Sergio Plecas Chattanooga Photographer

Okay! Here is the final breakdown from the Love Story contest:
Tara and Samuel: 1871
Brooke and Curtis: 1741
Megan and Christopher: 235
Danielle and Taylor: 86
Aimee and Gary: 74
Jamesa and Thomas: 68
Kimberly and JR: 45
Brooke and Brandon: 34
Wendy and Mike: 29
Charlotte and William: 3

Thanks to everyone who entered: those of you who shared your beautiful stories with us. And a big THANK YOU to everyone who voted! Congratulations to Tara and Samuel–they won! And congratulations to all the couples–we’ll be sending more information to you soon.

You shared your love stories…and we loved reading them! They were all so sweet; it was hard to pick the finalists! Thank goodness the winners will be selected by Facebook. Top stories will be featured on our Facebook page for voting from our fans and your friends. The winning couple will be notified Dec. 31, 2011. Good luck to all these amazing couples! Here they are, in order of wedding date:

Disclaimer: all photos were submitted by entrant, and were not taken by Sergio Plecas Photography. Property belongs to respective owners.

Danielle and Taylor
Wedding Date: April 21, 2012
My fiancé and I have quite a unique story. We first met a little over two years ago when I worked as a summer employee at Chattem, Incorporated. At the time, I was in a serious relationship and had no interest in meeting any other guys. He was dating another girl at the time we met, as well. Although we worked on separate lines, we constantly made eye contact and smiled at one another throughout the day. After a couple weeks, we began to talk and get to know one another. We had so much in common and could talk for hours. I found out a little later that he had broken up with his girlfriend to focus his interest on me. I thought that was very sweet and considerate, but I just could not imagine ending my two year relationship to pursue someone new.

We added each other on Facebook and began talking for hours on there every night. Soon after, we exchanged numbers and began texting each other throughout the day. After our vacations, we ended up working on the same line and constantly flirted and talked throughout the day. After work, we would always text each other and carry on a conversation.

At the end of the summer, it was extremely hard for us to say goodbye. We stood outside in the parking lot after work and talked and hugged for almost two hours. We continued to talk after working together, and he begged me to end things with my boyfriend so we could try dating, but I just could not make myself end my long-term relationship as much as I wanted to. We stopped talking, and I continued to date the same guy, who I had been with for over two years. I thought about Taylor every day. I tried to get him out of my head for months but just could not seem to do so.

The next spring, my boyfriend and I finally broke up, but Taylor and I had gone for months without talking at this point. We ran into each other downtown one night that summer and began talking and hanging out again. Taylor and I made our relationship official in August and tried to pick up where we had left off, but it was just too difficult because I had hurt him before. We broke up after just two months of dating and stopped talking for a while again. Then, he started texting me again at the beginning of this year, and we went on a few more dates. He poured out his heart to me and told me we would get married one day. After sharing a meaningful kiss, he wanted to end things once again. At this point, I was tired of trying and was finally giving up.

After my college graduation, Taylor started talking to me and asking me to hang out again. We hung out as friends a few times, but in the mean time, I was dating other guys. Although Taylor and I were casually dating again, I did not take things with him seriously because he never wanted to commit before, and he really pushed me away because of that.

When Taylor finally proposed to me on Friday, July 22, 2011, I was beyond belief. I never imagined he would make this kind of a commitment. I was very excited but scared at the same time. We were not even officially together when he proposed, and I had been dating another guy. It took me a few days to get over the shock of the proposal, but once I did, I realized that God had intended for us to be together from the beginning.

Taylor and I are just so amazed at the way God planned our journey. One fun fact about our date of engagement is that we were both 22-years-old at the time, and our date of engagement is the 22nd day of July, 2011. We could not be more pleased.

I was crazy about my fiancé from the first week we met. I knew right away that I could see myself marrying him or someone like him one day. He has all the qualities I’ve ever dreamed of my future husband possessing. I can now say that I finally know what true love feels like. I am so in love with my fiancé and could never imagine my life without him. We are currently in the process of purchasing our first house together, and I cannot wait to marry my best friend on Saturday, April 21, 2012.

