One local gay couple needs your vote to help them win a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to tie the knot on stage in the company of some of today’s leading music stars.
Frank Copeland and Kevin Mong are the only same-sex couple in Radio 104.5’s Eighth Birthday Show wedding contest. They are one of 17 couples vying for the chance to get married at the star-studded Susquehanna Bank Center concert May 10.
In addition to the ceremony being officiated by rapper Mike Jones and the first dance serenaded by hit Aussie singer Vance Joy, the contest winner will be given a pair of wedding bands, a Caribbean honeymoon, a private reception and a variety of other wedding services, all courtesy of Bernie Robbins Jewelers. The concert also will feature Of Monsters and Men, Hozier, Death Cab For Cutie, AWOLNATION, Walk The Moon and Passion Pit.
The Blackwood, N.J., residents have been together for almost 14 years and had decided that 2015 will be the year they get married, regardless of the contest’s outcome.
“We wanted to wait until it was legal in New Jersey,” said Copeland, “but this contest is really the perfect way for us to get married. We see concerts at that venue throughout the whole summer. But even if we don’t win, we’re still getting married.”
Copeland and Mong are music lovers, to say the least.
They regularly see between 30-40 concerts a year, many of which are at the Susquehanna Bank Center.
“We like all different types of music: pop, rock and even a little country,” Copeland said. “It has become a passion of ours.”
The couple met Memorial Day weekend 2001 in Rehoboth, Del., at the Purple Parrot.
“We spent the whole weekend together. It was love at first sight,” Copeland said.
However, Copeland and Mong were living three hours apart from each other at the time — Copeland in Voorhees, N.J., and Mong in Waynesboro, Pa.
“We continued to see each other after we first met and make the three-hour drive on weekends,” said Copeland. “Eventually, Kevin decided to uproot his life and move to Voorhees with me.”
To vote for the couple and see their video entry, head to www.radio1045.com/contests. Polls close April 5.