First of all, I want to thank everyone who took the time and effort to enter my contest. When I set out on this journey, I did not know how much it would affect me. Not only in the joyful way of being able to give of my time and talent to someone, but it has also been very hard for me. Even though I am excited for the finalists, I am really sad for the people I had to say no to. Some of the decisions were easier to make solely based on availability, either because I have been commissioned to do another wedding that day, or your date falls on a Sunday.
I wish I had the means to give of my time and talent to all of the couples that entered. The truth of the matter is, I can only give one wedding away this year. I am so thankful that I do not have to make the final choice, it would be unbearable. The time taken to really try to get to know people through their personal stories has made me grow fond of the entrants. Even though I do not know them personally, it would be too hard to make that final choice. Here is where you come in:
YOU GET TO VOTE for the WINNER!
So here are the top three finalists and their stories in no particular order:
#1 Tom and Helen
We (Helen and Tom) met almost three years ago, at a group dinner that brought together several childhood friends, and their friends. Despite the fact that we had been “connected” for years through our respective friends, we had never met, nor even really knew each other existed. We grew up in different places in Maryland, and went to different colleges in Maryland. Over the course of a few nervous—on Tom’s part—early dates, we spent some time getting to know each other and discovered that the values that we each consider to be the most important in life were the same—family, integrity, hard work, and gratitude. But what we didn’t know is that we had quite a bit more in common, and that it just might be possible that our paths may have crossed many years ago, although if they did, we would have certainly been too young to remember!
In the 1970s, Helen’s father immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong. A generous relative had helped him pay for cooking school, sponsored him to come to the US, and bought him a plane ticket. He arrived here with only a few dollars in his pocket, and ultimately made his way to Baltimore. After a year of working, he was able to bring his wife to join him. A few years after that, he also brought his mother to the States when they learned they had a baby on the way. Together, the family set up a small Chinese carryout restaurant, where all three worked. Helen was born, and soon was a fixture at the carryout, and became a favorite of customers. At age three, she loved being the cashier, thought she was very clever to ask customers to guess her age, and probably “talked to customers more than needed,” as she describes it now.
At about the same time that Helen’s father had been attending cooking school in Hong Kong, Tom’s father was going to trade school in Maryland—to become a baker. After he finished trade school, Tom’s father worked at a small, family-owned bakery, where Tom’s mother happened to be working part-time. They were married, and shortly thereafter opened a family bakery of their own. Not long after, Tom came along. Tom—or Little Tommy, as he was called around the bakery since his dad is a Tom, too—was a pretty popular guy around the bakery. Once he was old enough to walk and talk, he did just that…he walked, and talked…everywhere, and to everyone. From the flour-covered bakers, hard at work in the back since the early morning hours, to the customers who came in each day for their bread or sweets, he loved talking to them all. But there was a particular kind of customer he seemed to like the most, or so he’s told—customers who came in with their own little one! In fact, apparently Tom liked these customers so much, he would take each little one around the counter and give them a cookie, doughnut, or whatever treat made them happiest.
Needless to say, we were amazed at just how alike our early experiences were— if you can think of Chinese food and baked goods to be similar—but what was really, truly, difficult to believe was what we learned next. Helen’s parents’ carryout and Tom’s parents’ bakery, both of which closed decades ago, were on adjacent roads, and within only a few miles of each other!
Although we’ve questioned our parents over and over, hoping that their memories are a bit better than ours, neither of our parents can remember the others’ store, although Tom’s dad did tell us that we frequently used to eat Chinese food when we had the bakery. Maybe, just maybe, Helen’s parents stopped in the bakery one day, and Little Tommy might just have given (Little) Helen a cookie. Or maybe Tom’s parents stopped in for some carryout Chinese after a long day at the bakery, and Little Tommy got to meet Helen, and perhaps guessed that she was the same age as he.
We like to think that it could have happened, anyway.
So that’s a little bit about us. We hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it, and thinking about it. We truly do consider ourselves to be so very lucky, and are grateful for our loved ones. Both sets of parents worked very hard to provide for us, and they taught us the value of hard work and family.
About our wedding…
We are very excited—and a little scared—about what is going to be a fairly large wedding next year. It’s going to be large because we are blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives—we are surrounded by people we love and care for, and who love and care for us. Tom’s mother is from a large family, and her five siblings, their spouses, and their children are expected. Helen’s father is one of the youngest siblings from an even larger family, and we are excited to have four generations of her family present on our wedding day! Because we feel family is one of the most important things, it’s important to us that children be included in the wedding. We feel that children add so much to life, that we can’t imagine having a wedding without them. We even picked our venue, in particular, because the kids will be able to play outside and have fun. One particular child is playing a small but starring role in the wedding: Tom’s six year-old nephew, who is taking his role as ring bearer quite seriously. In addition to asking many questions about his duties and responsibilities, he has gone so far as to examine his future Aunt Helen’s engagement ring, and ask whether that’s the ring he’ll be responsible for!
We will be getting married on an old dairy farm in the beautiful country of western Howard County. Our ceremony will be outside, nestled between trees and a real crop field. Following the ceremony, our guests will move to the indoor banquet room, which from the second floor overlooks the nearby meadows. We hope to be able to take some pictures among the amazing outdoor scenery with our bridal party following the ceremony, and then join our family and friends inside for dinner and dancing.
