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Contest :: Chocolate Butterbean
The SW office could easily be mistaken for a post office hub. Not only do we send out hundreds of packages a week, we also receive our fair share of letters and parcels. Nearly every single day, the UPS truck pulls up in front of the SW office with a new package for us. While we are used to receiving mail, nothing could have prepared us for the day that the package from Chocolate Butterbean arrived.
The day seemed just like any other. Lara, Katharine, Emily, and I were behaving as usual--spicing up our work day by listening to upbeat music and cracking jokes. We heard the rumble of the UPS truck's engine and a knock on the door. I bounded down the stairs and opened the door, only to be faced with one of the largest packages I had ever seen.
I thanked the mailman and lugged the long, tall, skinny package inside. It wasn't just enormous, it also weighed a ton. I tried to picture the contents of the package. Was it a flat screen tv? That would be heavy, large, and, of course, flat. Maybe someone had finally sent Katharine a tv to work in front of! She's been hoping for one for months.
After completing my workout for the day (dragging the humongous package up the stairs), I finally got the opportunity to see what was inside. While it wasn't a flat screened tv, it was just as marvelous. I pulled a very large, very beautiful handpainted wooden sign from within the box. It was stunning! I immediately fell in love with the sign. Joni of Chocolate Butterbean included a heartfelt note and I immediately knew that I wanted to share her one-of-a-kind designs with our readers.
Win: A beautiful handpainted wooden sign from Chocolate Butterbean.
To Enter: Tell us a story! Post a comment below describing how you and your significant other met for a chance to win a custom design from Chocolate Butterbean.
This contest ends Thursday, January 21st at Midnight. Best of luck!
Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 03:00PM
Reader Comments (83)
My fiance, Joel, and I originally first met as preschoolers (age 3)! Of course it was not quite love at first site, and we don't remember each other from preschool. We found out we met there when Joel's mother pulled out one of Joel's childhood photo albums when I met his family. We're standing next to each other in the photo! Incidently, Joel's mother identified his "girlfriend" from preschool in the picture too. It turns out I cut some of her hair off with scissors and was sent home from preschool. I'm not the jealous type though!
We met for real as freshmen in high school and became fast friends. By the time we were juniors, romance started to bloom and we went to our senior prom as girlfriend and boyfriend. We stayed together all through college and graduate school and are FINALLY getting married in June 2010. I love that we've sort of grown up together and that a lot of my sweetest memories involve my future husband.
-Liz
those signs are BEAUTIFUL!!!
My fiance and I both went to college at the same time, but didn't know each other until our last year there. We both ran for student government positions -- him as president and myself as the vice president of finance and that's how we became friends. We both were elected into office and became very involved on campus, joining lots of clubs together, taking classes together and eventually our friendship formed into something more. We've worked together on so many projects and been there for each other, that it just felt natural. We were known on campus as the "power couple" and it was just amazing to have someone there with me, who knew exactly what I was going through and experiencing it with me. We're very lucky to have found one another. <3
Vance and I met the good old fashion Southern way, in a bar! We had gone out that night with mutual friends and hit it off from the very start. Unfortunately I happened to be in a relationship at the time. Lucky for me, he thought I was worth the wait. A year and a half later I realized he was where I belonged, two years later he popped the question and three years later we're saying I do. I'm just as giddy as the very first night we met.
:)
I was his "incoming student" mentor when he transferred to my college after freshman year. Truth be told, I asked to be assigned to him because I already liked him!
oh my, there could not be a more beautiful piece of art on wood! i can already imagine the many ways i could use Chocolate Butterbean at our wedding.
blake and my love story began at a piano recital as children. however, as far as we can recall, sixth grade was the beginning of our relationship. blake developed a huge crush on me when we met in sixth grade. after a year of pining, i gave in and agreed to "go out with him". although the relationship had monumental consequences - my first kiss was blake - our long middle school courtship ended after a few months. we remained best of friends throughout high school and college. it was on a road trip for blake's final collegiate soccer game that i realized my feelings for him had never faded. finally with a bit of courage from our friends, i revealed my crush that had been hiding for years. and now we are getting married.
