We have a winner ...

Congratulations to Kelly and Ryan, the winners of our WOW MY WEDDING contest! We're so excited to WOW their wedding this summer at Congress Hall. Keep an eye out for a post about their wedding!

Thank you again to everyone who shared their story with us and to those of you who voted.

Here is Kelly and Ryan's engagement story in Kelly's words.

We got engaged on my birthday – November 2, 2008. Earlier in the week Ryan asked if I wanted to go up to the top of the Sears Tower for my birthday. We had been living in Chicago for a little over a year at the time an he knew I had wanted to go up it but hadn't been yet. The morning of my birthday it was pretty nice outside, but for some reason Ryan was in a rush claiming he wanted make sure we got to the tower before it got cloudy. So, off we were!

Neither of us had taken into account that it was day light savings (everything was an hour earlier) since we had been in such a rush to get there early. As a result, we ended up arriving so early that the tower wasn’t open yet and we stood in line for a bit! After it opened, we got our tickets, watched the tourist video and headed up the elevators to the observatory deck. At the top there were a bunch of viewfinders that you could put a quarter in to magnify your view of the city. Ryan was looking out one and then told me to look through it. I looked for a bit, but then the time ran out. I said it was fine but Ryan insisted that I should try it again.

Now, Ryan was in grad school for art at the time. He had a painting studio, which was located within view of the Sears Tower. When I looked through the viewfinder, he kept trying to get me to look at the building where his studio was located. Finally I got the viewfinder pointed at the right place. Then, Ryan asked if I could see the window where his studio was located. I did. It took me a second to realize what was happening. Ryan had spelled out ‘MARRY ME?’ in the windows of his studio building. When I turned away from the viewfinder to Ryan, he was down on his knee with a ring and he said, “well, will you?” Ryan had a beautiful ring made by a Pittsburgh artisan. He had it made out of a wedding sapphire and worked to design a ring that reflected my painting and drawing style (we had start dating at art school). Stupendous day!

-Becky