First of all, it was really inspiring to read all the love stories. We really enjoyed it. So, after reading through all of the nominated stories, two of them were absolutely standing out. It was really hard for us to make up our minds. It seems to us that both of the stories, even though very unique and different, are very equal in value, which made it really hard for us to choose. Therefore, after thinking through it, we decided to have 1st and 2nd place winners. The first place couple will receive the grand prize, and the second place will have a 50% discount on their wedding package. We’re posting both: their stories and their photos for every one to see and read:

2nd place winners: Nick Blanchard & Theresa Brawley

And here is their story:

Our story begins, without needless hindsight, twenty-six years ago. I was born with little warning to Ray and Lynn Blanchard of Modesto on July 29, 1983. Meanwhile, across town, Theresa was reminding her mother what labor really meant. After some fifty hours, Charlotte Brawley and her husband, Ted, were happy to greet their daughter in the last few minutes of that same evening. Theresa and I appeared together in the Modesto Bee the following day: to Ted and Charlotte Brawley, a girl; and to Ray and Lynn Blanchard, a girl. It was an unfortunate mistake made on the editor’s desk, one that my older brother was only too happy to recall. That birth announcement was the last place Theresa and I would be seen together for the next eighteen years. I moved to Fresno with my family shortly after I turned three. Despite frequent trips back to Modesto to visit friends and family, I never crossed paths with Theresa.

A college acceptance letter brought us back together in 2001. Theresa and I had both been invited to an informational meeting for the new Smittcamp Family Honors College at Fresno State. The honors college had established itself, in a few short years, as a highly competitive scholarship program. I remember being nervous about entering such an acclaimed institution, with what I imagined would be the stuffy sort of colleagues. I went to the meeting and was pleasantly surprised with the people I met. There was one, a cute girl with dark brown hair, who asked the college director a question at the end. Upon seeing her, I thought, “This might not be so bad.” Fortunately, we were both accepted into the program.

I met Theresa shortly after classes started in the fall. By that point, however, we were already part of an amazing group of friends that we still share to this day. That also meant that Theresa and I had become friends, that dread role that seems always to preclude any romantic interest. Little did I know that Theresa was interested, but others of our friends had staked claims: my friends for Theresa and Theresa’s for me. Hoping not to step on anyone’s toes and mired in work, Theresa and I kept our feelings secret, even from each other. We used our status as “twins,” however, to maintain a special bond throughout our college years.

We finally became more forward about our mutual interest in our senior year at Fresno State. For our Secret Santa party that winter, I gave Theresa a hand-developed photograph of the Twinings Laboratory in downtown Fresno (using a play-on-words to suggest our connection as “twins” and adding in my geeky love of science). By that spring, our group outings were starting to give way to more time alone. One night in May, we invited a few friends to see the Aquarid meteor shower (again, we are geeks). No one was able to join us, so we went by ourselves. We had a great time talking and learning more about each other. By the end of our conversation, we had decided to try dating again, this time more formally.

The problem was, of course, that we were graduating and had begun planning our immediate and very separate futures. I knew that this relationship was not something I was willing to lose, so I cancelled my plans to attend Humboldt State for a M.S. in biology and applied late to Fresno State’s graduate program. I was fortunate to be accepted, but especially fortunate to spend the summer getting to know Theresa. It was that summer that Theresa told me she loved me. Well, she did not want to scare me by being so forward so she had me guess what was on her mind. Fortunately, I felt the same, so the guessing was easy. We enjoyed our time together over the next two years, talking, making plans, and traveling with our mascot Buster, a sock monkey that Theresa made for me for our first Valentine’s Day.

