Best Proposal Contest

Was your wedding proposal the BEST?  We want to hear it!
Submit your wedding proposal story and a photo of you and your fiancé for a chance to win a $1,000 Macy's Wedding & Gift Registry shopping spree! 

ENTRIES DUE BY JANUARY 23RD, 2009! 

Contest Rules:
1. No purchase required. May enter online, www.delawaretoday.com/delawarebride
2. One entry per person. Duplicate, incomplete or inappropriate entries will be disqualified.
3. Applicants must be engaged.  Entries from persons who are already married will be disqualified. 
4. You must be 21 years of age or older and a resident of Delaware or plan to have your wedding in Delaware.
5. Employees of Today Media and Macy’s are not eligible to win.
6. Entries must be received by January 23, 2009.  Odds of winning are dependant upon number of entries. The winner will be contacted by phone and email upon winning the contest on February 11, 2009.  Winner must respond within 24 hours of contact, otherwise the runner up will become the prize winner.
7. The prize will be distributed at the Bridal Show on February 22, 2009 at the Embassy Suites in Newark, Delaware, at which the winner must be able to attend.   Prize includes a gift certificate valued at one thousand dollar shopping spree to Macy’s Wedding and Gift Registry only.  Gift certificate cannot be used in other departments of Macy’s department stores. Winner to be determined by Delaware Today & Delaware Bride editorial staff. Online voting does not determine winner.

Contest Entries:

Jennifer Thompson and Pete Goldberg. Wedding date: October 10, 2009

I am from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Calgary is a beautiful city nestled in the Canadian Rockies. Pete and I had gone to visit my family, as we do every year, in February of last year. Pete and I both share a love for skiing/snowboarding (I snowboard and he skis), and enjoy spending time with my family on the snowy slopes. One of our favorite places to ski is Lake Louise, which is actually where my parents had taught me how to ski. During our visit, Pete and I had planned a solo trip, just him and I, skiing at Lake Louise for the day. He woke me up at the crack of dawn so that we could get a head start on the day. Pete kept repeating "It's a big day Jen", I assumed he meant we were going to be jumping off cliffs or scaling some sort of ledge as he usually has me doing when we're out together. None the less, I was excited he was so excited!

So we headed off to the mountain, and although I noticed his level of enthusiasm was of at an all time high, I brushed it off as skier's nerves. Pete has a very high level of energy as it is. Once we got on the first chair lift he asked me "Would you like to take an easy run first or straight to the top..." I was about to answer, when he decided for us "Let's go to the top". So we hustled off to the next chair, which is called "Top of the World". While on this chair lift, Pete began to get very emotional and started saying all kinds of wonderful things about how much I meant to him. He told me I was his best friend, and I have made him a better person since we've been together. I was very moved, but I remember thinking "God, I hope he's not dying or something". It was really early in the morning.

At the top of the lift the sky was so clear this day, that you could see mountains for miles. It is indescribably beautiful. Once off the chair, I began to push myself on my board toward the run we were going to take. Pete yelled from behind me "Come over here", and I, of course argued, "No, I'm going over there, to the bench.". Pete insisted, and so I concurred and started to slide back toward him. As soon as I got closer, he began to take off his skis. At this point I didn't know what to think, I started to demand "WHAT ARE YOU DOING??" and then I saw him get down on one knee.

He asked me to marry him, and I of course said yes. The people gathered from off the lift began to clap and we both cried. After that we rode down together, very happy.

Christie Starke and Aaron,  Wedding date: October 24, 2009.

Every year Aaron (my now fiance) and I go camping at Shenandoah National Park. This past summer (2008) we could not go until September because he was in the police academy. We left early to beat traffic and ended up arriving way before our check in time, so we decided to go on a hike. We hiked our favorite trail, Little Stony Man, which has an amazing view once you get to the top. Once we arrived at the top, their were other people up there. Aaron seemed irritated there were others up there. We decided to sit and enjoy the view. A little while later the people left. Aaron and I went and stood on the highest point. He turned and looked at me and told me that how much I meant to him. As he got down on one knee, he asked me to marry him. Little did I know that he had set the camera up on video while I was looking for a stone for our collection and captured the whole thing. Now instead of being just a memory, our engagement is much more special because we can watch it whenever we want.

