We Finally Made the Finals!

So we finally made the finals of one of these social media contests we've entered. About time, huh? Actually, we think we deserved to be included this time, but we hesitate to trumpet that too much. Fact is, we entered to the Crate & Barrel Ultimate Wedding contest because we think our love story is unique and compelling. The fact we finished in the Top 50 is quite the accomplishment considering we didn't rely on tragedy to define our entry or to have a good story. Nearly everyone else in the Top 50, and definitely in the Top 20 defined themselves by illness, sexual orientation, or tragedy. Whether it be a car accident, cancer, or societal discrimination, all they could talk about was about how badly their lives sucked.

I'll try not to get too much into another rant here, but Amber and I thought the contest was about what made your couple unique. Of the Top 6, three had cancer, two were in severe auto accidents, one had a serious birth defect, and the other couple was championing same sex marriage. If it bleeds it leads, and these couples exploited their personal calamity to the fullest! The interesting part is that originality makes up the greatest percentage of a team's score. If 15 other couples are defining themselves by one partner's cancer, how unique is that? After a while, it's the same narrative:

John and Jane knew each other in high school, but lost touch. Seven years later, they saw each other on Facebook and rekindled a love they thought long since buried. Two years into the relationship while planning her fairytale wedding, Jane was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. John's love has brought Jane through this terrible time. With outstanding medical bills and crappy jobs, we need this wedding. Vote for us.

On top of the guilt trip in the entry, their friends, coached by them I'm sure, flood the C&B Facebook page and YouTube with updates claiming their friends "deserve" this fantastic prize. Interestingly though, no one ever says who they deserve the $100,000 dream wedding over. If they are deserving, doesn't that mean someone else is undeserving?

As for Ms. Buck and me, we've both had tough times, but we decided not to frame our relationship by our own misfortune. Amber and I are very lucky to have each other, our health, and a positive outlook on life; not mired in inferiority and feelings of inequity.

We had a blast with the contest and all the interviews we did for our entries' promotion. The last day of the contest, I had two interviews on DeKalb's news leader, 1360 AM WLBK, and another on NewsTalk 1400 WDWS in Champaign. The latter allowed me to reconnect with an old friend, Elizabeth Hess, from my days on the "Murray in the Morning" show on Sporting News Radio. That was a fun interview. I also did a previous spot the day before on WLBK, and recorded a nice spot on with WZBD 92.7 in Berne, Indiana. WZBD holds a special place in my heart as it was one of my first radio gigs fresh out of high school long long ago. We also managed to wrangle write-ups in the Ball State Daily News, and the hometown papers of the Decatur Daily Democrat and the Saginaw News. For each media outlet, we talked about our entry at http://tinyurl.com/yh9haon and how everyone should vote for us, and I'm pretty sure I guided a few people to check our proposal video at http://bit.ly/6Nc3Dj.

Even if we don't win a prize, we had a lot of fun as we always do, and sure has opened our eyes to the possibilities for our gift registry. That'll be a perfect post for another day.