Did we Win? YES WE DID! : FRIDAY

WOW WE WON!! WE WON!! WE WON!!

There is no beating around the bush in today's entry. The outcome is simple, WE WON.

It was quite a morning and I think that Glenn was maybe even more nervous than I was. We knew that the announcement wasn't until 8:15 so we didn't have any rush to get up. We still got up before 7am though. I did however have an extra long shower which was lovely and helped to fill in some time. I was nervous, but I knew that it was no longer up to us, what we said, who we begged, the decision had already been made. So I was at peace with which ever came our way, not that I wanted us to lose or anything!

Glenn was clock watching. I kept myself busy. I even iced a cake I had made on wednesday night. We could hear on the radio that the time had changed from 8:15 to, the winners will be announced before the 8:30 news. They had played a montage of Lyndsay & Ray's answers to their questions earlier, so we knew that they still had to play ours. They did so shortly after 8am. It was weird hearing ourselves again, and really interesting to see what was chosen to be in the montage! We were a bit surprised by some of the choices, but overall it helped to show that we have a sense of humour.

Finally the phone rang. It was about 8:20am. This was it. Deep breaths. I think that both Glenn and I were shaking. I know that I was, and because we were cuddled together listening, I think he was too.

You could tell that Dave and Camille, really didn't want to do this. They knew that for whoever won, it would be fantastic but for whoever lost, it would be really hard, devastating even. To have come this far and still not won would really suck. That was the bit they didn't want to do. If they could have just done the happy bit I think that they would have. All of this apprehension from them, made them drag out the announcment even more.

When Dave finally said, The couple that will be winning our wedding is.... we held our breath. But then he paused for AGES, it must have been at least 10 seconds, we wondered if the phone had cut off as there was just silence. He finally broke that silence with "Glenn & Tamar". Of course, we screamed. Well I screamed, and deafened half of wellington. And then tried to apologise for it! Glenn and I were hugging and jumping up and down. And poor old Dave and Camille were trying to cheer up Lyndsay and Ray for not winning. They didn't really get to celebrate with us.

Good luck Lyndsay and Ray, we hope that you guys are stronger for the experience and still move forward with getting married. I know that anything that we say will not make things any better for you though, so we just wish you luck and happiness together. Thank you for being part of the competition with us.

From then on our phones did not stop. We had calls and texts coming through while we were still on the phone to the radio station! We spoke to a couple of yahoo'ing family members (including my dad in the middle of his gym) and then we got a phone call from the wedding planner Erin.

It hadn't even sunk in and we were already in the throes of organising a wedding. But i guess that is to be expected when you have ONLY GOT 2 WEEKS before you get married!

Erin had some questions and we answered as best we could. She arranged to drop some marriage licence forms to Glenn so that he could fill them in and take them up to births deaths and marriages that day. Just so we can be sure it all goes through in time.

I then dropped Glenn off at work and went to work myself. By the time I got there my text inbox was full for a second time and I had 5 voicemails. And of course all of my workmates wanting to congratulate us! They did of course, get some of the afore mentioned chocolate cake for all of their voting efforts.

It is safe to say that neither Glenn or I could wipe the silly grins off our faces all day and did very little work. We have since heard that there were a large number of people grinning on our behalf's all around the country!

Erin got in contact again, once I had gathered my head a little bit, and arranged Glenn and his Bestman to have suit fittings on Saturday and Me and one of my bridesmids to go to Voon on saturday afternoon too.

From then It has been all on. We have been busy, and buzzing from this fantastic news the whole time. On friday night our best friends came round and we went down to our local fish and chip shop to get some dinner. The week before I had been telling the girls down there about the competition and when I came back this week I would be able to tell them if we won or not. I walked in, grinned and said we won!. The poor girl behind the counter was so excited for us she got the hiccups and was jumping up and down. It was safe to say that by about 9:30pm, Glenn and I were both asleep on the couch, worn out by all the excitement!!!

I know that we have said it before, but I HAVE to say it again. A HUGE THANK YOU to absolutely everyone that voted and encouraged others to vote for us. Your votes counted and have given us this once in a lifetime opportunity. We are truly blessed and humbled by the fantastic support that so many people have shown us during this time, without you none of this would be happening. So thank you again.

Stay tuned to see how the preparations are going - theres only 2 weeks!!


Tamar