Couple win wedding contest

Carnival Cruise Lines chose local couple Andy Cook and Tina Berwanger to toast with slushies as the winners of their Cooper River Bridge Run Race to the Altar contest.

The company launched a national search for a couple to get married in Marion Square on the April 2 race day. There, Carnival will donate $1 for every celebratory slushy served to the Medical University of South Carolina's Children's Hospital, up to $10,000.

Cook and Berwanger, both North Carolina natives, have together lost 115 pounds since they started dating. They will marry on a "beach" created in Marion Square after running the 10K race.

They also get a first dance on the festival main stage with 40,000 of their sweatiest friends and a five-day Bahamas honeymoon cruise onboard the Carnival Fantasy, which is based at nearby Union Pier in Charleston.

Private tour

Slicker Interactive, the company behind the brick-and-mortar iPhone application store at Market and Church streets, recently joined "the Ecosystem" of WhippleHill, which provides online services for private schools.

Slicker's "Campus Navigator" application offers virtual tours of school campuses while sharing important information with prospective students and their families.

Tommy Dew, a local tour guide and chief executive of Slicker, said the navigator will help schools with marketing.

In December, Slicker installed a kiosk on a Charleston Area Regional Transit Authority shuttle so riders could find the location of the bus they're on and learn about the attractions closest to every stop.

In August, Slicker announced a partnership with one of America's largest shopping center owners and developers, CBL & Associates, which includes Citadel Mall and Northwoods Mall among its holdings.

An application called mallMerlin for Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch guides shoppers, step by step, to the stores and deals they seek.

Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594.