I had not wanted to drag out the dating process for years on end. However, circumstances, both personal and professional, kept us in a sort of dating limbo for four years. I knew, as Theresa and I neared our two-year anniversary, that I would need to leave town to pursue a PhD. I elected to attend Oregon State University in Corvallis. Theresa could not join me because she had already secured a fifth grade teaching position in Sanger Unified, where it was clear she had a bright future. We decided the 710 miles between us was manageable, so long as we talked every night. We did so faithfully, but all the same, I grew to hate that distance. From the beginning, it was a strain on our relationship. Theresa lost her father shortly before I had to leave for Oregon. I fortunately had a bit of time to be there for Theresa, but days could not console someone so bereft. Dealing with her loss was the most significant, but not the only challenge that we faced in our two years apart. The constant communication and visits at every opportunity saw us through this difficult stage. Upon request, I told her our past and future stories to send her off to sleep every night. She helped me review Russian and German for my language exams. We exchanged handmade cards whenever we were apart on a special day. Theresa also peppered my suitcase, backpack, and books with love notes every time I came home to see her. Sometimes, I would find notes tucked inside my jacket weeks after I had left Fresno.

As the summer of 2009 approached, I knew that my stay in Oregon was drawing to a close, the rest of my work being fairly portable. I imagined ways of telling Theresa I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I was inspired by our bedtime stories and the quirky, whimsical films that Theresa always enjoys. After securing the best engagement ring a TA’s salary would provide, I decided to surprise Theresa before she left to attend a teacher’s workshop in New Jersey.

Only two days before her trip to the east coast, Theresa was taking care of last-minute preparations when I called and told her that I was stranded at the local mall, my keys locked in my truck. It should be known that I misplace my keys this way with clock-like regularity, so Theresa was none the wiser about my plan. When she arrived, she found a note tucked beneath my windshield wiper. The note instructed her, ever so cryptically, to go to a balcony we had visited at Fresno State during one of our first dates. On that balcony, she found another note, guiding her to the house where she stayed during our first summer together. The note awaiting her there was even more indecipherable. I wrote “I love you” in Russian, hoping she would remember our lessons over the phone. Fortunately, she translated the notes and read the back. This note delivered her to Popolo’s, our favorite pizza place and site of one of our early dates. She arrived at the restaurant and asked for the “Theresa special.” The clerk dutifully handed her a pizza box with yet another note asking Theresa to visit the laboratory where “twins” were made. All the while, I waited anxiously behind the landmark Fresno water tower, across the street from the Twinings Laboratory. At 109 and an hour and a half into her scavenger hunt, Theresa was at the very least showing her persistence. She sent me a text message when she arrived at the laboratory. “Behind the water tower” read my reply. At last, we saw each other. We smiled nervously. I took her by the hand and led her to the shade of a nearby tree.

“I know you’ve been running all over town, and I won’t have you wait any longer,” I managed these words and wiped the sweat from my brow. I then produced the ring and asked, “Resa, will you marry me?”

At first, she nodded. A moment later, a small but clear “Yes!” escaped her lips. It was all I had hoped for.

We held onto each other, happy that the day had finally come. We were at once, at last, comforted to know that whatever life’s challenges, we would face them together.

Theresa and I look forward to our wedding day and to our lives together. She recently bought a house in east Fresno and adopted a puppy, Lucy, from the SPCA. With my PhD. coursework behind me, I cannot wait to lay down the phone and share my days with my friend, my “twin,” my darling wife-to-be.

1st place winners: Nico Myers and Alina Gonzalez

I Found Love at the Antique Shop

Chapter 1-History Class with the Hippie Professor

Alina enters her first day of her college History class; she notices the male professor has long hair-so she feels a little more comfortable. She sits near the back of the class… who wants to sit in the front anyways? As the colonial music continues to play, the professor announces for everyone to get up. He begins to call out names and points to chairs-oh no, the infamous seating chart? I guess college won’t be as free as they claim. Suddenly, Alina hears her name being butchered, a normal event. But, her name is being called so soon? And in the front row!

“Uh-Ah-Uh-line? Uh-leen? A-LEN? Oh goodness, who are you?”

“Alina, sir”

“You sit here, Nicholas Myers you sit here”

“It’s Nico”

The semester continues, and this is how it all begins.