Brooke and Curtis
Wedding Date: April 28, 2012
Our story starts out a little different than most and probably because when we first met we couldn’t even date because I was 17 and he was 24. It all started one afternoon when Curtis went to my brother in law Jon and my sister’s apartment. Curtis and Jon are friends and co-workers at that Chattanooga Police Department. When Curtis walked in he noticed a picture on the counter of a curly haired blonde and immediately picked it up. “Who is this?” he asked and without hesitation Jon replied “uh..that’s April sister and she’s only seventeen”. Curtis could tell by the look on Jon’s face that he was quite protective, but all Curtis could think was “When will she be 18?”

It wasn’t long after this conversation we would meet at a football party. Curtis admitted later that upon seeing me that “she looked even better in person”. This feeling made him a bit uneasy considering the fact that I was still in high school and he had been out of high school for seven years. Over the course of the next few months we would be seeing quite a bit of each other as Jon and April prepared for their wedding. I was the maid of honor and Curtis was a groomsman. During this time there was harmless flirting going back and forth and bit of countdown till the days when I would turn 18. Curtis recounted on the day Jon and April were married.

“I was standing up at the altar and I couldn’t tell you one thing that preacher said or anything else that was going on for that matter. I was looking at Brooke and I began to visualize for a moment that maybe one day this might be us. I guess the idea of that at the time seemed so farfetched that is slowly dwindled from my mind”

After the wedding we did not really see much of each other or even speak. My 18th birthday had come and gone and it wasn’t until the summer after my birthday did he finally ask me out. They say that timing is everything and in this case it would surely apply. We were in two totally different places in our lives. I was just beginning my adulthood and there was so much for me to see and do. On the other hand Curtis was in his mid 20’s and in to his career needless to say our dating was short lived, but we decided to remain friends. Over the years we still would see each other at functions as that Jon and Curtis remained friends. Over the years I have met all his ex girlfriend’s as that he has met all of my ex boyfriends. I mean how often in life does that happen?

In 2010 Curtis and I both were ending serious, long term relationships at around the same time. Up until this point we had not seen much of each other, but that was all about to change. Curtis and I had been talking back and forth on Facebook about going out on a date, but for some reason I could not get him to ask me out. I guess I was getting a bit frustrated but in Curtis’s mind he was newly single and if he was going to do this again he was going to do it right. In June of 2010 I attended the Riverbend Festival where Curtis was working. I remember him standing there in uniform talking to some girls. It was obvious he was flirting so I knew I need to get his attention.

“So, I’m standing there talking to these girls when out of nowhere Brooke walks right up to me. I mean almost in my face. Strangely at that moment I felt so compelled to just kiss her. I couldn’t even get any words out of my mouth and she just continued walking on by without saying a word…I tried to continue my conversation with these girls, but the awkwardness was just too much. Brooke had later walked by once again without saying a word, just a glance. I think it was at that moment the fire was rekindled for both of us”

It wasn’t long after this event we went out on our second first date. I went to Curtis’s apartment the night we were supposed to go out. When he opened the door and led me into the living room there was two roses and tied to them were two Toblerone candy bars. He remembered my favorite candy and I think I was a bit shocked and basically speechless.

“When she walked into living room the look on her face was a bit strange. I started thinking to myself, I did get the right candy right??”

That night we went to Taco Mamacita for dinner and then had ice cream while we walked around the Northshore. It was nice to be able to talk face to face again and rediscover each other. The date turned out to be one of many and we began spending more and more time with each other. Prior to us dating Curtis had planned a trip to Dallas, TX to go see some of our mutual friends, Bridget and Chad. The morning he left I drove him to the airport and you could tell he hated that I wasn’t going with him. After the first day of him being there he tried to call and text me several times, but I could not answer. You could tell he was getting frustrated but there was nothing I could do.

“I just figured she was mad at me for going to Dallas. At that point I could not figure out why she was not answering me and thought maybe she was just playing hard to get”

Our friend Bridget called Curtis on her way home from work and told him that she had a surprise for him. When she got home she told Curtis that his surprise was outside. When he walked outside the surprise was ME! I emptied my savings account and caught a flight out of Birmingham, Alabama just to surprise him.

“Up until I walked out that door I was clueless. It never crossed my mind that Brooke would be standing in that driveway. I was completely shocked and almost felt like crying. It was at that moment I knew”

Needless to say I was a bit nervous about coming there because I had no idea how he would react. It was a gamble that could either make us or break us. All of my fears were relieved when I saw the expression his face. It was complete shock and happiness; he just stood there in that driveway holding me. This trip really jump started our relationship and over the past year sometimes he would just look at me and say “I knew from that moment”. I would ask him what he was referring to and he would always just fall silent with a slight grin on his face. On August 28, 2011 on a Sunday afternoon Curtis said that he was tired and wanted to take a nap. I figured I would join him before we would go out to dinner with some friends. As we laid there in the bed he began talking to me, “Do you know how I always say I knew from that moment?” He proceeded to tell me that he knew from the moment he walked out that door in Dallas and saw my face that I would be his wife. It was much to my surprise that he pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him.

