Southern Weddings

The winner of the Lucky 13 Contest (chosen at random by putting all the names in a hat) is….

Lauren! "The luckiest moment in my life is when I knew, that I knew, that I knew, that my sweet Rodney was the one. He was coming to pick me up for a date, I walked down the stairs, saw him talking to my family members, and he looked up at me… our eyes locked, and I just knew. "This is the man I’m going to marry. I’m such a lucky girl!" 1 year and 14 days later, he purposed on the lake in a gazebo… my thoughts again… "I’m the luckiest girl!" Rodney is an amazing man. Kind, loving, understanding and compassionate… when I’d think of the perfect fit for me and the kind of man that I want to go through life with, Rodney is the perfect match for all those wishes. I am, the luckiest girl :)" 

Congratulations, Lauren!  You win a set of 25 custom monogrammed note cards from the FABULOUS {Lucky Designs}.  Simply email us {submissions at swsmag dot com} your contact info and we will put you in touch with Erin at LD to claim your fantastic prize. Thank you to {Lucky Designs} for the wonderful prize.  Be sure to check out the {Lucky Designs Blog} for beautiful inspirations and amazing designs!

I know you could just go to the original post and click to see the comments, but these were so good that I had to post them here for all to read.  Even though the contest is over, feel free to leave a comment here and tell us what your luckiest moment in life has been.  These comments are so inspiring and we could all use a little positive thinking in life, don’t you think?  Enjoy~ 

The luckiest moment in my life for me has to be meeting my wife. I know that sounds cheesy but hear me out. I met her in poetry class in college and one day decided to ask if she would accompany me back to my car, as I couldn’t find my keys and might need a ride. She accepted and when we got there we discovered my car was still on with the keys in the ignition. It had sat that way for three classes (about 4 hours). No one had stolen anything from it and it was just sitting there purring away. Not only was I lucky enough to not have my car stolen but for some reason Cathy stayed interested in me. 6 months later we were engaged and have now been married for over a year and together for over three. I say that’s pretty dang lucky, don’t you? :-D

My luckiest moment isn’t just one moment – it’s been the entire past few months. I just graduated law school after working my butt off for the past 3 years, and got engaged! I am on top of the world! (Except for right now while I study for the bar – I’m hoping for some luck come the end of July so that I pass this thing!)

My luckiest moment has been starting my event planning business. It is such a 180 from what I am by education (Doctor of Pharmacy) but I have sooooo much fun doing it! Planning the events AND running the business.

My luckiest moment was when I found my sweetheart!

I am Irish. But the "Luck of the Irish" should really be the "unluck of the Irish" as I find we Irish are usually unlucky. However, my one luckiest moment was when I met my fiance. It was a total fluke (My company hired his band for a show) and we never saw each other again…until he randomly found my number in their booking contract and decided to call. I never thought I’d hear from him again and then I did! Lucky Me!

My luckiest moment stemmed from a horrible experience. I had just lost my first job out of college due to conflicts with my coworkers and was living on severance while trying to find a new career. A long-time blog reader who had recently moved from the East Coast to my city heard that I was looking and told me that there was a great opening at the company where he worked. This company was less than a mile from where I lived in a great waterfront neighborhood. Needless to say, I got the job and it was everything I’d been looking for in a career all along. I have great coworkers at a company that does great things… all because of a blog reader. How lucky is that?

Aside from the obvious, I would have to say it was when I was in the 5th grade. I won the "Guess the Amount of M&M’s in the Jar" contest in my math class. I got to take them all home! :)

My luckiest moment, by far, was winning a game show in college! It was definitely luck and not skill…

My luckiest moment was when I got back to my apartment in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and found that I hadn’t lost a thing! It felt especially lucky because so many others weren’t so fortunate. Looking back a few years later, I realize I was extra lucky, since my evacuation buddy is now my fiance.

