The following is written by Linda, The Wedding Pink 2013 Mother of the Bride.
Linda and Erin, The Wedding Pink 2013
I had never heard of The Wedding Pink until September of 2012. My daughter Erin called early one Monday morning:
Erin: “How do you feel about going to Colorado in May?“
Me: “Why would I want to go to Colorado in May?”
It made no sense.
Erin: “Well you are coming to my wedding aren’t you”?
Me: ”What are you talking about”?
Erin: ” I won a wedding in Colorado.
Me: “ Let’s start over from the beginning.”
She then explained that a few weeks before she had submitted an application to The Wedding Pink, which awards a wedding to a couple impacted by Breast Cancer. She and Ben had gotten a call the night before from a woman named Cheryl Ungar who told them that they had been chosen as the 2013 couple.
It took quite awhile for it to all sink in.
In the beginning of August 2012, Erin’s father, Frank, had died from Pancreatic Cancer just one month after being diagnosed. We were all still trying to deal with that loss. She hadn’t mentioned filling out the application for the wedding, because she thought it was probably a long shot. As we learned more about the details of the wedding it became a bright spot for us all to look forward to at a time when we were trying to figure out the new normal. It was a place on the calendar months away, but still something to think about that was positive.
In October 2012, Erin and Ben flew to Colorado to meet Cheryl and the Vendors and to begin planning their wedding. They saw the gorgeous location (The Wine Country Inn in Palisade, Colorado) and got a feel for just what all was going to take place. They brought back lots of pictures to help make it real to all of us. When she went to pick out her dress, I was able to be a part of that experience by way of Skype. When she tried on the right dress it was obvious that it was meant to be hers. We then got through Christmas with this wedding out in front of us to temper how difficult that time of year was given our loss just 5 months earlier.
In March 2013, I flew to Denver with Erin since Ben, an accountant, was busy with tax season. We rented a car and drove to Palisade through beautiful scenery and spent several days with warm temperatures in the 70’s. We tasted the food, wine and cake. We looked at flowers, table settings and locations. Erin made the selections with the help of her wonderful wedding planners, Sheryl and Rachel, the hotel event planner, April, and all of the vendors. It was amazing and so much fun, not to mention very stress free. We drove back to Denver and Erin chose her veil. We had lunch with Cheryl and then after a snow delay, we were on our way back to Virginia.
It was so nice to have a change of scenery and do something that was so much fun. We had had a taste of spring and in no time we were headed back to Palisade for the Wedding in May.
We flew in on Wednesday, May 1 and every day more and more guests arrived. The hotel had given us rooms in a separate building with a hospitality suite and that became the place for all of the guests to get together when there wasn’t some activity to attend. Every morning there was a breakfast buffet where we all saw each other. One night everybody went to the local Palisade Brewery and Peach Street Distillers in town to party. The next night we boarded a bus and went up on the bluff to High Country Orchards for a cocktail reception with all of the guests. Finally, on Sunday, May 5 Erin and Ben were getting married.
At 5 o’clock that evening the wedding was held in an outdoor gazebo with the vineyard and the mountains as the backdrop. We enjoyed the cocktail hour in the courtyard and then went into the ballroom for dinner and dancing. The wedding was beautiful. All the guests had gotten to know each other throughout the weekend because we had all been celebrating for days before the actual ceremony. It was the perfect wedding for Erin and Ben. It was so nice to have so many family members and friends be able to celebrate with us.
Cheryl and her team put together a great group of people who were very generous and went out of their way to make this a perfect day for Erin and Ben, for our whole family and all of our friends. Thanks to Cheryl, we now have wonderful memories and beautiful pictures to remember the wedding and the amazing time we all had.