“For months people had been asking me when I was going to pop the question. I had been saying that I would know when the time was right. Just prior to me proposing I had fallen ill and was in the hospital for a few days. Brooke barely left my side the entire time and I think then I realized that this woman was for me”

On April 28, 2012 we will be united as one in marriage on the very same alter that Curtis had once envisioned us getting married.

Aimee and Gary
Wedding Date: May 18, 2012
We met at The University of Alabama in August 2009. I (Aimee) first heard about Gary from my boyfriend at the time a few months before moving to Tuscaloosa. Not long after hearing about him did my boyfriend break up with me. I moved to Tuscaloosa and just happened to run into Gary at a back-to-school get-together my roommate talked me into going to with her. We instantly connected and I recently found out that the wife of Gary’s good friend told him that night that she bet him we’d start dating very soon.

I was still getting over my exboyfriend and was not ready to date anyone for awhile. In the beginning I was very oblivious to Gary’s efforts to pursue me. He would call and ask me to come over to his apartment to cook out. Of course, he was always last minute and I always had other plans. In the mean time I was still hanging out with my exboyfriend (yes, I was that girl that let him lead me on even when I knew he didn’t want to be with me). Not long after moving to Tuscaloosa I met another guy and he quickly asked me out to dinner the night after meeting. I said yes and once Gary found out he started getting discouraged. All of his friends would tell him to give up and move on. He would tell them he just couldn’t, that there was something special there and he wanted to give it another try.

I finally came to my senses after four months of being pursued. In December 2009 we became an official couple. In the past two years Gary and I have grown together and have become best friends. We have experienced some very good times and together we’ve endured some tragic times. At The University of Alabama we made many wonderful memories, spending every possible waking moment together.

On April 27, 2011 we experienced something we never expected to have to go through. All day the news reported on severe weather approaching Tuscaloosa and central Alabama. About 3 oclock in the afternoon Gary left work a couple of mintues early because the tornado sirens started going off. He didn’t want to get stuck at work because of bad weather for the third time in the past two weeks. He went to his apartment, decided not to get a shower, grabbed a change of clothes and headed to my apartment. When he got there we, along with my roommate and her fiance, decided to stay at my apartment (the second floor of a very unstable building), thinking that this would all blow over soon. Gary, as any typical boy, went outside to see if he could see the tornado and what all the commotion was about. He called me outside and within a few minutes we saw the tornado passing in the distance. We ran inside and took cover in the bathroom. After it all blew over we walked to campus because we heard more bad weather was coming. As the next couple of hours developed we learned some devistating news. A friend of ours was in his second-story apartment when the tornado hit his building and was killed instantly. We later learned the next day that Gary’s apartment was demolished and everything he owned was unsalvagable. I feel so very blessed to have survived when we could have easily have been in the path of destruction. I also feel so blessed to still have the love of my life when he could have been at his apartment, right in the path of the tornado. It’s times and circumstances like these that make us realize what we have and to not take each other for granted.

While this doesn’t sound like the sweetest love story, it has strengthened our relationship and made it the way it is today. Through everything we have been through we have learned more and more about each other and about the way we handle situations. We are confident that, together, we will be able to endure hardships, the good times, and bad ones in the days to come.

I currently live in Birmingham, AL and he is in Tuscaloosa, AL. We count down the days each week until we can see each other again the next weekend. We got engaged September 22 and will be getting married May 18, 2012. We are so excited to spend the rest of our lives together and share life together!

Getting married while still in school, our budget for the wedding is very tight. Winning this wedding photography giveaway would help us out a GREAT deal!! We would love to be able to preserve our special day in pictures for us to look back on.

Megan and Christopher
Wedding Date: June 16, 2012
When I graduated from high school my mom had just died, I was going to the last university on my list of colleges, all of my friends were moving away, and I had just broken up from a bad relationship. I was alone and hurt, but did not want anyone’s help. I was very determined to get my bachelor’s degree, move onto becoming a molecular geneticist, not let anyone past my shields, and find a husband after receiving my doctorate. Males in general were not in my field of vision at this time and I did not want them to be, but I did pray to God for a best friend. In my eyes this would be another girl friend that I could share my hopes and dreams with, but God had a different idea for my life.

