Win your Wedding Competition 2009
Dreams Do Come True
It all started in October 2008, when my now mother in law (Debbie) said there was a competition running in the local paper. The competition was to win a £20,000 Wedding. Already engaged to my partner David and total in love with each other, Debbie told us that she was going to nominate us for the competition by sending in our story to win our dream wedding, don't be silly we both said we would never win and thought no more of it. Little did we know!
Two weeks later our love story appeared in the local paper along with hundreds of other hopefuls dreaming of winning their wedding. We were nominated by David's mum, who said: "I will never forget the words of my young son, David. He returned home from college and beamed 'I've just met the most beautiful girl in the world and one day I will marry her'. I thought 'how sweet' - after all, he was only 17 and he didn't even know her name, but he made it his mission and very soon she became a part of our family. They are an inspiration to young people today. They have studied, worked hard and saved. They're a truly beautiful couple, and to win would be a perfect end to a true love story and the beginning of their lives together."
Christmas came and went and we had forgotten all about the competition until early January when we had a phone call from the Somerset County Gazette to say we had been selected as one of the final ten couples in the competition. We couldn't believe it we were over the moon. As the weeks went by our story re-appeared in the paper along with the other nine finalists. It was now all down to a public vote.
The winners were to be announced at the Taunton School Wedding Fair in Somerset. So on the 28th March 2009 we arrived at Taunton School, our emotions were running wild we were so excited we had got this far, but the anticipation and waiting for the announcement was unbearably nerve-racking. All the finalist were called to a stunning room at Taunton School called the Old Library, as we entered there were hundreds of people in the room who had gathered to hear the news. We stood there as the golden envelope was opened and then we heard: "The winners of the Win Your Wedding competition 2009 are ..... Gemma Payne and David Hartnell". We could not believe what we had just heard, for a moment we just stood there looking at each other with the look of 'did they really call our names out'. Then reality hit, we had just won our wedding.
During the 5 months leading up to our Wedding Day we met all the sponsors who had helped to make our dream come true and Laura Carpenter (our Wedding Planner - part of the prize from Weddings at Taunton School, along with the Wedding Venue and Reception) was with us every step of the way. The help and support she gave to us throughout the competition was priceless, she became more than just a Wedding Planner that we had won as part of a competition, she became our friend.
The big day arrived on the 21st August 2009 and it was perfect, it was just how I had imagined my wedding day to be. All of the sponsors that contributed in making our wedding come true were amazing and what we received from each sponsor was perfect, we couldn't have asked for more and would like to thank all of the sponsors sincerely. We had the most amazing day even though my mother in law forgot the wedding rings!!! We are now both looking towards the future and the rest of our lives together as Mr and Mrs Hartnell.
Gemma Hartnel