Kevin Evans and Katie Aglier,  Wedding date: November 7, 2009.

My name is Katey Algier. I am a former Miss Delaware National Teenager and my fiancé, Kevin Evans is farmer. We live in the small town of Bridgeville, Delaware where on the first night that I cooked dinner for us, a crop duster flew over the house and dropped streamers all over the yard as we were eating our candlelight dinner on the back deck. It was so magical it was like something out of the movies. Little did I know that Kevin’s friend, Jeff flew the crop duster and several other airplanes. I told Kevin, I wanted to go up for a ride in it one day

A year later, Kevin arranged for us to go for a ride in another one of Jeff’s airplanes. I thought we were just going to check out Kevin’s crops from the air to see how they were all growing but when I saw a GIANT crop sign/love letter I knew that this was more.  Kevin proposed to me by cutting “Kate Will U Marry Me?” into his wheat field. I saw this proposal as we flew over the field for an aerial view. I was in shock. I couldn’t speak; I just laughed and cried as he slipped the ring on my finger in the tiny airplane. Kevin and I have always loved the song “Living Our Love Song” by Jason Michael Carol, as we joke that he is the “backwoods boy” and I am the “fairytale princess” Carol sings about in his song. After Kevin proposed in the plane, we landed and went to dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steak House where he had a dozen roses with a note that said “To Our Future. I love you, Your Backwoods Boy.” Needless to say, I said yes.

WBOC, the local television station, caught wind of this proposal as Captain Willey flew over the field in the WBOC News helicopter and saw the 1,000 foot long phrase plowed in the field below. The news crew came out and interviewed us the next day and ran our proposal as a headline story on the seven and eleven o’clock news. The Leader and The State Register, a local newspaper called the following day and published our proposal story on the front page. That same day, a local radio station was talking about the story. Kevin was listening and phoned in and they did a short interview on air about the unique proposal. Kevin’s message gave our small town something to talk about for weeks and it gave us a story to tell for the rest of our lives.

Melissa Stacey, Wedding Date: August 15, 2009.

Well, after dating my now fiance for 11 years, I always hoped marriage would be in the near future. But the years kept coming but the proposal didn't. One day out of the blue, we decide to take a ride to a jewelry store in Pennsylvania for something to do. After walking in and looking at all the pretty jewelry, I made my way over to the engagement ring settings. After gawking at a setting for a couple of minutes, the gentleman behind the counter asked if I wanted to try it on, "why not", I said. My boyfriend commented on how pretty it was, and then all of the sudden he asks, "would you like to have it". "Of course", I said. So we then proceeded to find the perfect diamond and then I suddenly went from not knowing if I will ever be engaged to kind of being engaged. After a couple of months of knowing the ring was purchased, I was wondering how my boyfriend was going to pull off surprising me with a proposal. Weeks went by and still nothing. Well, I had arranged for us to have a couples picture taken at J.C.Pennys portraits because it had been seven years since our last photograph together. Not thinking he would take the opportunity to propose during our pictures (because he hates having his picture taken with the passion), there it was. I turned around and there he was, on one knee. His nickname for me is Cupcake so that is how he proposed, "Cupcake, will you marry me?". I started to cry as he was putting the ring on, and we have it all photographed. My fiance, had called the photographer ahead of time to let them know his plan. So I have every picture from him being on one knee all the way to my "Yes" kiss.
Our wedding date is scheduled for August 15th, 2009, which will be our 12 year anniversary exactly. The photographer had commented to us that in the whole 18 years she has been a photographer, this is her very first proposal. This is a moment no one else has!