Beginning in September of 2008 one of my friends got me to start regularly attending swing dance club meetings. At first I could not even hold any guy’s hand fully during a dance, but over time God softened my heart to let me know that I could go back to being my usual happy self. Still, I did not want to dance with any guys. I was much more content to teach other people how to swing dance.

In November of 2008 Christopher came to a swing dance club meeting with our mutual friend Josh. At this particular meeting there were more guys than girls, so I was needed to dance with guys. When I was open to dance in the middle of the meeting I had finally unwound. Covered in sweat and grime I went over to the three guys standing by the wall and asked which of them would like to dance next. Christopher put his hand forward with a smile and said that he would love to. I did not dance with any other guy that night. We were the last to leave and I created a facebook account just so that I could instant message him until 3 am the next morning. We both needed a friend and that was all that we saw each other as until about a week later when all of our friends bailed on coming with us to see the Dark Knight in the university center and we were all alone talking through the entire movie. We discovered that we both love Jesus, loved to dance, quoted movies in every day conversation, and had the same goals in life. The rest was history.

Throughout our relationship we have had our ups and downs, just like any couple, but the ups and downs have not been with us so much as the circumstances around us. We have helped each other through my diagnosis of PTSD and OCD and through his diagnosis of narcolepsy. God has truly fused us together and our wedding will be a celebration of the blessings God has given us.

Jamesa and Thomas
Wedding Date: August 4, 2012
Broken, still breathing, but not bleeding, I happened to luck up on a dear friend. A sweet girl, so distracted by the ways of the world that her hopefulness about finding love made me open my heart. After a dear friend of mine died, my fiance, my heart. I swore I’d never love again, but this particular girl shed light on the fact that I was still alive. She made me recall a conversation me and my lost friend once had about relationships. I had made the declaration that “ if things didn’t work out between he and I,” I would surely be an old maid. No more trying. I remember him grabbing my face and looking me dead in the eyes, just two days before he passed. “Don’t ever say that!!!…You are a great woman and you deserve love….and if we don’t work out or something ever happens to me…I only pray someone will come along that believes you are as beautiful as I see you to be and loves you even half as much as I love you….in fact I’ll pray for God to deliver that person to you.”

This same girl made me realize that my college boyfriend and I were not ready for love and his finding someone new was not a reflection on who I was or what I deserved. That my high school boyfriend, who I’d known for fourteen years couldn’t trust me because of his own issues and insecurities. I had remained celibate for almost two years after that. Seeking to fulfill my role as the best mother and teacher that I could be and rationalized that I could date but I didn’t have to give myself physically to anyone and if they weren’t patient, then they weren’t deserving of me.

Upon meeting my new friend, she reminded me that I was beautiful and that any man would be lucky to have me. “I wasn’t living,” she said. I was just existing. She then told me about an internet site that after a few days I peruised. Met a couple of great gentleman, but not on the same path as I. I just wanted to live. Enjoy life. No drama, no games, and no insecurities. She even introduced me to a friend of hers who was fantastic but his way of thinking was quite distorted in relation to mine and then I met Thomas.

I remember thinking, “the men on this site are only looking for one thing and I want more.” TC, as his friends call him was a hard working man, with a mind much like mine. The yin to my yang, he was patient and understanding and only desired that I opened up to him and give him a chance. I was cautious at first, then scared because I actually had feelings again. He and I put a challenge to ourselves not to let the baggage of our past influence our actions. Not to let the drama of others corruot our thinking. As months flew by, I didn’t even notice I was in love with him. It just became a part of who I was. He was love to me. When he asked me to marry him after only a few months, my answer was surprisingly yes. It was even a surprise to me. I realize now that I was given a gift and still know that all relationships take work.

I am truly happy that I took the chance to start living again. I know that some higher power and prayers in my favor were instrumental in leading Thomas to me. Of all of the fish in the sea, I didn’t have to catch a million to get a big prize, just one thousand pound Marlin.

