Our Real Couple of the Year Contest giving away free wedding photoraphy is over after over 5000 votes and the winners are (insert drumroll here):
Cindy and John!
Cindy is currently deployed in the Middle East, so when I have spoken with her in the past, she’s said how much it would mean to her to have this part of her wedding taken care of and off her worries! I’m sure she and John would like to thank everyone that voted for them!
We are so excited to photography their wedding and can’t wait to share those pictures with everyone (the Academy Chapel is really a dream location for wedding photographers, so we hope we’ll do it justice)!
Nic and I would like to thank all of our finalists for participating. We have loved sharing their stories with you and thank everyone who came to visit our website to vote for their friends/family/favorites! It has been a wonderful experience and we look forward to doing a similar wedding photography give-away contest for 2009!
In case you missed it the first time around, here is their winning entry:
Cindy and John – 23 August 2008
We quickly connected with Cindy and John’s story. Our relationship also began in college with our Air Force training (ours in ROTC rather than the Academy) and we had lots of long-distance times in our own relationship. And if that wasn’t enough to pull at our heart strings, Cindy and John are tanker pilots…and I have had an unusual love affair with tankers ever since my Aircraft Maintenance tech school (other maintainers thought I had it sweet working at Langley with F-15s and F-22s…and all I could dream of were KC-10s)!
My name is Cindy, and I would like to share my love story with you. My fiance, John, and I are both first lieutenants in the U.S. Air Force. We are both KC-135 Stratotanker pilots, and as such conduct air refueling for other jets. That probably makes us the highest paid gas station attendants in the world!
How We Met (or “The Usual He-said, She-said”)
John and I met a few years before we even considered dating each other, as freshmen (actually we were called “fourth class cadets”) at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Though I had worked hard to land a congressional nomination and appointment to the Academy, my first real exposure to the military and life away from my small hometown was a bit daunting. But I’d been running on sports teams basically my whole life, so joining the Academy’s cross country and track teams was my release. I found that running was the same no matter where you were. It was at one of the first few practices that I met John.
John was born and raised in central Florida, near Orlando. He was the tall, dark haired, stunningly handsome, and confidant guy you’d expect to meet in a beach town. I figured there would be no chance he could ever be interested in me. Years later he told me that I had caught his eye during those first few practices as well–me in my short running shorts and spaghetti-strap sports bra–but of course I had no idea at the time.
Time passed, and we became teammates, mere acquaintances–because I could never work up enough courage to really talk with him outside of practice. The next summer, my boyfriend-at-the-time failed to pick me up at the airport upon my return from summer leave at home in California. While I was on the phone with him, furious and stranded, John walked up to me in the airport and offered me a ride. I was embarrassed, but took him up on the offer. He was very pleasant and friendly, but I was sure he was laughing on the inside at me and my awkwardness. He tells me now that he had enjoyed talking with me so much, he decided then that he was going to date me someday.
Over the next two and half years I ran into him at various times. Every time we’d meet he would stop and ask me about things–classes, running, my family, my boyfriend–and he genuinely seemed to care. I’d always walk away thinking he was so sweet and sincere. Of course in my head I was swooning over the fact that he actually remembered my name! He says he was always scheming on how to take me out on a date. He wanted me to know that he cared, and to make sure that I didn’t forget about him. At long last, he asked me out, and we just clicked—chatting through our first date for more than seven hours!
Fast-Forward (or “Insert Complications Here”)
Two years later, the military put a stumbling block into our otherwise ordinary development as a couple. We were both in pilot training, and it was time for each of us to make some career decisions about first, what type of airplane to fly and second, where we each wanted to live for our first assignments (about four years). I came upon decision-making time first and though we were very much in love, we decided I should ask for assignments based on my personal preferences and we’d figure things out with us down the road. My first choice: Fly KC-135s in Mildenhall, England. And sure enough, I was granted orders to England as a KC-135 pilot! I was so excited.
Seven months later—more secure in our relationship and ready to commit—it was time for John to request his first assignment. His request: KC-135s to Mildenhall England, in hopes of following me. The tanker was not actually his favorite, but it might make it more likely for us to be stationed together. As we waited to hear the results of his assignment, I packed up my belongings, shipped them to England, and bought a plane ticket in preparation for my departure. Much to our dismay, John was given orders to fly KC-135’s, but in McConnell, Kansas. Instead of Great Britain, he would be living in the Great Plains. Now he was stuck flying a plane that would not have been his first choice, and we wouldn’t even be living on the same side of the Atlantic.
He had sacrificed a lot for the chance of being with me, and so I decided it was time I do the same. I requested my orders be changed to Kansas in order to be with him. John of course did not want me to give up England–he knew how excited I was for the assignment–but life with him in Kansas would bring me more joy than life alone in England.
I moved to Kansas in October, with the two small suitcases I had planned on flying with me across the ocean. With all the rest of my belongings already being shipped to England, I had no furniture and was even borrowing shower towels for months, but I knew I had made the right choice. Things started to fall into place in December. My belongings finally arrived back from their voyage to England (my couch is now more traveled than I am) and I settled into my new place. Then on Christmas Eve in my hometown, John asked me to marry him!
Our Wedding (or “Happily Ever After … Mostly”)
We will be sharing our vows in front of friends and family back where it all began—in Colorado at the Air Force Academy, in the beautiful Cadet Chapel on August 23, 2008. (If you haven’t seen it before, the Chapel is simply gorgeous–every photographers dream;) ) I couldn’t be happier with the way things have turned out, but there are still many obstacles in our future.
Long term, even though we are stationed together now, every re-assignment brings with it the risk of being separated. The needs of the Air Force will always trump the desires of the wedded members. We are thankful for our good fortune so far, and will never take it for granted! Wedding-wise, planning is kind of difficult. With my family living in California, his family in Florida, me in Kansas and him in Oklahoma (he won’t be moving to Kansas until a few months from now), all arrangements must be made via email and phone exchanges. As if that were not difficult enough, I will be deploying to the desert in a few weeks in order to do my part in the War on Terrorism. I’ve heard of brides planning weddings from Iraq, but that’s never how I imagined my wedding planning would go. I just keep thinking about heading down the aisle in my elaborate white dress (I’m thinking elbow-length gloves would go well with his crisp, navy-colored mess dress uniform, right?), with the colored light streaming in through the Chapel’s modern windows spanning the height of the majestic spires—and John ahead of me. With him by my side, I’ll always be home.
OK, so it’s a bit cheesy–but what’s a bride without her cheesy love story? This one’s mine!
