Wedding Pink Blog - The Latest News + Updates!
We are proud to introduce the recipients of The Wedding Pink 2017, Laurie and Jessie. We are honored to be offering them a silver lining with a beautiful wedding ceremony after enduring a long year of surgeries, doctor appointments, chemo and radiation.
Laurie and Jessie will tie the knot on May 18 at the Evergreen Lake House.
Their beautiful story can be read here.
We recently asked Melissa and Rich, the recipients of The Wedding Pink 2015, to share their thoughts and experiences of being awarded the wedding. In case you are new to our blog Melissa and Rich had a beautiful wedding ceremony and reception at the Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver this past June.
Photo by Hardy Klahold Photography
Reminiscing about our wedding gives us great joy. We were only engaged for a short time and never imagined receiving the amazing gifted wedding from The Wedding Pink. From the very beginning we felt that it was a whirlwind of excitement because we learnt that we were going to be working with amazing vendors in the local area. The vendors were very nice and helpful in assisting us to see the vision of our dream wedding come true. They truly helped us incorporate every idea to assist in making this one memorable and unforgettable event. We never felt pressure to conform to a certain idea or vision of anyone else, but rather we were allowed to really individualize and personalize every detail needed for a once in a life time event. All the vendors listened to our desires and helped create the wedding of our dreams. Throughout the process, Ms. Cheryl Ungar was present for each vendor meeting and whole heartedly invested her time with us to help ensure time frames were met and details were completed, so that the process would be a smooth one. From cake tasting to food tasting, creating our invitations to picking out the perfect flowers, working with The Wedding Pink was a joyful experience. We are very grateful and humbled to have been provided this opportunity.
Each day, we remember the happiness of our wedding day. Being married at the Brown Palace, was a dream come true and beyond our imagination. The Wedding Pink allowed us to start our lives together on a high note.
There was so much joy, laughter and tears that came from entire experience. One would never realize that a cancer diagnosis could lead to so many positive things such as our beautiful wedding and new found friend! We cannot thank The Wedding Pink and Ms. Ungar enough for the generous gift they bestowed upon us.
-- Melissa and Rich
We know it has been a little quiet over here as we have been super busy working behind the scenes pulling together The Wedding Pink 2016.
We are thrilled to announce that our 6th annual wedding will take place in beautiful Crested Butte, Colorado this June. We have selected a very deserving couple, Lauren and Matt, who will tie the knot on the mountain at the Ten Peaks Event Site.
Ten Peaks Event Site, Crested Butte, CO
The amazing wedding planners of Crested Butte Events will be helping Lauren and Matt plan their dream wedding. We are grateful for all of Crested Butte's top wedding vendors who are donating their products and services to this memorable day.
We are all super excited to see this special wedding come together. Stay tuned to our blog for the latest updates.
We wanted to take a moment to thank Channel 7, KMGH in Denver for having us on the air this past Saturday to promote The Wedding Pink submission period.
I don't often share my personal life on this blog but in light of recent events I feel compelled to update my story. My hope in doing so is that other women may learn from my experiences.
As you all know I had breast cancer at a young age, 22 years ago. I have always felt that I was lucky, knowing that I would survive a single mastectomy and chemo while there are so many people suffering through a whole lot more.
Given what I went through I have been diligent through the years of making sure doctor appointments and mammograms were never missed, often scheduling them exactly a year apart. This past April I went in for a routine mammogram and much to my surprise there were a few calcifications which apparently are fairly normal as we age. As I suspected the radiologist called me back in for an expanded view. I was quite relieved when he, Dr. S., said all is fine, let's keep an eye on it and come back in 6 months.
However, there was something still nagging at me. It just didn't seem right that I was seeing these changes on my mammogram after 22 years of consistently clean readings. I distinctly remember sitting in the darkened room with the radiologist and saying, "I am not going to be one of those women who come back in 6 months and then have a real problem." Dr. S. was still confident that all was fine and said that if it bothered me, we could have the calcifications removed.
A few weeks later I was back for a simple biopsy, no big deal. It wasn't until the next day when Dr. S. called with the news. He said, "It's a good thing we did the biopsy. The pathology indicates some atypical cells near the calcifications." Then, what scared me the most, is when he said, "we need to go back in and make sure this isn't the tip of the iceberg." I thought to myself, holy cow, what did he mean by that?
Well a week later and after the MRI, which thankfully didn't reveal anything else, my husband and I were sitting in my oncologist's office making plans for a mastectomy and reconstruction. We left the oncologist's office nearly ecstatic that we have had the best possible outcome of a potentially horrible situation.
Fortunately I had an incredible team of doctors and the surgery went well. During my post-op appointment with my surgeon she gave me a copy of my pathology report. You can only imagine the shock I felt when I found out that I had ductal carcinoma in situ, which is stage 0 breast cancer. Fortunately it was early and non-invasive, but if left untreated, it more than likely would have eventually spread beyond that. The rest of the good news is that the prescribed treatment for me would have been a mastectomy which is what I just had. No further treatment is needed, thank goodness!
I still wonder what would have happened if I listened to Dr. S. that all was well and took his nonchalant wait and see attitude. In hind site I made all of the right decisions. So, my advice to anyone who feels uncomfortable or unsure of what the doctors are telling you, please get a second opinion or insist on further testing. It is true, we all need to be our own health advocates.
Blessings,
Cheryl
The following was written by Ben, the groom of The Wedding Pink 2013. Since Erin recently shared her journey with us we felt it was appropriate for Ben to tell us his experience.