We realized just how important our photographer will be to us when it dawned on us that we have so many people in our lives who want to be there—and we want there—with us on our special day. We’ve decided that we want to greet each and every family member and friend personally, which means we probably won’t be able to see what we hope will be so many priceless moments as our family, friends, and their children celebrate and—we hope—have a truly wonderful time. To us, our wedding is not about us, but about our family and friends, and we want to speak with each and every person to let them know just how important they are to us, and how grateful we are to have them in our lives. It’s our hope that our photographer is able to capture some of the moments we may miss, as they will be preserved, not only for us, but for our guests, for our own children some day, and even for future generations.
Thank you again for offering the opportunity for such a generous gift to couples embarking on this new important new chapter in their lives. We would be honored and very grateful to have you preserve the memories of our wedding day.
Thank you,
Helen and Tom
#2 Gabe and Jeff
Gabe and I met in the most unlikely place to find love…a junkyard. We both were hired around the fall of 2003 to work together weighing material in and out of the scrapyard. After the initial period of getting to know one another and being nice, it became apparent that we did not get along at all. From getting into arguments to not talking to each other for a few days we went through a phase were we couldn’t stand one another. After a year, things got to the point where the owner of the company had to sit down and told us to improve our communication with one another. Rather than lose our jobs I think we both made a little more effort being courteous from that point on. Slowly, Gabe and I began to develop a friendship. Soon enough friendship turned into infatuation…at least on my end. Defiant in the face of any fraternization policies at work, I mustered up enough courage to ask Gabe out on a date. Three years later that seed of courage has grown into a relationship that values communication and friendship. In June 2009, Gabe and I will be getting married in Stewartstown, PA. Gabe no longer works at the junkyard. She had the opportunity to go back to school and get her Master’s degree in Special Education. She is currently in her first year teaching 4th and 5th grade Special Education in Baltimore City. As we have been planning our wedding it has become quite evident that based on our modest budget, Gabe and I can’t afford to hire a photographer of Stacy’s caliber. The thing that comes through most clearly in the photos I have seen by Stacy is the ability to capture an event’s vibe or feel. Be it from capturing the youthful joy of a child’s face or an newlywed couple caught in a fleeting moment. Gabe and I would be blessed to have someone like Stacy at our wedding to forever document not only the big moments of our day but also the small. We have attached a photo taken at a recent “Ugly Christmas Sweater Party”. We hope you aren’t alarmed by our fashion sense and wish you and yours a happy holiday and healthy New Year.
#3 Judes and Dan
I am a hopeless romantic. Ask Dan. I cry at Hallmark commercials and when watching sad movies. I will never forget being in a religious school as a young girl, when the preacher urged us to pray for the one who we would be married to. I thought that was a great idea, and would often say a little prayer for the great man I would meet someday. Fast forward twenty years and I joined the Department of State to be a diplomat.
I knew I would making many sacrifices for my career and for my country, what I didn’t realize was that someone I would grow to love was making similar sacrifices. While I was living away from home, missing out on family and friends’ special occasions, and being alone, so was he. When I craved a special person to share my life with, so did he. Despite our difficult situations, Dan and I met in Baghdad, Iraq in January 2007. Out of extreme hardship and physical danger came profound joy and happiness.
Women will say about men in Baghdad: ‘the odds are good, but the goods are odd…’ and that you can never turn a ‘location-ship into a relation-ship’, but we are proud to prove them wrong and we are extremely happy together! Dan is a former Special Forces medic who was working in helicopter security in Iraq while I was there as Chief of Protocol for Ambassador Khalilzad and Ambassador Crocker. He has jumped out of countless planes, run through numerous nighttime obstacles and kicked down countless doors (thank god for my prayers!). For me, Baghdad was the fourth of my Foreign Service assignments including obscure places like Guyana and Burundi. The odds that we would meet must be overwhelming!
When we fell in love, we would spend nights in Baghdad unable to sleep as the low flying helicopters rocked the walls of the trailer or as the rockets fell, and talk about our plans and dreams. Hearing gun fire and duck and cover alarms was a regular occurrence. I’ll never forget the night mortars shook the Embassy immediately after Dan had left my trailer and said ‘good night’. I suffered the anxiety of not knowing if he had made it to a safe place during the attack. We decided if we made it through our tours happy and healthy, we would ask for domestic assignments and enjoy the wonderful United States.
We made it back safe and sound! We are happily engaged here in the Washington DC area and can’t wait to gather all our family and friends for a fun wedding on July 4th, 2009.
Stacy, Dan and I have scoured many wedding photography websites. We both love your photography and the manner in which you capture the essence of people’s personalities. You and your assistants enjoyment of your work is evident in the photographs you all take. We would like to be the wedding you shoot because we overcame tremendous odds to be together, we have sacrificed years for our wonderful country and you are by far the best wedding photographer that we have seen! In late September 2008 Ambassador Crocker asked me to return to Baghdad. After conferring with Dan, we decided that we would sacrifice our time together and I would return to Baghdad to help in the Embassy. On my way home after two and a half months, I roomed with XXXXX whose wedding you were suppose to photograph last summer. Even though it didn’t work out (you have a lovely child to show for it) she is the one who told me about your beautiful work and this contest. What are the odds of that happening? Again, only in Baghdad! Out of tremendous difficulty can come wonderful things. Dan and I agreed that it would be a profound honor to be chosen as the winners of this contest.
TIME TO GO TO THE POLLS!
Go ahead and cast your vote!
One vote per email will be accepted.
The winner will be announced on January 1st at noon.
Again, I want to thank everyone who entered for sharing their lives and their stories with me. I wish you all the best in finding a wonderful photographer for your special day.
Vote HERE
VOTING CLARIFICATION-You may only vote ONCE, polldaddy records each vote and where it comes from and so if you try to vote multiple times your votes will not be counted. This is just to help keep it fair! We have already had over 200 votes in the last 24 hours! Keep those votes coming!
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