As many of you know, each year our company gives back by a “Deserving Couple” wedding. We network with some pretty fabulous wedding professionals (many industry leaders) to design an over the top wedding for a very lucky couple. We felt we had been so very fortunate in life, in business and were blessed with family and healthy children. It is our way of giving back and best using our talents.
(last season’s deserving couple wedding @ The Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown, New York) Justin Marantz Photography
For 2011 wedding season we’re designing THREE deserving couple weddings! (so we are NOT accepting applications for this season, but feel free to apply for 2012 wedding) In 2012, we’re opening up the contest BEYOND New England. We’ll go anywhere in the United States. However, we’ll only be selecting ONE couple!
Deserving wedding #1: Karri & Chris their vendors:
Sarah Porter Memorial Hall
Emily’s Catering Group
Sixpence For Your Shoe
Ryan Designs
Steve Depino Photography
Paper Olive
Cookie Creatives
Sandra Downie Beauty
The Plumed Serpent Lovely Cakes
Dancing Pen Calligraphy
(No Eye Has Seen Photography will be capturing all of their rehearsal dinner images)
Deserving wedding #2: Anna & Justin their vendors:
The Webb Barn
Emily’s Catering Group
Ryan Designs
Sixpence For Your Shoe
Justin & Mary Marantz Photography
Stonington Paperie
Cookie Creatives
The White Dress by the Shore
Sandra Downie Beauty
Dancing Pen Calligraphy
(No Eye Has Seen Photography will be capturing all of their rehearsal dinner images)
Deserving wedding #3: Christina & Dustin their vendors:
La Cupola Ristorante & Inn
Chandelier Events
Kelly’s Sweet Rewards
AriaDress
Averill Farms The Litchfield Inn
Stacey Ilyse Photography
The Spa at Litchfield Hills
Lamothe’s Sugar House
Bindi Desserts
Sara Faella
Fizz Paperie
We’re honored that so many top wedding industry leaders donate their time, products and services! Without them, we couldn’t design such incredible deserving couple weddings!
Weddings by Jessica’s Country Flowers
Hi,
i would like to know how can you enter for the 2012 wedding contest?
thank you in advance
Yessenia
Hi! My name is Sheri,my fiance, Sanjo Bosi and I have been engaged since November 2010 (on my birthday actually) and planning a wedding for February 2012.
Sanjo and I met by chance at an after work networking party, which at the time unbeknownst to me was thrown by him. He was the “club promoter” for this party also friends with the people who had invited me. After taking a fabulous group picture I screamed out “I want a copy”! “The King of Queens” as he is known in the promoting world was very fast to pop out his business card. I (not trying to be mean I swear! just being honest) looked at him and said “are you kidding? you think I will still have that card after two more of these (pointing to my cocktail)” and proceeded to give him MY business card. A week later I had a new friend on facebook and a great new picture for my albums! I continued to attend the party every Wednesday all summer, after all it was one of the top 5 summer parties rated by TIME OUT and my little single real estate butt needed to network and mingle. It was a great party, all the while my now fiance flirted with me and often tried to lure me to his VIP cabana. I never paid him any mind after all what business did I have with a “club promoter” with nothing but a party life to offer after my recent 10 yr on and off relationship had wasted my life! Also not to mention that in the back of my mind was the baby issue (I avoided the thought of it at all costs but sometimes there is just no control on that when the clock is ticking) I was/ am over 30 suffering from LUPUS my window for baby making was/is closing on me everyday! As summer ended through the magic Facebook Sanjo and I became cyber friends chatting once in a while to chatting for hours with out end. I learned that he was a “club promoter” by night to help pay for his MBA and also a manager for a NYSC gym by day, not such a loser after all (here is Sheri feeling like a real jerk). Summer was over and it was almost my birthday I was on a dating sabbaticle and Sanjo was dating half the world, but I guess the universe had another plan for us and the stars very unexpectedly aligned. One night chatting on facebook yet again Sanjo complaining about having to break up with his most current “girl” and me having no plans for my birthday weekend, we decided to for the first time “hang out” alone for some casual drinks, which then turned into dinner and through conversation find out we had a friend in common whose birthday party was that night. We partied all night and have been inseparable since. We moved in 3 months later. The night before my birthday after crying my eyes out to a show about babies (always gets me when I think of how much I want a baby and how much longer I need to wait, very emotional subject for me),I had recently been to see my Rheumotologist who had given me quite grim news on my possibilities of holding a pregnancy at my age with LUPUS and all of the complications that have developed since my diagnoses, Sanjo proposed we start a family and popped out my beautiful engagement ring! That was this past November. I would love a winter wedding I think its very romantic plus it is the most reasonable amount of time to save for this wedding. Between my medical expenses and his MBA school payments it hasn’t been easy. We barely have anything yet. I have only left a deposit on a dress and the initial deposit on a venue and hoping we can get it all together in time for the wedding when we want it. Thank you for your time and I am crossing my fingers!
