To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we decided to give back to the community that has helped to make us what we are today.  We started a contest called Love in Bloom to find a couple with a deserving love story.  The prize for this contest is a total wedding photography package.

Our winners are Amanda Kight and James Lingle.  These high school sweethearts have endured much on the way to the altar.  Here is Amanda’s letter:

James and I met five years ago in our high school Spanish class. He had just returned to school after being sick for a few weeks, and the teacher placed him next to me so that I could help him catch up. We instantly clicked, and everyone could tell. The teacher even said later in the year: “I swear you two will be married in five years,” (which was actually pretty rude since James was seeing another girl at the time). Well here we are five years later planning our wedding.

The first few years of our relationship came with many challenges. I moved up to Detroit for college, while he stayed in Bedford to work and go to school at the University of Toledo. He joined the Army National Guard and was gone for Basic Training for six months during my freshman year of college. During that time, we kept our relationship going by exchanging hundreds of letters, since we could not even talk on the phone. After he got home, I thought that we had made it through the toughest months of our relationship.

Less than a year later his unit was deployed to Iraq for an entire year. The whole time was very scary and stressful. His unit had the very dangerous job of providing convoy security throughout all of Iraq. Thankfully, I had his entire family to lean on, and he had all of us back at home supporting him. A lot of the dating, and even married, couples separated during the deployment, but we worked very hard to not let the distance get the best of us. We both took advantage of every opportunity to talk on the phone or on the webcam. It was so stressful waiting for weeks at a time for a phone call, and not knowing what was happening on the other side of the world. And of course, I was dealing with two jobs and demanding coursework the whole time.

He came home at the end of the year just three days before Christmas. After that, things went right back to normal. We learned to appreciate and enjoy every second we have together. And almost a year after his arrival home, he proposed to me on New Year’s Eve. He still has two more years left in the Army, but hopefully we will be able to get married and start our life together without him being sent on another deployment. We have recently had a lot of problems when it comes to planning the wedding, because there are rumors of a Spring 2011 deployment. We are trying to hope and pray for the best, and try to move forward.

I am so proud of James, and us, for having gone through so much as young adults. We are so excited to be having a fairytale wedding at the gorgeous Nazareth Hall. It would be such an honor to have you take our wedding photos, and capture the moments of our special day.   And of course, congratulations on your ten year anniversary!

We are proud to support not only a great love story, but a young man who has given much for our country.  This doesn’t even begin to pay the debt we owe our troops, but we hope in some way, James and Amanda, along with their families, will know how much we appreciate their sacrifice on our behalf.

Here are a few photos that Amanda sent with her letter: