Swifties came to the rescue when a Taylor Swift fan in Florida reluctantly decided to sell her prized guitar signed by the 14-time Grammy winner to pay for her upcoming wedding.
Emily Harris owns a special red guitar signed by Swift, 34, which was a 16th birthday present from her father. As she planned for her November 2024 wedding with fiancé Jacob McDaniel, she realized she could not afford the ceremony she wanted and regretfully decided to sell the special instrument.
“It was very hard,” Harris, 30, told Tampa CBS affiliate WTSP in an interview published Monday, March 4. “But I felt like it was the responsible thing to do, you know, to try and afford everything because we’re paying for our wedding ourselves.”
Her dad, Randy Harris, knew she hated to part with the guitar from her idol. So he posted a message on Taylor Swift’s Vault Facebook fan page asking for suggestions. “My daughter is considering selling her signed guitar to help pay for her wedding, any advice/help would be greatly appreciated,” he wrote in February.
The Swifties replied with hundreds of comments, many begging Emily not to sell her “priceless” collector’s item.
“Omg! Weddings/marriages come and go but Taylor Swift is forever,” one person wrote.
“Honestly drop a GoFundMe for the wedding! I’d be happy to chip in a little so she gets to have the wedding she wants while not having to sacrifice such a treasure!” another fan commented.
Emily followed that advice and launched a fundraising page.
“I was going to sell my signed Taylor Swift guitar to help pay for my upcoming wedding. However, some very nice and hardcore Swifties are against the sale, and asked us to start this GoFundMe instead,” Emily wrote, sharing several photos of the red guitar.
“We are so excited to celebrate together this November, and in order to make sure our family and friends can be together with us, there are expenses that continue creeping up,” she continued. “I was hoping to find someone who would benefit from this signed guitar as much as I can use the sale to pay for our wedding. Countless fans told me to start a Go Fund Me instead, so here we are!
Emily set a goal of $1,813 for her page, and she has received more than double that amount, with more than $3,800 raised as of Wednesday, March 6.
As fans donated, they congratulated Emily and Jacob on their upcoming marriage. One person interjected Swift song titles and the name of her perfume in her comment.
“I’m sure you and your fiancé were ‘Wonderstruck’ when you first met! May your ‘Love Story’ last forever and may you say to each other. ‘Today was a fairytale’ at the end of your Wedding Day!!! Congratulations !!!”
“I’ve been speechless, really,” Emily told WTSP about her reaction to the Swifties’ generosity. “I feel like this is a reminder that there are good people in this world. There is just genuine good in this world.”
Her fiancé is also amazed by the outpouring of support.
“I do think it’s very special that there’s a fan group out there that cares so deeply about the memorabilia that exists for this artist that they’re willing to start a GoFundMe page,” McDaniel told Inside Edition on Friday, March 1.
“I collect sports memorabilia and I can guarantee you that if somebody had something from Patrick Mahomes or Peyton Manning, they would be the first people saying, ‘I’ll buy it off you for whatever amount you want,'” he continued. “They wouldn’t be trying to make it where you could keep something so valuable and so meaningful.”
Emily continued to thank the many Swift fans who donated and created a unique bond with her.
“We’re friends now. We’re Swifties, we’re buddies,” she said. “It’s worldwide that people are so connected because of one person that, you know, you don’t know this person. But we have this in common.”