My relationship with Michael
Michael and I met while he was a senior and I was a sophmore in Highschool; we shared the same homeroom and had a few friends in common. Although we were young, we have always been old souls and noticed right away how happy the little time we had to spend together was. He was the first guy I ever had any feelings for and we even had the chance to go to Junior Prom together through some friends that invited us. My mother was quite traditional back then and I didn´t have a lot of freedom so we worked around our school schedule and joined many activities and clubs to be able to spend that time. We dated most of that year (99), unfortunately, my family had to move back to Venezuela because my stepdad was done with his Phd and my mother with hers. The years passed while we were apart and I always wondered how Michael had been doing for himself. I have always thought he´s a very sweet and caring man, he has never stopped being one of the most polite and respectful guys I have ever known. Every year something would jolt my memory, and I cherished my yearbook as well as many thoughts and songs that teletransported me back to 99.
Approximately a year and a few months ago (around January I think) he added me to facebook. I thought it was a little odd because in my mind I believed him to be married and having kids by then. At first I was scared but I ended up accepting him. We started sending each other messages and chatting and it felt so easy and natural.At first it was incredibly exciting, scary and sweet all mixed together. We found ourselves chatting until all ours in the night and it felt so perfect. One thing I have always loved about him is that I can be myself in every aspect. I don´t have to be polite, or hide my mood swings, or try to be less corny…I can be the complete klutz I am and talk like a parrot and this guy, this amazing man thinks I´m not only incredibly beautiful (even when I gained more than 60 pounds since highschool) but he doesn´t feel intimidated by my intelligence, or my passion for knowledge and research. He understands me in every way… from being such a geek when it comes to science and knowledge to my silly love of hot pink and potbelly pigs.
We started getting closer and I started noticing how bright and hardworking he is. I started to find myself laughing at the stupidest jokes that could be imagined and worrying over his father´s illness as if it were mine. We could talk for hours and never run out of topics. Yet the most amazing thing was realizing that it felt like we weren´t apart for a single day. No awkwardness, no silences, no “who is this?” feeling. It has been perfect since that first day I glanced at him in high school even though we´ve screamed at each other and slammed our phones down. There really hasn´t been any other person in my life who just gets who I am. I´m confusing and weird; like loving girly things and pigs yet being terrified of weddings.. he just knows me like no other man has ever been able to know me and it has always come natural to us. Nothing has ever been forced… he loves me even though I´m a planner and control freak, and I love him for being a man of strong traditional values, for being goofy and sweet, even though it means dealing with his Yankees addiction or his elephant snores.
In July (07/28/2010) we confronted each other about how we were feeling and decided that we would date long distance even if it was harder and mocked by most, it took us a few weeks to make it public and admit to our friends and family that we had decided to be a couple. The next December (2010), he took me to Barbados for my birthday. It was the most beautiful week of my life. We hadn´t seen each other in ten years and I had butterflies in my stomach but the minute he hugged me and I was in his arms I knew that as crazy as it sounds we´re just perfect. We are worlds apart, and our lives continued individually but every step we took led us to be more understanding and more prepared to have the relationship we have now.
Even our families have noticed our smiles, this peace we walk with now that we have found each other again. Especially when I came up to visit this past month…it was so amazing to see all our loved ones around us supporting our decision to take a road less traveled and keep staying strong until the day we can be together. We are very hardworking people, family oriented and we want to have the opportunity to have a calm family life where we can work with all our strength to provide for our future family, travel ,watch games, takes night drives with the top down and dance to a slow jazz after a hectic day. Our goals are simple… we want to be together, to enjoy our life side by side with hopefully two kids, our two dogs and my piggy (he promised). Yet of course we want to be comfortable, with our beautiful house built near his family and being able to enjoy the simple things in nature.
