A Wedding Contest, a Tropical Storm, and two Un-invited Guests : A View from the Sweetheart Table (Part 2)

Another guest post by Felicity Sicre Chappell – THE Bride…

Up to the morning of the wedding, I had been living in a dream state. None of it felt real. Don’t get me wrong, it was beyond exciting, but even telling the story of how it all happened, felt like I was talking about someone else. I still couldn’t believe it was all happening to me (oops, “US”, sorry Jeff).

I woke up that Sunday morning in my amazing bridal suite on the 12^th floor and I had a cold (uninvited guest number one). I had been fighting it for a couple of days, a last minute gift from my fiancé. Poor Jeff, he had been sick all week and did his best to hide it from me so as not to stress me out.  We were living on Nyquil and vitamins hoping to stave it off in time for the wedding. We were determined to not let it get to us. That, coupled with the third eye that had been growing steadily on my forehead for the past week (uninvited guest number two), was just enough to send me into a frenzy pushing me to that fine line between stressed out bride and bridezilla.

Wedding day weather.

While the day before was sunny and breezy, the forecast had called for a 90% chance of showers for the wedding day. I spent all of Saturday praying for the sunshine to hold up because the plan was for our ceremony to be outside surrounding the gorgeous pool overlooking the ocean. (Hence the “Dream Beach Wedding”)  Fortunately, the fantastic team at the Hilton and our Wedding Jeannie had already switched to plan B and had prepared for the ceremony to be inside.  So I had nothing to worry about, but I was still hopeful.

Sure enough, when I opened the blinds of my bedroom window, I immediately recognized what would be the calm before the storm. The sky was grey and the clouds were rolling in quickly, the wind was picking up and the air smelled like rain. It was coming.  I gave in to Mother Nature and reminded myself how they say that rain on your wedding day is good luck. Still, I felt a bit deflated. What wasn’t deflated was the pimple on my forehead. My makeup artist had her work cut out for her. Hope she packed some magic in her bag.

Wedding Day Hair and Makeup…or is that a geisha?

The next few hours went by quickly, and my room was a rotating door of visitors and camera crew. My hair and face had been beautified by Design Visage’s beauty magician Jen, who successfully hid my third eye with tattoo cover-up. Yet, the moment still didn’t feel real. It was more like watching a wedding reality show.

Until, that is, I put on my wedding gown.

As I was stepping into a cloud of ever so delicately tinted blue tulle, and having the custom designer Arminé and my sister zip and button me in, reality hit me that I was putting on my wedding dress — the uniquely created work of art that would adorn me on the most important day of my life and that would grace all the pictures that would commemorate this moment beyond my lifetime.

It was as if someone had flipped a switch. Surrounded by some of the most important people in my life, I was “in it”…that moment that every little girl dreams about but can never quite imagine until it actually happens to her. With help, I put on my red shoes that up to that point had just been some inexpensive red heels, my veil was delicately placed on my head, and suddenly I was a bride. I was glowing and I felt incredible.  I looked out the window and the rain was coming down sideways, and within a few seconds, it turned to hail. Yet nothing could rain on the parade of elation that I was experiencing.

That energy carried me as I prepared to walk into our wedding ceremony. I was standing there with my Dad on one side, my Godmother/Aunt on the other, as I watched last minute stragglers rush into the room. Suddenly, the first few instrumental notes of Led Zeppelin’s All of My Love began, with the accompaniment of Tim the Electric Violinist, and my excitement was kicked up to the next notch. Chills overtook me, and I was so energized to hear the music, it was just what we wanted and it sounded phenomenal.

I didn’t think that feeling could get any better, when unexpectedly my ears were filled with the exploding cheers of our guests as they greeted Jeff and his groomsmen. I had never heard that reaction before at a wedding ceremony, and according to Pastor Dave, neither had he in his 20 plus years experience. It was intoxicating.

Here comes the bride!

I couldn’t wait to see Jeff. I didn’t go with him to his tux fitting, and we decided not to have a “first look,” or what I kept calling “the peekaboo,” so I was as anxious to see him as I was for him to see me.

The music tapered and transitioned to a beautiful instrumental of Here, There and Everywhere by the Beatles, and I knew it was my queue, my moment, and the tears welled up in my eyes as my smile widened.

I was more ready than I had ever been…

Stay tuned for part 3

A Wedding Contest, a Tropical Storm, and two Un-invited Guests : A View from the Sweetheart Table (Part 1)

Guest post by Felicity Sicre Chappell – THE Bride…

Waiting for the results…

When you plan a dream beach wedding, you undoubtedly imagine sunshine. When you win a dream beach wedding, you go with the flow. This is the story of a control-freak who surrendered her wedding over to the professionals and mother-nature and let what was meant to be, happen.

