Wedding Pink Blog - The Latest News + Updates!
Thank you to those who have submitted their stories to be considered for The Wedding Pink 2015. If you are still going to submit, please don't forget that our submission period closes at midnight this Sunday, August 10.
Feel free to drop us an email through our contact form if you have any questions.
Brown Palace Hotel - host of The Wedding Pink 2015
A reminder that submissions are open August 1-10 for the 5th annual Wedding Pink to be held next May at the historic Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver.
This is an opportunity for one deserving couple whose lives have been impacted by breast cancer to be awarded a dream wedding, nearly cost free and valued at over $40,000. We encourage anyone who meets our submission criteria to submit their story.
Everything for the wedding is donated, including the wedding planner, a catered reception, cake, flowers, photographers, DJ, wedding dress and much more. A complete list of contributing vendors, submission guidelines and the submission form can be found here.
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.
We now have a full gallery of images from Erika and Michael's beautiful wedding on our website. Please take a look and share in the joy of their special day.
You may view the gallery here.
Erika, the recipient of The Wedding Pink 2014 (photo by Van Buren Photography & M Photography)
It’s early July and I am still floating on air from our wedding that took place on May 15 of this year. As I sit here, I reflect on memories of the day and events surrounding it with an ear-to-ear grin. In one word, it was “perfection”.
To think that a year ago I had no idea what The Wedding Pink was or who any of the beautiful people that swept so gallantly into my life to give it to me were. I was engaged to a wonderful man, and I had short hair and a new outlook on life thanks to my cancer battle that had taken place the year before. My fiancé Mike, who is from New Zealand, and I did not have the slightest clue as to how to pull off our dream wedding in the wake of my illness and the tumult that accompanies it. We were shelling out almost $800 a month for my health insurance and just trying to get our feet on the ground after a big move from NYC to the Midwest.
We knew that above all, we wanted to bring our families together. Between the both of us, we have family members on three continents, spanning multiple countries. How many opportunities, we asked ourselves, would there be to bring everyone together like this over our lifetimes? Not many. But when it came down to it, we could not piece together a proper celebration with the budget we had and the energy we lacked. It became a source of stress and difficulty for us. We were so excited to get married, but completely lacked the resources to accomplish the task.
Enter: The Wedding Pink. I was at camp with First Descents (another brilliant cancer organization that does adventure trips for young adult survivors) when one of my camp-mates asked me about my engagement and if I had plans for a wedding yet. “Don’t ask!” I said jokingly, explaining the situation. She asked me if I had ever heard of The Wedding Pink and told me a fellow breast cancer survivor friend of hers had won it last year. We jumped on the computer to check the submission date for the next wedding and it happened to be the week after we returned from camp.
From that moment on, everything felt serendipitous. I submitted our story, with its twists and turns and genuine hope that we would be called for an interview. And we were. When we were told that we had won the wedding, I distinctly recall Mike and I hanging up the phone, looking at each other with the widest eyes, falling and laughing on the couch for about 20 minutes straight. “WHAT!! THIS IS AMAZING!!” we could not stop saying. It was.
Meeting Cheryl Ungar, the survivor that founded The Wedding Pink, was like meeting an old friend. Cheryl’s heart and soul soar with her work on this wedding giveaway and she does it out of the absolute kindness of her own heart. There is no reward for her except in bringing joy to others and it is a very special person that can offer that to others so selflessly.
Her entire team of vendors is of that same ilk. People often assumed when I told them I won a wedding that I had to just fall in line with whatever was decided for me. This could not be farther from the truth. When I met with Ann Marlin of Cloud 9 Weddings and her fabulous team, we were immediately assured that everyone participating in this wanted to give us OUR dream wedding – not a cookie-cutter version of things they decided for us. They asked us our style, got a sense of our personalities, figured out what our likes and dislikes were and did nothing without asking us twice before making decisions.
The day was, as I said, perfect. We were married at Crooked Willow Farms, an absolutely stunning location south of Denver. I described it to people as a country chic, which was just excellent for Mike and myself: a little bit rustic, but absolutely upscale and gorgeous.
When I walked down the aisle to see my future husband standing there and looked around the room at all of the people that had made the journey to Colorado from literally all over the world, my heart swelled. This was not just about our union, but it was so much more. It was a celebration of life, of love, of family and friends. It was an excuse to have a full day of utter bliss and happiness with no worries. For a cancer survivor, that is the greatest gift.
The Wedding Pink is the most remarkable cancer organization I have known, in the sense that it offers something truly unique – it has been said to be a silver lining after a dark cloud and that could not be truer. Winning the wedding in my post-cancer haze could not have offered a better point of focus for me, a point of happy distraction and an opportunity to look FORWARD to something wonderful, rather than dwelling consistently on what had passed.
We will always look back on the day with fondness and full hearts. There has been no greater gift to us, besides our health and happiness, that has come our way. The Wedding Pink and the team of vendors behind it are truly, truly special.
A huge thank you to All Digital Photo & Video for the beautiful video they produced from Erika and Mike's wedding.
I want to take a moment to express my gratitude towards my Pink Family which is comprised of the past Wedding Pink couples.
Not only are they awarded a dream wedding but afterwards they join our family and help with future weddings. Every family member represents strength, courage and hope in dealing with breast cancer.
