Ann & Jason

We meet July 3rd three and a half years ago in Myrtle Beach. Ann was working a school summer internship and I was on a short vacation with friends. We met at Broadway at the beach of all places. I knew something was special about Ann when we first met. We instantly clicked. I ended up spending more time with her than I did with my friends I was vacationing with. Next thing I know I was on my way home wondering if I would ever see Ann again. It just so happened that her school was only 2 hours away from my house in Ohio. What a coincidence! We planned to meet a month and a half later when she returned north. The day before we were going to see each other she sent me a message "What happens if we have a good time"? I remember thinking about this for a long time and replied "we take it one day at a time and go from there". I realized I was already falling hard for her, but knowing a long distance relationship wasn't going to be easy. We ended up having an amazing time together and started seeing each other as much as possible on the weekends. After Ann finished her last year of school she agreed to take a job in Myrtle Beach. We both loved Myrtle Beach, but I owned a house in Ohio so I couldn't move with her. Luckily a few weeks later I was able to find a job in Ohio that allowed me to work from home so I could visit Ann. We had thought the two hour distance apart was hard. I made the 11 hour drive once a month to be with Ann. One of the trips last January was in a blizzard and I had seen 6 accidents before I made it 30 minutes from my house. I ended up making it safely through the snow, but the police in Aynor got me for a speeding ticket. Each trip home became harder and harder for me to leave. She considered moving back to Ohio, but we both fell in love with the Myrtle Beach area. I finally sold my house in Ohio this spring; it wasn't an easy financial decision since I owed a lot more than the house was now worth. I finally was able to move to Myrtle Beach to be with Ann every day. I planned the most romantic proposal I could think of. We took a sail boat ride at Sunset shared a glass of champagne and I asked her to spend the rest of her life we me. She said YES and we are now planning our dream Myrtle Beach wedding! The journey wasn't always easy, but looking back I'm so glad we decided to take it one day at a time to see if we really were meant to be together!

It would mean a lot to us to win this contest because the money we would’ve been spending for a photographer would go towards hotel rooms for our guests or an activity for all of our guests. Almost all of our guests will be from out-of-town and I know a lot of them are concerned with the flying/driving expenses, let alone the hotel prices in the peak season of tourism.