My fiance and I met in college. We were in an organization called SAA and he was so dreamy I use to stare at him from across the room. He didn't know until a year and a half later when we started dating!
My SO and I met just before our sophomore year of college as we were moving into neighboring apartments. We became fast friends, harboring mutual crushes. Two and a half years later, when we ran into each other on campus for the zillionth time, he actually followed up and asked me out on a date that night. We've never looked back. <3
p.s. I totally want to win one of these, they're beautiful!!
I personally think the story of how my fiance and I met is adorable. I grew up in rural north Texas, while he is from the heart of Dallas--Oak Cliff. Country Mouse and City Mouse didn't have much chance of crossing paths. However, we were each locally selected to represent our high schools at a leadership camp sponsored by Rotary. (Note: out of a couple thousand applicants, less than one hundred fifty are chosen. Odds were not in our favor!) So, in June of 2004, we were two among one hundred thirty-something campers--and never met. Oops. Thankfully, we each fell in love with the camp, its mission, and its people, and both applied to come back on staff. I specifically remember gooshing with a friend over the "fabulous guys" who attended this camp, and we both wished that we could marry "RYLA boys"...but knew we'd never be so lucky. At any rate, my fiance and I were both selected to come back to work at camp. So, we began attending training, where Jeff SAYS he tried to "holla" at me (these Oak Cliff boys, I never know what they're saying :), but apparently it didn't work. We truly began developing a friendship in June 2005 (at camp--that's right, a "camp relationship" come true!!), and after each of our current relationships fell apart, we quickly fell for each other. Four and a half years and five camps later, City Mouse and City Mouse will live happily ever after, beginning this summer--AFTER camp :)
Depending on who we're telling, we met at a bar OR we met at a church function. It was Catholic Young Adult Night at the bar. I was there with my friend and her now husband, who always managed to get into heated arguments in public. He was there with his friends who had coupled off. He came over and asked if he could play darts with us to "get away from couple hell." I said "sure, but you're joining couple hell over here."
We went out the following week and have been together ever since. We're getting married May 2010 and I could not be happier about spending the rest of my life with him.
We met in High School in Biology class. He had gotten in trouble and was sent to the back of the room (I had already been sent back there few weeks prior). He had a hot pink mohawk so I gave him a silly biology related nickname pertaining to the pink hair. That was it... we've been in love ever since! Thank you Ms. Biology class teacher, without you the most important things in my life would never be.
I met my absolutely wonderful and charming significant other on a blind date in high school. We were set-up miraculously by a friend for my winter formal. It was honestly a weird coincident considering we knew each other prior through our friend but never even thought of the other at all. We instantly hit it off that evening and our relationship soon enough blossomed and grew to where we are today. Six years later we are still blessed and thankful for that one moment and possibly best decision and risk that I have made so far in my life.
Jason and I met during my second year of college at the Art Institute in Minneapolis. One of my best friends, Lisa, had just begun dating a guy in Denver and wanted to see him over Spring Break, and at the same time I wanted to visit my parents who had recently moved to western Kansas. With both of us being broke college students that couldn't afford plane tickets, we decided to drive together to Denver. From there I would drop her off, drive three more hours to my parents house and when the week was over I would drive back, pick her up and we would drive back to Minneapolis.
We drove through the night and made it into Denver in the wee hours of the morning, just in time to get into his apartment and crash for the day. I woke up in the early afternoon to Lisa freaking out because she had clogged the toilet(!) and she didn't want her boyfriend, Jon to come home to that. So Jason, Jon's roommate came home early from work and helped her out of the situation, then we chatted for 15 minutes and after that we went back to sleep.