I have had my moments of luck. I have always won those "guess how many are in the jar" things. Seriously…I have won 5 of them. I won a camera once. I won a folding chair at a convention too. But, my luckiest moment of all was getting pregnant with my sweet daughter. If you know anything about conception, it’s kind of a chance thing, but my story is a little different. My hubby and I tried to get pregnant for 3 years with no "luck." I have an endocrine disorder called Polcystic Ovary Syndrome that causes a bunch of problems, the biggest being infertility. We went to a reproductive endocrinologist (fertility specialist) and we did several rounds of fertility treatments that failed. My body just did not respond to the different pills. The doctor decided to go a more aggressive route and I had to give myself injections. YUCK! I was so excited to see that my ovaries were responding, but not enough. The next cycle, we went super aggressive and I finally had some mature eggs. I was elated. Unfortunately, my doctor wasn’t as happy as I was. He said I now had too many eggs and I couldn’t complete the cycle. WHAT?! Too many?? He said that he couldn’t take the chance of me getting pregnant with sextuplets. I was devastated. But, my luck turned around. The nurse mentioned switching me to in vitro fertilization and the doctor agreed to do it. I was their first patient to switch from a conventional fertility cycle to in vitro. I was so lucky to have had THAT nurse in the room that day! Two days later, I was undergoing the egg harvesting surgery. I had six mature eggs that were fertilized. Sadly, only 2 survived the 3-day wait and one of those was lagging behind. My "good" embryo was only given a mid-range score. It wasn’t a great day for me. The doctor tried to remain hopeful, but I knew the odds were stacked against me and I could read his face. He also started talking about "next time." I went home and cried for the 2 days of bed rest. But, 2 weeks later, my pregnancy test came back positive. I WAS PREGNANT. I was so excited. I didn’t know if I would be pregnant next month or next week even, but I was pregnant that day. Eight months afte
r my positive pregnancy test I delivered the most beautiful baby girl I had ever seen. Her cry was the sweetest sound I had ever heard. On April 4th, 2007, my prayers had been answered and I felt like the luckiest person alive. I was chosen to be the mommy of a miracle. I go back to the clinic often to make sure they remember us. That mediocre embryo turned into the most beautiful baby. She even has her own blog!! www.averyraesblog.blogspot.com So, was it luck or divine intervention? I don’t know, but I am guessing it was a mixture of the two!

Nice to see a contest centered around something positive! I loved reading the comments. As part of Lucky Designs, it is gratifying to see my daughter’s talented designs featured on such a terrific blog.

I could easily say that going to the Rascal Flatts concert back in September 2005 was the luckiest day of my life because I met my fiance there. But I’ll go another route. I am SO lucky to have my little blog. Everyday I get some 300 readers that tune in, and sometimes comment, on my wedding planning. Even if they don’t comment and leave words of advice or inspiration, they are there. My blog gives me a daily outlet for my wedding thoughts, inspiration, and stress. I don’t know what I would do without it! Annnnd Lucky Designs designed our monogram, so it wouldn’t hurt to have matching monogram notecards!! :)

I’ve never really considered myself a "lucky" person, but then again, I’ve never been particularly unlucky, either. Probably my most lucky day was the day I met my fiance, although I didn’t really know it until about 1.5 years later when we finally started dating! Nothing too particular to remember, but we became good friends pretty quickly!

So my luckiest day will be April 4th, 2009 – our wedding day. And I actually plan on incorporating that in my vows! (I can tell you this b/c my FI doesn’t read blogs). =) I am not a lucky person. I enter raffles for the donation aspect, not because I have a shot at winning. When "winning" names are called, I am never paying attention because I know its not me; it never is. But I don’t think I’m unlucky. I think everyone has an allotted amount of "lucky" points for life, and I have just been saving mine up. I never bothered to cash them in on raffles or lotteries. Instead, I choose to save my points and cash them all in on April 4th 2009 when I hear him say "I do."

I have to say I am not 100% sold on the whole "luck" thing. I think that every one is blessed in certain ways and with certain gifts and we may perceive this as luck when that is not what it is at all. That being said…I was all set to leave for college in a new state. My mom prayed that I’d find a reason to stay since she didn’t want me to leave. A few months before I left I began dating my future husband and college out of state was no longer an option because I couldn’t leave him. I’m quite blessed/lucky that I had a mom wishing + praying for me to stay or I’d never have met my hubby!

The luckiest moment in my life is when I knew, that I knew, that I knew, that my sweet Rodney was the one. He was coming to pick me up for a date, I walked down the stairs, saw him talking to my family members, and he looked up at me… our eyes locked, and I just knew. "This is the man I’m going to marry. I’m such a lucky girl!" 1 year and 14 days later, he purposed on the lake in a gazebo… my thoughts again… "I’m the luckiest girl!" Rodney is an amazing man. Kind, loving, understanding and compassionate… when I’d think of the perfect fit for me and the kind of man that I want to go through life with, Rodney is the perfect match for all those wishes. I am, the luckiest girl :)

What a fun give-away! Well, aside from meeting my fiance, which was amazingly lucky, I’d have to say my luckiest moment is something many people would find decidedly unlucky: being diagnosed with cancer.  I say it is lucky, though, because it was a very rare cancer in a very early, hard-to-detect stage, and it so just happened that the pediatrician who saw me that day had recently diagnosed another child with the cancer (an astonishing improbability), so had I not gone in to see that doctor on that day, I couldn’t have not been diagnosed until it was in a much later stage. That was probably the luckiest moment of my life!

My luckiest moment was when I finally decided to sign up for guitar lessons, my assigned teacher turned out to be totally hot. Guess he thought I was totally hot as well, because after a few months he ended up asking me out, and it was my last first date for the rest of my life!

Getting into Grad school and getting out with no debt. It changed me in more ways than I can count, including leading me to my current job and future husband.

What’s YOUR  luckiest moment in life?