Kimberly and JR
Wedding Date: August 5, 2012
We both live in Maryland, about 20 minutes apart from each other. We have known each other since second grade, where we went to elementary school together at Beltsville Adventist School. It was love at first sight for JR. Our first “date” was at Chuck E Cheeses in third grade. We have gone to school together ever since, including high school and college. We now attend Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee, where we plan to graduate in December with our nursing degrees. Near the end of Summer 2007, through mutual friends, we ended up going on vacation to a place called Topsail Island in North Carolina. It is a small island with a beach, and lots of nice restaurants. Before this, we hadn’t really been friends, but we thought of each other as being caring people. We started getting to know each other a little better a few days into the vacation, and there was definitely mutual interest starting to grow, although we did our best to hide that from each other. Late one night, we were at a pool affiliated with the place we were staying with our mutual friends. They decided they were ready to go back to the condo, but we decided to stay and talk by ourselves. We were talking for a few hours, when out of know where a giant flashlight started blinding our eyes. It was a security guard who was there to inform us that we were swimming WAY passed pool closing time. We sheepishly climbed out and walked back to the condo. That night started something wonderful between us. We started dating a few weeks after that vacation and continued dating for 3 years. At the end of Summer 2010, we decided that it was mutually beneficial that we just be friends, and no longer date. We continued to be friends for that following school year. Near the end of the 2010 school year (March 2011), Kim decided that she wanted to work at a summer camp in Wisconsin called Camp Wakonda. This commitment would require her to be there for 2 months during that summer. Although we weren’t dating, we continued to be best of friends for the entire 2010 school year (before Kim went to Wisconsin) and those 2 months that Kim was gone was the longest that we had been apart ever since we originally started dating. Neither of us anticipated how hard that was going to be, and JR had an especially difficult time. He didn’t realize how much Kim meant to him, and it took Kim being gone for 2 months for him to realize how much he still loved her. A few weeks after Kim left for Wisconsin, JR realized that he was in for the hardest and most trying summer of his life. Kim had been such a huge part of JR’s life for the last 4 years, and all of a sudden his best friend, confidant, and overall favorite person in the world was gone. They were unable to contact each other regularly, due to Kim not having a cell phone in Wisconsin. We talked once a week or so, sometimes not that often. About 3 weeks after Kim left, JR (after talking to the people closest to him, except Kim) made the most important decision of his life: he decided that he would ask Kim to marry him when she returned from Wisconsin. The day she got back, JR picked Kim up from the airport and they went to a baseball game that night. Kim’s favorite player, Nolan Reimold of the Baltimore Orioles, hit a game-winning home run that night (August 10, 2011). The next day, JR picked Kim up around 5 in the morning, en route to the place where everything started: Topsail Island, North Carolina. After the 7 hour drive, they spent the rest of the day swimming and soaking up the sun on the beach. Later that night, JR took Kim for a walk on the beach to watch the sunset. When it was totally dark outside, JR knew it was time. He waited for the perfect moment, dropped to one knee, pulled out the engagement ring box he was hiding so cleverly in his pocket, opened it, and asked Kim to marry him. The reason why JR waited till night time was because he had bought a ring box that had a light built into it so that Kim would be able to see the ring in the dark. It turned out perfectly, the ring looked beautiful in the dark with the light shining onto it. Because it was a complete surprise to Kim, she needed a little while to think it over (anybody in their right mind would carefully consider such an important decision). About an hour after the proposal, Kim said “yes!” We are both happier than we have ever been, and are looking forward to our future with everything it has in store for our marriage and life together.

Wendy and Mike
Wedding Date: September 22, 2012
Ive always been scared of online dating but a friend made me a profile on Zoosk as a joke. Thankgoodness they did or I would have never met my soulmate! Mike and I origanally met online and it turned out that he knew my mother from work. Lifes little hurdles made things stressful for a while and also had a big part in making our relationship move faster. I moved in with Mike a month after dating and nothing has been the same since! We definately have a fun relationship! you never know what is going to happen next. He always asks me the silliest things; such as if we need the toilet seat while im in the shower!! Mike and I had been talking about getting married for a little while and one day while Im using the rest room he sat down on the tub and asked me to marry him! I know its very unconviental to ask someone to marry you while they are peeing but it definately fits our relationship and is something Ill never forget! We are planning on getting married September 22, 2012! And of course we are having a football kind of themed wedding! You never know what will happen next in our crazy fun relationship!