First, let me address a couple questions that have been swirling in the readers’ minds since the first blog post. “How did you find out about this $100K wedding contest, and how on earth did you win?” It comes down to two words: Social Media, in all of its many forms.

From the moment of our engagement in August, wedding planning became a daunting task. I decided at that moment that I was going to find and enter as many wedding contests as I could, even though I had never done anything like that before. I’ve never even bought a lottery ticket. Then one day in November, there it was, on Facebook. A high school friend had posted that her mom’s friend’s daughter and her fiancé needed votes to win a $100,000 Dream Beach Wedding Contest put on by Your Wedding Day Magazine and the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort. I followed the link, voted for the couple, saw that there were only a handful of couples in the contest at that time, and quickly posted a picture and brief story about us, and suddenly we were contestants. It happened that fast.

The next step was asking as many people as I could to vote for us. Again, Facebook became the channel for putting the word out. From there it became viral. Friends and family were all too happy (well they at least acted happy) to not only vote 999 times, but to post it on their Facebook page, and email their friends and family. Their friends and family did the same thing, and so on.

My Aunt Mary Ann provided the handwritten link in all of her Christmas cards that she sent out! People that we have never met, nor will meet, were voting for us, and they were sharing the link and spreading the word. It was overwhelming and I felt so blessed and fortunate to be a part of such a generous network of people (THANK YOU everyone!).

Watching the online votes jump in increments of tens and twenties was addicting. It was like gambling in Vegas (ok, so I have never actually gambled in Vegas, but I imagine I know the feeling). The voting process was tedious and time consuming. Yet so many people did it for us repeatedly, and as my new brother-in-law Craig said, “It was the worst video game ever.” Luckily, his finger healed in time for the wedding, although now that I think back, he did drop the rings….

In January, and one hundred fifty-eight thousand votes later, we were the couple with the most votes. The next step was the 45 minute interview process in front of a panel of five female judges. Let me tell you quite honestly that there was never a second when we thought we would win. These things just don’t happen to people we know, let alone us.

Now I’ll admit, there was a moment where I contemplated sitting Jeff down and providing him with a list of “do and don’t say” and coaching him through a sort of script. Yet I knew in my heart that if we were meant to have this dream wedding, then it would be ours, and that ultimately fate had already determined the winners. If it wasn’t us, then it wasn’t meant to be.  We would still get married, and like Jeff said, we were winners because we had already won each other.

Now, if you know Jeff, you know right away that he won that contest for us. Sure, I was the one who rallied the team for the voting process, but it was Jeff who charmed the judges without even trying. It didn’t take long for them to see in him what it was that I fell in love with, and he commandeered that interview making me look like a wall flower. He was incredible.

We were both genuine and honest, and totally ready and willing to hand over our wedding to the capable women making the decisions.  Later we learned that those three things won us the prize. The next night, in front of 500 strangers, we were announced the winners. I’ll never forget the look of complete and genuine shock on Jeff’s face. In slow motion, my mouth dropped open as I turned to him and whispered the word, “what?” My legs were shaking, he had to hold me up. Many people congratulated us, and one guy said that by our reaction, he would think that we had just won ten dollars. I decided not to tell him that I had almost peed my pants, nor that it wasn’t my 4-inch heels making my legs and knees wobble.  Well, the heels did contribute.

We had a two hour drive home where for much of the first half hour we sat in silence and disbelief. The rest of the drive was made up of light conversation that toggled back and forth between “did that just happen?” and “can you believe we just won a wedding?”

The shock still hasn’t worn off.

We learned that our wedding was planned for Sunday, March 25, less than three months from the date we won the contest. Suddenly we were on the fast track, and the roller coaster ride was getting started. Everything was already in place from the date to the venue, the wedding planner, invitations, florist and linens, Officiant, gown designer, tux rental, lighting, caterers, musician, photographer, videographer, hair & makeup, the rehearsal dinner, and the ring designer…yes, we got rings! Who gets free wedding rings?

Our biggest sacrifice was making frequent trips down to Orange County to meet our vendors, and neither of us was complaining. As far as wedding planning goes, we got off easily, and we knew that no matter what was decided for us, it would be magnificent and way beyond what we could have paid for, imagined or planned.

Surprisingly, we had a lot more say in the whole thing than we expected. We provided our ideas and our brief list of likes and dislikes and were told to steer the voting process in the direction of our top picks. They truly wanted to give us what we wanted. Wow, did they deliver!

Stay tuned for part 2…

They won!