Normally when radio contestants win a wedding from a radio station they expect their friends and family to be the guests of honour.

Virgin Radio Vancouver decided to turn this tradition on its head by inviting 100 contest winners to the Las Vegas wedding of a BC couple who were celebrating their nuptials in the city of sin courtesy of the radio station.

Ronnie Stanton, operations manager and brand director, Virgin Radio 95.3, tells MiC the contest for wedding guests ran for six weeks and was designed to one-up traditional radio trip giveaways.

“The goal was to try and lift listenership by giving away trips to Vegas and get the message out the Virgin Vancouver is fun,” he says.”The listeners who didn’t know the couple getting married ended up being genuinely invested and wanted to go to the wedding.”

Promotion for the trip giveaways was kept on the radio and started in mid-April, ending last week.

Nuptial-themed contests are also happening at 99.9 Virgin Radio in Toronto, where the station is encouraging listeners to send in photos of their ugliest bridesmaid dresses.