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!
My Sister's Wedding Day 