It was a beautiful fall day in early October when I received the call, a call that would alter everything. Erin had cancer. The most important person in the world to me had a potentially serious illness. I remember sitting in my office, listening to her on the phone, stunned by the news, my mind going numb as she spoke. It was as if she were talking to me from the other side of a long, steel tube: the words were there, but it was as if they had an echo to them that made them impossible to decipher. My thoughts raced. Erin was only 27. How did this happen? How could it? Where did the cancer come from? Was it something in the water we drank, or something in the air in our apartment? How would this change our relationship? I knew that I couldn't stay at work at a time like this, and I raced home to be with Erin. But what I saw in her eyes when I arrived home was not hopelessness or despair, but was instead a fiery resolve to defeat this illness, and from that moment on I was with her 100% of the way. We were going to beat this.
For the next six months, my life became about helping to make her well again. I organized her medication and made dosage charts to track when she was to take each of her pills. We stayed in most nights and watched movies. I cooked whatever sounded good to her at the time. I became a semi-professional nurse, and for six months we took the fight to her cancer. And with every doctor’s appointment, and every chemotherapy infusion, I fell more in love with Erin, and admired her courage and her resiliency through it all. I was better and stronger just being around her, and I gained a perspective that few men have at my age.
A year and a half after her last Chemotherapy infusion, Erin came to me with an idea. She had heard about a non-profit in Colorado called the Wedding Pink, which awarded a wedding each year to a couple impacted by breast cancer. She was thrilled about the prospect, and though we were not even engaged at the time, I could see how much she wanted this. I remember reluctantly agreeing to it at the time. After all, there was no way that we were actually going to be the one’s selected for the wedding, I thought. It was out in Colorado, we were here in Virginia. I was sure our story was not as unique or interesting as many of the others that were applying. But the more I looked into the venue and thought about the possibilities, the more excited I became. I was still not confident that we would be selected, until we received a phone call from Cheryl asking us if we wanted to get married in Colorado in May. We said yes, and the wedding planning was on.
With the announcement, we began calling our family and friends, who almost couldn’t believe the news. This was understandable, seeing as how we could hardly believe it ourselves. It didn’t really begin to sink in for me until we were driving from Denver to Palisade to meet Cheryl and our vendors. Neither of us had ever been to Colorado, and the drive was spectacular, unlike anything we had ever seen before. At times it was hard to focus on driving the car because around every turn in the road there was a vista more magnificent than the one before. By the time we arrived in Palisade, we knew that this was going to be the perfect wedding. The venue was fantastic, all of our vendors were very welcoming, and the setting couldn’t be more beautiful. We couldn’t wait for all of our friends and family to get out to Western Colorado to enjoy it with us.
When the date of our wedding actually arrived, everything turned out better than we could have ever possibly imagined. The team at the Wine Country Inn and our wedding planners bent over backwards to take care of our every need. The setup, the decor and the food were all amazing, and we are so thankful for all of our generous vendors who donated their time and services to make sure that our special day was perfect. Everyone loved the assorted candy, the cookies, the horse-drawn carriage rides, the music, the flowers and the photo booth! As one of our dear friends and guests to our wedding put it: “This is the best trip I have ever been on, and I have been to Tibet.” We cannot thank enough everyone who worked so hard to make this event one to remember!
And to Cheryl Ungar, whose vision and initiative created The Wedding Pink, a very special thank you for providing this unparallelled gift to us. We can never truly thank you enough for what you have done for us, and we hope to help you expand and shape your vision for this worthwhile project in the future.
Ben, groom of The Wedding Pink 2013
We just recently celebrated our 2nd anniversary and have to admit that we love married life. We are great complements to each other and make a great team. The love we share for each other grows every day. It feels like we can conquer anything together and it’s exciting to think about what the future holds for us.
The most exciting prospect for us right now is the birth of our first child. We are expecting a baby boy in August. It’s hard to describe our state of mind right now with a baby on the way. It’s a mix of joy, excitement, uncertainty, humility, a little fear of the unknown, but it’s all good. We’re both looking forward to raising this little guy. Melissa can’t wait to have a new little man in the house and Jeff’s looking forward to teaching him how to play ball.
We are ever grateful to The Wedding Pink by Cheryl Ungar Gives for getting our married lives together started in such a grand way. Melissa’s bout with cancer was a challenging time, and the Wedding Pink was an uplifting experience during an otherwise disheartening time. We think back to our wedding day often and have such fond memories of it.
Melissa + Jeff, recipients of The Wedding Pink-2011
We had a wonderful time this past weekend with Erin and Ben in Palisade, Colorado. Here is a sneak peek at their official engagement photos. A huge thank you to Steve at Fifth Gear Portrait Designs for helping with the photo shoot.
Photos by Fifth Gear Portrait Designs and Cheryl Ungar Weddings.
Please don't forget that our submission period opens up tomorrow for next year's Wedding Pink. It will only be open for 18 days so we recommend submitting your story sooner than later. You may find all of the details as well as the submission form here.
Anyone who is engaged or soon-to-be engaged and whose lives have recently been touched by breast cancer qualify to submit their story. One deserving couple will be awarded a dream wedding valued at over $30,000.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Roxanne and Joseph joined me for a couple television appearances on TV8's Good Morning Vail show. In case you didn't have an opportunity to see us yesterday morning, here are the interviews.
One year ago today we had the honor of giving away the first annual Wedding Pink.
Melissa and Jeff, congratulations on your anniversary and best wishes for many more wonderful years together.