Brooke and Brandon
Wedding Date: November 10, 2012
As October started its charming entrance with the changing of the leaves and the cooling of the air I turned more and more to social networking to keep my spirits up. That’s where I met her; she was related to a former trainee of mine and commented on his posts from time to time. I loved her sense of humor and was always amazed at how quickly she responded, line for line with equal wit. Quickly she stole all my attention, I could barely sleep through the night anticipating each “notification” that she had “commented on some silly thing I had posted.

I still remember our first lil “thing” (all couples have those inside things) was poking. It was a constant game to see who could poke the other the most in a day, and who could get the last one in. I was falling for her quickly and realized I had never even looked at a picture of her yet. A small glimmer of hope for that one big romance came flooding back. Could it be that I was falling for a girl based off of personality alone?
For me this was a feat in many ways, not to say that I am shallow at all, but as anyone would be, I do need physical attraction as well as the emotional. I quickly went to her page and browsed through her pictures. I found myself wondering in each image, “who is this person” “I wonder where she was” “why are there so few pictures of her” Then I came to the picture that sealed my heart as hers.

She was knelt down at a fall festival with her son, smiling, not just any smile, but the the most gorgeous smile I had ever seen. I studied over her face; each line near her eyes gave me an indication of how happy she was in the picture. It was a genuine smile; one I quickly noticed wasn’t present in all of her pictures. I giggled to myself having realized a truth of her personality so soon. She had two smiles, as a lot of people do. The smile that you put on for the world when they expect you to, and the one that spreads naturally across your face betraying whatever reserves you may try to have. It was that feature (her true smile) that I thought made her the most beautiful lady I had ever seen.

Tara and Samuel
Wedding Date: March 17, 2013
In 2009, Tara suffered an incredibly painful loss. Her boyfriend of eight years passed away from massive organ failure. Not a perfect relationship, there was still much love shared. Though he proposed marriage multiple times, she declined, considering themselves too young, with a relationship much in need of repair before such a commitment. He often spoke of how she deserved more than what he could provide: someone her family would approve of, a sweet, caring man who would make her laugh, and be there for her utterly and completely, without the negative health choices her then-boyfriend recklessly pursued. Every night before bed, he would say he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. In the hospital and the decision made to cut off life support, Tara stayed by his side through his final heartbeat. She wanted him to know that she was there, and he got to spend the rest of his life with her. Thinking she would never bounce back from such a loss, she gave up on love. Three months after his passing, Tara met Samuel.

Meanwhile, Samuel was on sick leave from his college studies. He hoped to purse a dual degree in trumpet performance and music education, eventually becoming a band director, private trumpet instructor, and freelance musician. With his health obstacles, these goals seemed out of reach. With stints as chief intern of a congressional campaign, as a bookseller, and medical transcriptionist, all the while his friends in school finding love, Samuel felt he was treading water and not accomplishing anything. Looking for his bashert, his soul mate, Samuel came across Tara.

Though she felt a strong connection with him, Tara convinced herself that she was not ready to date. Her mother convinced her to go out for coffee with Samuel, figuring the worst-case scenario was making a new friend. The expected thirty-minute coffee date turned into three hours filled with laughter, great stories, and sparks. In addition, strange coincidences abounded. In particular, it was fascinating to discover Samuel’s father, a pediatrician, treated Tara when she was a child. One week prior to meeting Samuel, after eight years, Tara happened catch sight of her former pediatrician at the grocery store. Assuming that he would not recognize her after all that time, Tara did not go over to say hello. Imagine her surprise at going on a date with her doctor’s son a mere week later!

Later on, they realized they had met many years before at Samuel’s dad’s office, when Samuel was three and Tara about five. At this first date, Samuel discovered Tara had recently been accepted to a graduate school program in upstate New York – over 1,000 miles away from his home in Georgia. Though he knew this could prove problematic once the summer ended, he refused to let this obstacle stand in his way. A lot to take in on a first date, one thing was certain: something was bringing them together.

After the date, Samuel went home with a smile that had not been seen for months. His parents were excited for him and knew this girl was someone special to have such an effect on him.

Tara left confused, not knowing if she wanted to see Samuel again. When her mother asked why, Tara’s response was: “he was too nice.” Her mother reassured her that this was at it was supposed to be, though Tara was not used to such kindness from a relationship.

