With stunning white sand beaches, sunsets that make the heart leap and beautiful mountainous scenery contrasting with infinite ocean views, are but a few of the reasons which make the glorious islands of Fiji a perfect setting for a romantic honeymoon. For most though, the chance to honeymoon in Fiji really is a once in a lifetime opportunity which is not likely to happen without a lot of help. It is for this reason that thousands of couples have applied for a competition hosted by Brides.com in which the prize is an all-expenses paid honeymoon in Fiji!
Contestants in the competition must submit their personal proposal story. Each story is placed in one of 5 categories; “romantic,” “humorous,” “adventurous,” “non-traditional” or “gone awry.” The winners of each category will receive various keepsakes, tableware and an engagement party. The overall winner will receive the grand prize of a six day honeymoon in the resort of Wananavu, Fiji including flights. Finalists are selected by a team of judges, before the public vote online to decide the semi-finalists and overall winner.
Two couples which are lucky enough to have made it into the top three in the “romantic” section of the competition are Phyllis Jarrell, fiancée of Tyler Claytor, and James La Pierre with his fiancée Diana Plazas Ospina.
Story of Phyllis and Jarrell
Jarrell and Claytor are both “poor college students” as Jarrell put it. With Jarrell majoring in Spanish and Claytor majoring in Maths, they aim to teach their preferred subject in term time and spend summers continuing previous mission work carried out by both in Honduras. The couple state that the money saved from the honeymoon, should they win the competition, would be put towards their ambition to perform the mission work together.
Their romantic proposal tells the story of Claytor taking his now fiancée to a place rich in memories from when the couple used to counsel at YMCA summer camps: Maymont Park. Claytor took his beloved to the Japanese garden there and showed her seven boxes signifying the time they had spent together as a couple. Each box contained memorabilia such as cinema ticket stubs and show programs from previous dates along the years as well as a poem and letter which Claytor had written for his partner year after year without ever giving her.
Story of James and Diana
La Pierre and Plazas Ospina are a military couple with Plazas Ospina working as an Er Med Tech for the Air Force ROTC. In 2010 she was deployed to Afghanistan for almost 7 months. La Pierre claims that this was a “make us or break us” point in the relationship but that he had every faith that it was the more positive of the two.
Approximately two months after Plazas Ospina had been deployed, Staff Sergeant La Pierre sent her a box with an engagement ring. He left strict instructions with his partner and her work colleagues to leave the box unopened until her return. All parties kept their promise although the co-workers admitted to finding the task rather hard once they had sneakily taken an X-ray of the box to view its contents! On the day of Plazas Ospina’s return, her parents and La Pierre went to meet her at the airport with her parent’s video recording her arrival. Captured on camera is the heart warming moment that the ER Med Tech is finally given the chance to open her beautiful present and realize that it is in fact a proposal. The tape, along with this amazing story, was entered into the proposal contest.
Voting
To vote for either couple or any of the other finalists simply go to www.brides.com/ProposalAwards and follow the links in each category to “view” and “vote” for couples.
