Paul Weber and Jennifer Shelton will wed on Jekyll Island March 3, 2012. The April 27 tornado trashed the couple's original plan to marry May 14.
Contributed PhotoThe dark clouds that accompanied the tornado on April 27 had a silver lining for one Ringgold couple.
Jennifer Shelton and Paul Weber, both 25, were looking forward to a May 14 wedding, but their plans never included having a twister sweep across the town where Shelton grew up.
"Paul had just moved here a couple of days before and as we were driving home that night I told him 'we have storms but don't have tornadoes,'" she said.
Her assurance notwithstanding, the couple had some damage at their home near Ooltewah-Ringgold Road.
"It wasn't destroyed but it was damaged," Shelton said. "We lost some decorations and thank-you cards, but, thankfully, most all of our wedding material was at my sister's house."
That May weekend was to have been a busy one for Shelton and her family. Not only was she to marry, her sister had planned her own wedding for the day before.
"My parents were like, 'no, you don't want to get married on Friday the 13th' when they talked to my sister," she said, but the fickle hand of fate dealt the blow to Jennifer instead.
"After the tornado, we were on a wedding planning website called TheKnot.com looking for ideas about rescheduling and saw the contest," she said in regards to the Jekyll Island Dream Wedding Giveway. "My sister told me we needed to register for the contest."
Top prize was a package that included a wedding planning weekend, a gown and tuxedo rentals, a 50-guest rehearsal dinner, the wedding ceremony, flowers, a four-hour reception, 13 double occupancy rooms for the wedding party and more. The prize is valued at $74,000.
"It was crazy to even be a finalist and we are still in shock," Shelton said. "Before, we were going to have a $3,500 wedding, a small intimate wedding at a family member's home, so I think my dad is the happiest that we won."
Neither she nor Weber, who hails from South Carolina, have ever visited Jekyll Island, but that is where on March 3 they will exchange wedding vows.
But before the spring, in fact within the next few weeks, the couple will move back into their home which is now repaired.
"This is perfect," said the Ringgold High School graduate, who is currently living in Chattanooga. "I definitely miss Ringgold and can't wait to get back to being closer to my family and friends."
And in the spring, as Shelton wrote in the couple's winning entry, "We would LOVE to have a dream wedding on Jekyll Island so we can pull our family together after this difficult year and have a fresh, beautiful start to our new lives!"