Chapter 2-The Bell-Bottoms

Nico wore these hideous large bell-bottom jeans that almost sent Alina out the door, but she noticed something different about him. They talked here and there about music, and really that’s all they ever talked about. Nico was in a three-man band, and Alina was in a punk band at the time, so they had things to talk about. Even on days he wore the bell-bottomed jeans, she knew she liked him. She’d get teased by friends, when he was around. But, she thought he was too mysterious and too unique for her to ever land a chance…

Chapter 3-New Classes, No Nico

College goes on, and new classes begin. The hippie professor is not around, there is no seating chart, and there is no Nico. Bummer. Life goes on and Alina moves to San Diego to work on her degree in Psychology. Nico stays in Kingsburg, and keeps playing his music.

Chapter 4-Life In San Diego, Hope in Little Kingsburg

Two years pass and Alina is wasting away on the computer, she glances over a picture on her friend’s profile, and notices it’s him. It’s Nico. She is amazed at what she sees and immediately calls her best friend. They both take part in old-fashioned gossip, and Alina vows her past crush for Nico. Her friend is shocked-she was hanging out with Nico the night before. Alina is astonished. How could it be this old flame is back again! Plans begin to develop, and several more conversations on the topic follow.

Chapter 5-The Bonfire

It’s a date, well, sort of. Alina’s best friend, and Nico’s close friend plan a bonfire. Could it be true? An actual bonfire for the purpose of Alina and Nico meeting, again? The eight hour drive home makes Alina sick to her stomach. She arrives near the river; to a group of unfamiliar faces besides her best friend and of course, Nico. It’s him, it’s him in all his mysterious and handsome glory. A simple hello does it all. The night goes on, and Alina and Nico talk more, about music, and well that’s about all they talk about.

Chapter 7-Like Two Records in One Case

Now, let’s skip the mushy stories and clique facts about how compatible Alina and Nico were, how much they had in common, how they could do the things they loved together, like buy records, go thrift shopping, play music, harmonize their voices, sing to Styx, Elton John, Billie Holiday, Yes, Fleetwood Mach, John Denver, realize they spent three years at Hartland Camp as kids and never met-even posing in the camp picture near each other, etc etc. Let’s just skip that…or not ;)

Chapter 8-Tamales, a Vintage Store, and a Ring

It’s Christmas 2009, Alina’s favorite time of the year. It’s the time she feels most connected to her family, even though she spends Christmas with her parents on different days. It’s a time of love, and a time of realization that God is great, and God is forever full of grace.

Nico spends the day making tamales with Alina’s family, a tradition they just recently started. He is a pro. He is the “gringo” taking charge and taking over! He sits and rolls, and takes several bites from the pot of meat. Alas, it is time for some final Christmas shopping. Nico and Alina arrive in Downtown Fresno. They are regulars there, for the thrift shopping. They are working on their “Homemade and Second Hand Christmas Gifts” theme, for his family. They pull up to Yoshi Now and Alina tries to stop him. She knows they spend on average about 3 hours, during every visit, and plus they were just there 2 days ago! Nico insists.

While Alina is browsing through items in the back, she wanders to the jewelry case. This is where she usually spends a bulk of her time, while Nico browses through the records. She passes the case, and is called back over by one of the employees.

“Hey Alina, you should totally check out our new rings, I bet there is one with your name on it”

Alina walks over to the case, and a crate of rings is displayed in front of her. She awkwardly plays with some plastic rings she has no absolute interest in, because she is nervous. She knows something is about to happen. She glances over to the back of the crate and there it is. A “ring with her name on it”.

Nico grabs the ring, gets on one knee, and asks her to join him in marriage.

Champagne bottles are popped, pictures are taken, and they take home a free Twisted Sister record and a brass wall décor that says “I am the boss of this house, when my wife says it’s ok”. Sweet.

Well there you have it, the story of us. Little did we know that we would one day be engaged, and that we would cross paths so many times, even as young kids. We utilize our love and talent through worship, in separate Sunday bands, and in our own band for the youth. Our love is based on God, music, looking at the simple things in life, and loving each other through faith that God placed us together several times, for a reason.