We intend for this special family to grow and give back to the community every year.
Mike & Erika (2014), Cheryl Ungar (founder of The Wedding Pink), Melissa (2011) and Erin & Ben (2013)
We had a huge surprise for Erika at her wedding. She was gifted this stunning Todd Reed necklace made of yellow gold, raw diamond cubes and brilliant cut diamonds.
There is a beautiful story behind this. Kelly Karli of Frosted Pink Weddings donated her wedding planning services to The Wedding Pink 2012 and one of her clients read about it on her blog. The mother-of-the bride proceeded to make a private donation to The Wedding Pink in honor of Kelly's grandmother, Alice, who passed away from breast cancer many years ago. Alice was very dear to Kelly and her inspiration in founding her wedding planning company.
Kelly joined us at this year's wedding and presented the necklace to Erika. Our hope is that Erika wears this necklace in good health remembering this special day and all of the family and friends that surrounded her and Mike with love.
Additionally, a very sincere thank you to Todd Redd Jewelry for making this possible.
Erika and Michael's beautiful day at Crooked Willow Farms.
Photos by Van Buren Photography, M Photography and Cheryl Ungar.
The Wedding Pink is made possible through the generosity of the vendors, individual donors and corporate sponsors. If you would like to pay it forward for next year's couple to have a similar wedding of their dreams, you may make a donation here. We are a 501(c)3 charitable organization and your contribution is tax deductible.
Our lovely couple!
Photos by Van Buren Photography and M Photography
The Wedding Pink is made possible through the generosity of the vendors, individual donors and corporate sponsors. If you would like to pay it forward for next year's couple to have a similar wedding of their dreams, you may make a donation here. We are a 501(c)3 charitable organization and your contribution is tax deductible.
We all had such a great time at Erika and Michael's wedding and we were honored to be part of it. There are so many great photos and we are still editing through thousands of images. Here is the first of several blog posts of photos. We hope to have the rest up by the end of today and a full gallery of photographs in a few weeks.
Enjoy!
Photos by Van Buren Photography, M Photography and Cheryl Ungar Wedding Photography
The Wedding Pink is made possible through the generosity of the vendors, individual donors and corporate sponsors. If you would like to pay it forward for next year's couple to have a similar wedding of their dreams, you may make a donation here. We are a 501(c)3 charitable organization and your contribution is tax deductible.
Wow, what an amazing evening we had last night. More pics soon!
Photos by Katie of Van Buren Photography and Emily of M Photography.
We are all so excited making Erika and Michael's wedding dreams come true tomorrow. Stay tuned to the blog and our facebook page for updates throughout the day.
Meanwhile, Erika and Michael joined me this morning for a little interview on Channel 9's Colorado and Company.
Today marks the first anniversary of the 3rd annual Wedding Pink. We would like to wish the lovely Erin and Ben a happy happy anniversary!
We hit the refresh button on our website. We hope you like it!
With this year's Wedding Pink being a little over 3 weeks away I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the vendors who are generously donating their products and services to make Erika and Michael's wedding dreams come true.
A huge thank you to the following vendors:
Erin Ferris Hair
Robin Flanagan Makeup
Men's Wearhouse - Park Meadows
Tomorrow, April 17, marks the 3rd wedding anniversary for Melissa and Jeff, our very first Wedding Pink couple. Much has changed since that joyous day in downtown Denver. Last Autumn they welcomed a beautiful baby boy into the world. Furthermore, Melissa continues to remain healthy and cancer free.
Over the last 3 years The Wedding Pink has also grown as next month we will help Erika and Michael celebrate their special day. This marks the 4th annual Wedding Pink.
All of this brings much happiness and joy to me! It is a dream come true to be able to offer a silver lining to these young couples after they have struggled with such a horrific disease.
Melissa, Jeff and Fenn
We believe in equal rights here at The Wedding Pink. It is always delightful to show the bride trying on wedding dresses and it is just as much fun to show the groom at his tux fitting.
Recently I joined Mike at the Men's Wearhouse in Park Meadows mall and for those of you who do not know, Men's Wearhouse is donating Mike's tux.
So without further ado...
In case you are wondering Mike will be sporting a slightly different look at the wedding!
We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Brown Palace Hotel for the Veil & Vow Luxury Wedding Showcase this past weekend. All of the proceeds are benefiting The Wedding Pink and we are grateful for their support. We would also like to mention that the Bridal Collection held a sample dress sale at the show and 15% of the dress sales are being donated to The Wedding Pink.
Thank you again to the sponsors, vendors and attendees of the show. It was fabulous!
Michelle of the Brown Palace Giving Away Prizes
Erika & Mike, Wedding Pink 2014 Bride & Groom
The Bridal Collection Sample Dress Sale
I have to take a moment to share Erika and Mike's wedding invitation. It turned out so perfect and captures the flavor of their upcoming wedding (which is hard to believe that it is less than 2 months away!).
Erika and Mike had the pleasure of working with the multi-talented Ann Marlin of Cloud 9 Weddings & Papers. Ann not only graciously donated the invitations but is also is the lead wedding planner for The Wedding Pink 2014 and 2015. We are very fortunate to have her on board.
