ATLANTA - The Atlanta Botanical Garden will roll out the green
carpet on Friday, July 11 during a Welcome Home reception for
the Atlanta bride and groom who won NBC's "TODAY Throws a Wedding:
Race for the Altar" contest.



Darnell Suggs and LaDonna Bradford received the most votes
among a quarter-million viewers of the top-rated "TODAY" show
to win a nationally televised wedding June 25 outside the show's
New York studios in Rockefeller Plaza. The Atlantans beat out
four other finalists in a series of fun, competitive challenges,
and viewers then planned the wedding for them,  voting on todayshow.com
for their rings, the wedding gown, the tux, the attendants' attire,
the cake and the honeymoon.



Just back from their South Pacific trip to Bora Bora, the newlyweds
officially will be welcomed home during a private reception,
catered by Avante, with family and friends in the Rose Garden
from 11 a.m. until noon. During a brief ceremony, a special guest
will introduce the Suggs, and Mary Pat Matheson, the garden's
executive director, will toast the happy couple before planting
a rose in their honor. The newlyweds will also share their unusual
experience of being married on the streets of New York before
millions of TV viewers.  



"What better place to wish the king and queen of outdoor weddings
our best than in our own  beautiful rose garden, where so many
other couples like Darnell and LaDonna have chosen to be married,"
Matheson said.



Darnell Suggs, 25, works as a technology consultant, and LaDonna
Bradford Suggs, 24, is a nuclear reactor inspector. "It's been
a crazy time for us," she said, "but we are just so grateful
for the experience and so thrilled to be coming home and seeing
everyone again at the garden."