We plan on having our wedding in the spring of 2012, the date depending on the legal paperwork. We want our special moment to be like us…. A very chic and simple garden wedding with our loved ones. After all we have been through we know that it will be a day we will never forget. His parents are letting us use their house and garden and having all the family support means so much to us.
It sounds awfully corny but he is the love of my life. I never forgot how he loved the person I am, how next to him I want to do the impossible if it makes him smile, and how years have gone by and no other man has ever been able to fill his shoes. What do I love about him? The stuff he hides from everyone else. Like the fact his sibling’s opinions matter so much to him that his eyes water if he thinks he´s let them down. How he looks up to his mom and stepdad for building a strong company even if it meant him feeling a little neglected when he was a kid. That he´s just as messed up as I am when it comes to how we feel about our bodies so he gets it when I say I feel plumpy. That he sleeps with his puppy Abby on the bed smushed in his arms, and he takes care of his super expensive decorative pillows. He laughs with the most annoying laughter in human kind and makes the weirdest noise when he hiccups…yet I see him smile and all I can think is how unbelievably grateful I am to God that he was put on my path again because I get to marry the man of my dreams, my highschool sweetheart and best friend. We are in two continents right now, and sometimes it´s hard to be apart…but after being separated for 11 years waiting one more is a piece of cake as long as I get to walk down the aisle and into his arms (and he´s there to catch me when I trip over my own two feet and make a donkey out of myself).
My fiance and my love story is very unique. It’s a sad, but heartwarming story about how every detail of our wedding has changed in the past two months. Tragedy struck two months ago when a neighbor (we do not know who) brutally mutilated my fiancé and my 6 month old kitten (who is like our first child)! It is a sad day when mankind harms something as innocent and helpless a child or baby animal, and leaves it to die. When my fiancé found the kitten, he was in complete shock, with 7 broken bones, and puncture wounds (not consistent with animal markings), and had lost half his body weight in blood and fluid. We decided to forgo our dream wedding (the life support and subsequent surgeries and treatment were very expensive) and save the first member of our family instead.
A few months later, Kinevel, the kitten, is fully healed and my fiance and I are looking towards the future. We still want to have a very memorable, romantic, and unique event, but now have a very modest budget to work with and are therefore looking to hopefully win a wedding or elements of one to help us with this event. We can’t offer a lot in return, except for our extreme thanks and a once in a lifetime chance to be part of this truely unique love story.
My name is Lizeth Guzman. I am 23 years old. My future husbands name is Jose Meza who is 20 years old. We live in Los Angeles, CA. We met last year at a family party.
A girl always dreams of finding her prince charming. a man who will treat her like a princess. Well in my case, I found my prince charming. In 2009, my 4 year realationship with my high school sweet heart ended. I was completely heart broken. I literally felt my life was over. I then became a party girl. I started going out and being reckless. I even grew distant from my family. Guys kept hurting and messing with my feelings. I became sure that love did not exisit and that I would never get married. I hated boys and treated every guy I met with bitterness.
When I met Jose, I was skeptical of him. I did not trust him and pushed him away simply because I did not trust boys. For some reason, he kept calling and texting me. He would not give up on me. He told me that he believed in his heart I was the perfect girl for him. He said he could tell I was a sweet girl who needed love to inorder for the bitterness to go away. I decided to give him a chance. We started dating and he quickly won my heart. It was the smallest details that made me fall in love with him.
This year has been the hardest for me. I have been going through a roller coaster.
I have being having health issues. I get strong headaches which make wake up in the middle of the night. They last all day. At first doctors thought it was a tumor. I don’t have health insurance and couldn’t afford to get a scan of my brain. Luckily God sent me an angel named Jose, my fiancé. He was able to get the money for me. He worked and night to get the extra money. I was able to do my scan and found out I didn’t have a tumor. I continue swith the pain, but my love continues at my side. my mom just recently got bad news that she needs eye surgery ASAP or else she might go blind. My fiancé has been my biggest emotional support. I feel that a guy would not stay with a girl dealing with all these problems. My fiancé is different. He has proven to be there for me through sickness and in health. He is an amazing human being and there isn’t a day that goes by without me thanking God for sending him to me. I feel my fiancé needs this prize. I want to provide him with some financial relief. He has been trying his hardest to save for our wedding next year. He deserves this. I do not want this wedding planning to be a burden on him.