Today, we catch up with Erica and Cory; you might recall they were the winners of the $40,000 wedding giveaway from Pine Peaks Retreat and Event Center! We are extremely happy and excited to be able to host them, so we thought we’d touch base and ask them a few questions about their engagement, how it happened, and exactly what that “big day” will look like!
Q: How did the two of you meet?
A: Cory is originally from Corcoran, MN. I am from Fargo, ND. He enlisted in the Air Force in the summer of 2009 after graduating with his Bachelors Degree the year before. He was stationed in Utah. I graduated with my Bachelors Degree in 2011 and moved to Utah later in the year to be close to my brother and his family, find a job, and experience a new place. My sister-in-law always invited me out with her and her friends to help me make friends. I met Cory through her. The first couple encounters we didn’t talk much, but then he asked me to a movie (in which we both thought of it as just friends) but it just led us to where we are today.
Q: When / how did you decide to get married?
A: We met in June 2012. At this point, I knew I was joining the Air Force. I was set to leave for Basic Training in November 2012. We moved slowly in our relationship; we didn’t want to rush anything since we knew I was leaving in November. Taking things slow deepened our connection, though.
Leaving in November was really hard. Cory wrote me a letter every single day that I was gone (8 weeks) I tried to write him as often as I could. He came down for my Basic Training graduation in January along with my parents and brother and some aunts and uncles. I still had a pretty strict curfew, so Cory met my parents without me and hung out with all my family for many hours without me. The fact that that didn’t worry me at all was a big sign for me. Cory said he knew he wanted to marry me when he realized no matter the distance, he still wanted to be with me and meeting my family confirmed it.
I got to see him for about 4 days that weekend. The next time he came to visit me at training was in March 2013 – that’s when he proposed in front of all the military students and leaders.
Q: Growing up, did you ever have a “dream wedding” in mind?”
A: For as far back as I can remember, I was never the little girl that dreamt of my wedding day. I don’t have a book of cut out magazine pictures making up my dream wedding. Honestly, it wasn’t something I started thinking about until I interned with a wedding planning company. I got to see soo many different styles of weddings. There were bright fun colored weddings, lots of black with an accent color wedding, simple weddings, crazy weddings… I thought it was going to be impossible to choose the type of wedding I wanted once that day came around. Then I helped decorate a very romantic wedding – lots of candles, low lighting, flowers, more neutral colors. Ever since then, I knew I wanted a very romantic, elegant wedding – a “Grand Affair,” you might say.
Q: What are the “must-haves” when it comes to your big day?
Like I said, I want a romantic, elegant affair. I want my guests to feel like the day isn’t just about us. I want them to feel pampered in a sense. I want servers walking around with hors d’oeuvres. I want their meals served to them vs. them walking through a buffet line. That’s my biggest must have. I want my guests to feel special, too.
The other must have is a chocolate fountain with fruit! Cory and I eat a lot of produce and we wanted to bring that with us to the wedding. Plus, I think it’s very romantic.
Another detail – tons and tons and tons of candlelight. I want dim lighting with lots of candle light.
Oh, and one more must-have…I really wanted our wedding party to be comfortable in what they are wearing and show a little bit of their personality, so we gave them a lot of freedom. All my girls picked out their own dresses to suit their own body type. All the guys are picking out their own shoes so they have something they can actually wear again. I want them to be comfortable. I am not sure this is a must have, but it was important to the both of us.
The biggest must have for Cory, is honestly just being surrounded by all of our friends and family and me being happy with everything. Event planning/coordinating is something I am really passionate about. So he knows that I want all the little details to be perfect even more than your average bride. O – and he absolutely has to have oldies music.
Q: Tell us about your participation in this contest – how did this come about?
Once we got engaged, I started looking for wedding venues back home. We met in Utah, so it was nice to find out that we were both relatively from the same area – about 3 hours apart. So, I started looking for venues in Minnesota. Keep in mind, at this point I was in Texas and Cory was in Utah, so I would send him links for him to look at, which was not a fun process. I came across the Pine Peaks Wedding Giveaway Link. I knew we had to try it. Cory hasn’t convinced right away. He said, “People like us don’t win these things.”
After reading about the contest, it was honestly more about the convenience of it than the money. All of the vendors were chosen and It was back home roughly between each of our homes. Since I still didn’t have much freedom, I finally convinced Cory to make the 30-second video. He knew someone who was good with a video camera and editing, so he was able to make a very well put-together video explaining our situation. Low and behold, a month or so later, we got the call that our video had the most votes by the other contestants. I am so thankful and grateful that the other contestants liked our story enough to vote for us!
Winning this contest hasn’t made wedding planning a complete breeze but it saved us so much time and research. I don’t know how we would have found enough time to go back home and look at multiple venues and talk with multiple vendors then try to decide which one we liked best after only seeing it once and not being able to see it again. We would have had to rely on our parents so much more than we already have. Communicating via email, and phone and not being able to see things in person has made wedding planning tough, but it would have been so much tougher if we didn’t win. I also don’t think I would have gotten the romantic, elegant affair without having won the contest.
Congratulations Erica and Cory! We’re looking forward to being part of your big day!