Though Samuel was ready to commit to a relationship, Tara quite literally was hanging on to her previous boyfriend. Her previous boyfriend was adopted and had always wanted to know more about his birth family. Before his death, he received information that his birth parents were Irish, and this was the first tangible information he had on his nationality and history. From that moment, he often spoke of visiting Ireland, but this was not to be. Tara and her mother planned a trip to Europe, specifically focused with a stop in Ireland to spread his ashes over the Cliffs of Moor, so part of him would always be in Ireland. Tara needed to complete this act before she truly committed to Samuel, even though she wanted to. The next four weeks took ages to pass, though the time apart made them realize how quickly and fully they had fallen for each other.

When she returned to America, Samuel braved Atlanta rush hour traffic to pick her up at the airport, chocolate rose in hand, to be able to see her as soon as he possibly could. Following this trip, with each passing day, they fell for each other more completely.

When the summer ended, Tara left for New York, but the two were ready to commit, and Samuel visited her in New York every three weeks or so. After that summer, Tara’s mom stopped by a psychic in New York City. There, the psychic sensed the presence of Tara’s previous boyfriend, knowing intimate details about his life. He told Tara’s mother he knew of the new man in Tara’s life and wanted to let Tara know that he had sent Samuel to her. When Tara heard this, she was in shock and in awe. This cemented in her mind that Samuel was everything her previous boyfriend had said she deserved and more. For Tara, everything just made sense.

It is very difficult to be so far from one’s love, so Samuel took matters into his own hands and applied for admission to the same university as Tara. Accepted into the program for the following semester, the two moved into together and had a wonderful two-year experience in Binghamton.

After Tara finished her master’s degree, they moved back to Atlanta. On a graduation, celebratory cruise, Samuel proposed to Tara, and wedding planning commenced.

We are two crazy, goofy, mushy kids who are head over heels for each other. It seems like fate had a plan for us to be together. Though it sounds mushy – we are mushy; very mushy – we complete each other. We’re better people when we’re with each other and because of each other.

Our life together contractually starts on March 17, 2013, and we cannot wait for the big day.

Charlotte and William
Wedding Date: Unknown
Our story began in Aug. of 2009, when I first met my fiance while living in Theodore, Alabama. I was at home one day with my mother watching TV when my younger brother came inside and asked for the keys to my car. My brother rarely ever asked to borrow my car so I asked where he was planning on going and he informed me that a boy next door had the same kind of car and he wanted to look at mine to see how to fix the AC. I walked outside with my brother and that’s when I first saw him, William. He was so beautiful! I stopped on the top step and couldn’t move. He was leaning against my car, looking like a male model! When I finally walked to my car my brother introduced him as WeWe, a nickname is grandmother had given him when he was a little boy. He immediatly told me to call him Will. They were there for only a few mintues before they walked back over to Will’s house to fix his car. After that day he and my brother became best friends, and he was at my house everyday. I learned about his family and his past and soaked in every detail. He told me he had two children and I was fine with that. I was told at a young age that I couldn’t have children. After a few months Will and I started to really get to know each other, he would come over to the house whether my brother was there or not and we would just talk about random days. On Novemeber 6, 2009 he FINALLY asked me out! I was soooooo excited! Five months into our relationship I found out I was pregnant with my miracle baby, William III. After thinking for 12 years that I would never have children I had gotten pregnant! William and I were so happy! But I found out that because I was lucky to get pregnant that I was at high risk for losing our son. The entire nine months I was pregnant William was at my side, doing everything he could to help me. Our son spent 6 1/2 month in the NICU in Mobile, Alabama because of intestinal problems that he was born with. At 7 months old my son was FINALLY sent home from the hospital were he has had some minor problems but nothing too major. William and I have been together through out it all. On Oct. 3, 2011 William purposed to me while laying in bed one night! It was such a surprise because William never wanted to get married before but now he’s ready to start a life with me! I would love to win this contest because we do not have a lot of money so getting pictures done at our wedding is going to be hard to do. Please pick us as the winner!!!

THE WINNING COUPLE:
The winning couple will receive an engagement session with 80+ high resolution photos, with retouching and enhancements, on a CD with print release form. They will also receive full-day wedding coverage (from getting ready to farewell), with a disc of 200-400 high resolution photos and print release, as well as a beautiful full-color photo album from their special day. This package is valued at over $3,000.

RUNNER-UPS:
And the couples who submit the top three love stories will receive a complimentary engagement session and a 50 percent discount on any of our wedding packages! This engagement session includes up to 80 high resolution photos, with retouching and enhancements, on a CD with print release form.

FINALISTS:
The remaining top 10 finalists will be offered a 20 percent discount on any of our wedding packages!