pay for the entire wedding. PR representatives were met with a happy — yet very surprised — reaction.
The company’s brand spokeman Eric Hirschhorn said that the company felt an “overwhelming urge” to help the couple celebrate their upcoming marriage.
“On so many levels it felt like fate,” he said. “They found each other and their story found us.”