POSTED: 9:29 am CDT July 12, 2010
UPDATED: 10:23 am CDT July 12, 2010
David Liska Custom Jeweler and Creative Edge Promotions has gathered more than 30 wedding vendors who tipped the scales at donating more than $100,000 of their services to one Wisconsin military couple for an all-expense paid wedding.
Five military couples were selected from the nominations submitted on their story of, "What has kept them from tying the knot due to Military circumstances beyond their control," or "Why they would like to get re-married in a special ceremony."
Here's their story.................
WISN.com
Operation Wedding Day -- Jamie and James
POSTED: 9:44 am CDT July 12, 2010
Our love story starts at annual training in the summer of 2009. He was a Sergeant and I was a Specialist. His unit was about to deploy to Iraq in March. I volunteered for deployment with my best friend and we were placed in his unit. Little did I know the Army was going to introduce me to the love of my life.
As annual training went on the more we got to know each other as soldiers, and that grew to loving one another as individuals. When training ended and we went back to our everyday lives, we started to explore what our connection to each other meant. We spent as much time falling in love together as we could. We knew the hard road we were going to travel due to the deployment even though we would be going together. We knew the deployment and the Army came before our newly found love for one another.
Before we knew it our deployment was near. We had training in Florida to accomplish then off to Pre Mobilization in Fort Bliss Texas. We finished our training in Florida in Feb 2009 and found out we were going to bring new life into this world. All the while we were ecstatic we knew we were about to be separated. I would stay here to have our baby while he went on to finish his deployment. As our time got shorter, James and I decided to join our hands in marriage. We didn't have the time to plan the wedding we have always dreamed of; so we exchanged vows in the Waupaca County Court Room. Neither of us minded as long as it was official to the world that we were each others forever.
We spent as much time together as Mr. and Mrs. Ritchie and shortly after the day came that he would leave for the deployment. We were not ready to be separated as newlyweds but both being in the military we understood that the mission comes first.
The year went on and I got bigger and bigger! James and I communicated through email and Skype. He watched as my belly grew and I told him about all my appointments and he shared about his day and how much he missed home. Even though we were far apart when we talked it was like he was right beside me. We talked about once a week, leaning on each other to make our love grow from so far apart.
I was expected to give birth to our daughter at the end of September. I was excited because he planned his leave for this wonderful day. He made it home in time to see the birth of our daughter. After four days of in and out of the hospital we finally had our beautiful baby girl Hayleigh. Then sixteen hours later he boarded a plane to go back and complete his mission. Having him leave her and I was the most heart breaking thing I have ever experienced.
Hayleigh was four months old before she was reunited with her daddy. He returned home in January 2010 and here we are today, a happy family and still as much in love with each other as the day we met as soldiers. James and I trained together, fought together and loved together all because of the Army. The army brought us together and separated us but we stuck with it because we knew the Army would bring us together again. James and I would love to have a wedding in the Army's honor because we are both veterans and would not be together today if it wasn't for the Army.
We never gave up even though it was hard but we both had a job to do and we made it through it all one step at a time. The army will always be a part of our lives and hold a special place in our hearts.
Click on the link to vote for them!
There's a little blue box in the middle of the page that says "Survey" with all the couples' names. Click on James and Jamie.
http://www.wisn.com/sponsors/24222868/detail.htmlYes you can vote more than once per day and the contest ends on July 19, 2010 currently they are about 600 votes behind we know we can do it.
Thanks everybody!
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Topic: Let's all vote again (Read 1116 times)