Later that night the four of us - Jon, Lisa, Jason and I went out to dinner and a party. Jason and I were chatting and flirting a bit, but I didn't think too much of it - I thought he was charming and funny, but nothing too serious. I left the next morning and went to visit my parents for the week. Lisa then called me half way through the week to tell me that Jason was asking about me and thought I was a very cute girl!!
So when I returned to pick her up we stayed one more night in Denver and Jason and I got to chat more and things became more serious. That friendship blossomed into a long distance relationship, and five years later the two of us are getting married! The funniest part is that Lisa and Jon's relationship lasted only one month after they introduced the two of us!
My fiance is a photographer, and when we met, he was finishing his degree. I was auditioning for a dance show at school, and he came to scout dancers for a photo series he was working on. We worked together a few times me usually jumping around in front of him and his camera, and about a month or two later, it clicked, and we saw each other in a different light.
I ended up going to a school that wasn't my first choice (so I could meet him), I went to an audition even though performing arts isn't my major, and it was lucky that I even saw the flyer (so I could meet him), and I unknowingly sat in front of him at church one night after winter break (so I could meet him). Things DO happen for a reason. We are completely imperfect together, but even more so apart.
These signs are adorable and would be perfect for our laid-back affair next summer! Please pick us!
Our story is something that we don't tell many people because I feel like it's kinda strange. My husband and I met online. Though meeting online is totally acceptable now, I'm a little embarrassed to say that we met on Myspace (for the record it was when it first came out and was cool....).
Anyway, I really wanted to go skydiving so I joined a Myspace group that was associated with my college. After looking through it I found a guy with a profile picture of a skydive run. Perfect! So I emailed him asking who he would recommend going to locally and he gave me the information. I wasn't looking for a boyfriend or anything (had actually declared to my friends at that time that I wanted to stay single). Him and I would occasionally talk but nothing serious at all.
One day we decided to hang out as friends and it was fun. Turns out we really clicked and soon enough started dating. Almost 4 years later we were married. Still newlyweds, we were married on September 12th, 2009. :)
I was a freshman at Converse College and had just gone through a big breakup; so I was down in the dumps on Valentine’s Day. My good friend Meredith decided that we needed to get out and have fun instead of drowning in our single sorrows. We went to a Valentine’s party at Wofford College and were having such a great time! Meredith was off talking to someone, and a boy (looking very out of place) wearing a high school letterman’s jacket caught my eye. I made my way through the crowd to say hello. Turns out, he was a high school senior from up north and was on a recruiting visit to play football at Wofford. He was such a cutie; I was instantly smitten! We talked for a little while, but the night was coming to an end and we parted ways without exchanging information. (dumb!) I forgot his name before we even left. Over the next few months, I bugged Meredith constantly asking, “Remember that cute high school boy at the party? I wish I knew his name! Do you think he’ll come to Wofford??” I never thought I would see him again.
One night, we were at the same fraternity house at Wofford that hosted the Valentine’s party the previous semester. I was sitting on the back porch talking to some friends, and “high school boy” walked in the back door. I have never been so surprised in my entire life. He instantly recognized me and came over to where I was. We talked the whole night and shared stories about how we had both been thinking about each other since his recruiting visit and wondering if we would see each other again. We hung out that night, and the rest is history!
These are too adorable!
Chris and I met completely on accident. We both went to a tri-state band convention (yes, we're band nerds!) and because my flight got in late, I didn't get the chance to audition for my chair and instead got placed last! Luckily, being last chair landed me right next to Chris who was first chair in his section. After a long week of rehersals, there was music in the air (pun intended)!
We met on the bus, when I was in 7th grade. He is 3 years older than me, and he lived right up the road. We met because the middle school and high school share a bus. Gregg and I didn't really talk until I was in 9th grade, but he remembers having a crush on me & specifically remembers a fake tattoo I had on my leg when I was 12 and I would prop my legs up on the seat in front of me on the bus. When I started high school, he was a senior, and we started talking because he knew my ex-boyfriend. After the first day of talking, we bonded and became best friends. We always dated other people, and now he says he had a huge crush on me back then. I somehow knew we would end up together, because I have a diary entry where I wrote about how we would end up being old together. We both moved to different cities after high school, but ended back at our parent's houses, which were very close. Things clicked when I was 20-21 and I realized he was the person I had been searching for all along. We've been together for 9 years now, and it is time to get married! I am marrying my best friend, and things couldn't be better!
Cory and I met in Mobile, Alabama. He was there for work and I was there visiting my dad who works for the same company. The first night I was there the company had a closed party at this tiny bar called Veets (anyone ever been there?). I was walking by the Golden Tee game when a girl I had met and who knew Cory stopped me. She introduced me to the other guys Cory was standing with and then said... "Cory, this is Whitney" "Whitney, this is Cory, he's the cute one" I smiled and thought to myself 'yes he is the cute one.' The second we said hello we never stopped talking, I barely remember anyone being around us after that. It was like we had known each other for years. I knew from that moment on that I had met the one. Love at first sight at it's best. :)
As members of the same college band, it was inevitable that our paths would eventually cross. Lucky for us, it turned out to be sooner when I went out after a concert with some of David's fraternity brothers. Sitting in a booth with four of his brothers at Applebees, I kept having to turn around so that someone else was included in the conversation at our table. Turns out it was David. In his words... "I had to stay involved in that table's conversation, because I wanted to know everything I could about you."
Needless to say, his brothers kept finding excuses to get us near each other, and 5 of them will be standing at the altar to witness our marriage!
Dave and I met at Florida State University in a Business class. On the first day of class, I sat in the front row. My Dad would be so proud! Dave sat behind me. The teacher decided to pair us up for a semester long group project. The teacher assigned Dave and I to the same group. For the next year and a half, Dave and I at least one class together. Before long we were in the back row of the classroom chatting away and sharing our daily bag of Skittles.
My boyfriend and I have been together since high school. I was friends with a lot of his friends. His senior year in high school, he tore his ACL. I happened to work for a physical therapist. I called him to help set up his appointments for his therapy, he sent flowers to thank me, and it's history from there. We dated long distance all through college and finally live in the same state again.
My fiance and I met face to face in a pretty interesting place, the Peace Corps in the Kingdom of Tonga, but it wasn't the first time we talked. Jim arrived in Tonga in October 2003, and in May 2004, I received my placement. Always the planner(kinda), I reached out to all the Tonga Volunteers with Blogs, and Jim's was the best, so I e-mailed Jim to get the low down on what bug-repellant I should bring. Little did Jim know his future was knocking at his inbox.
2 Months later, I stepped off the plane in a very strange land. Unbeknownst to me, Jim (without even realizing I was the same person who had emailed him months before) was already staking claim from afar. The other volunteers had come to welcome us with leis. Jim's group was mainly guys, and they were slightly x-chromosome deprived. Steve, one of Jim's Groomsman and best bud from the Peace Corps, claims that Jim pointed me out and said 'That one's mine!'. And that's when it all started :)
I had been looking for a Church to attend for awhile and one of my coworker had been telling be about her Church, then she told me about the new cute guy going there! I told her I was going for a different guy ( ya know?! God ) but the Lord blessed me with both his love and of that cute guy!! Happily getting married in April :)
My freshman year of college my friends and I were on the hunt for ping pong balls to play a certain dorm game ;) My wonderful friend from home heard about this (as we had no cars to drive to the store to buy some) and sent a care package to me containing my favorite turkey burgers individually wrapped for me to microwave in the dorm, as well as about 30 ping pong balls. Word spread in my small dorm that I had tons ping pong balls. Months later around spring break, my now fiance was celebrating his birthday and wanted to play beer pong. He asked people around the dorm and everyone directed him to "Jenna on the 3rd floor." He came up and asked if he could borrow some ping pong balls and invited me to play, and the rest is history!!!