SerendipityCrafts
02-16-2007, 10:36 PM
Surprise proposal leads to a surprise wedding
By Rachel Katz
January 31, 2007
Against all odds, 120 friends and family kept a huge secret from Scott Games: his wedding day.
Games, 41, facilities manger for the state Department of Parks, only discovered the date of his planned marriage Saturday. Jan. 20, a few hours before he marched to the altar.
"I had no idea whatsoever," he said a week after his surprise wedding.
He woke up the morning of the wedding fully expecting to spend the day relaxing and watching the University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball game. But when a limo picked him up from his home and whisked him to the Capital Plaza Hotel, he knew his fiance, Mary Jo Slade now Mary Jo Games had other plans.
At the hotel, there were three gifts waiting for him: a statue called "The Promise," a watch with a card that said "this is the time," and a tape player.
Through the tape, his fiance explained that she was finally ready to set the date for that very day.
The Games love story began on Jan. 20, 2006, when Mary Jo, 42, drove to Western Hills High School, where she works as a library aide. On the way to school from her residence on Parkwood Place, she saw signs along the road that read, "My heart exposed" and "for the world to see."
"I said, 'Someones getting engaged," she recalled.
Then she saw the last signs, which read, "Mary Jo Slade" and "will you marry me?"
The proposal was for her.
On Nov. 18, 2006, she was browsing at downtown Frankforts Nitro where she had a gift certificate. While flipping through a catalogue, she saw a wedding dress that she had to have. Driving home, she decided to throw the surprise wedding.
"Within a couple hours, I had the whole thing in my head," she said.
Over the next few months, the bride-to-be worked on creating the perfect wedding and keeping it a secret from Scott Games, who wanted nothing more than to marry her.
"Ive been after her since then (the engagement) to set a date," Scott Games said. "I was reasonably sure shed give me a weeks notice."
Although Mary Jo had to keep some secrets from her fiance in order for the plan to work, she knew she would fill Scott Games in on the secret later.
"I kept a journal from the first day I started (planning) until the wedding day," she said.
She also let her three children, Ashley, 20, Ryan, 16, and Taylor, 9, and Scott Games two children, Lacey, 20, and Steven, 16, in on the secret. Steven served as Scott Games best man and all of the children were part of the wedding party.
She knew exactly whom to invite because it was something the couple discussed before the wedding. "We talked not about what kind of wedding we wanted, but who we wanted there," she said.
The matrimonial conspirator could not send out invitations because she did not want to leave a "paper trail."
"I kept stressing to people, 'You cannot tell," she said.
None of the family members and friends present at the wedding at Berry Hill Mansion told the secret, and Scott Games was completely surprised.
At the hotel before the wedding, Scott Games had no worries; his intended had planned everything perfectly.
"Everything was in the hotel room: a complete change of clothes, everything," Scott Games said. "She even ordered a pizza and had it delivered."
When the wedding began, Mary Jo stood on a balcony while "This is the Time," by Michael Bolton and Wynonna Judd, played.
"The one thing I wanted to say aloud and I wish I had, was, 'Dont let her get away," Scott Games said of his reaction when he saw his bride on the balcony.
In the end, Scott Games was glad his own plans were ruined.
"It was perfect," he said. "It was absolutely the most beautiful wedding Ive ever seen."
"Hes always doing romantic stuff," Mary Jo Games said. "So it was my turn."
****************************************
Our surprise wedding
Feb 13 2007
By Kerry Beadling
WHEN her boyfriend took her on a surprise trip to the caribbean for her 30th birthday Jolene Barker was overjoyed.
And when Cory Barrett proposed on the first day of their holiday in St Lucia, Jolene didn't think it could get any better.
But then Cory told her: "We're getting married out here in a week's time!"
Unknown to her, Cory had spent six months organising the surprise ceremony and had chosen the dress, shoes and meal for their dream wedding - which family and friends had flown out for from Coventry.
The couple met 10 years ago in Coventry.
Cory was studying at Henley College after leaving Sidney Stringer School.
They met through a group of Jolene's friends from Coundon Court School who were at the college.
Although both now live in London, where Cory works in fashion at the Shop At Bluebird in Kings Road, they both regularly pop back to Coventry to visit.
For Jolene the surprises started in the months leading up to her December 2 birthday.
She said: "In October I got small things like chocolate and was told it was leading up to something bigger.
"Then I got a massage and some clothes - but then I had to meet him at a doctor's surgery where I got a jab and I realised we were going away somewhere.
"After some nagging he admitted it was the Caribbean so I would know what to pack."
As they were sipping champagne in their luxury hotel and waiting for their bags to arrive, Cory got down on one knee.
Jolene said: "I thought he'd done his back in at first.
"Then he asked me to marry him and I said yes but couldn't stop giggling because I just wasn't prepared for it.
"He told me we were getting married the next week - it didn't sink in."
Cory, aged 28, had asked his friend Margaret Kinuko, who has designed jewellery for Emma Bunton and Ms Dynamite, to design their rings.
When their bags arrived he pulled out a wedding dress by Irish designer Sharon Wauchob.
Jolene said: "When I saw it I couldn't have imagined anything better."
Cory said: "I knew her size and what she liked so I wasn't worried about buying her wedding dress.
"The only bit I was worried about was that someone else might let it slip to her."
Special reception in the city for friends
THE couple married on December 5 and held a reception for their friends on Saturday at the Royal Court hotel in Keresley, Coventry.
At the wedding they were joined by Jolene's parents Ron and Mary Barker, of Allesley, her siblings, Ian, aged 25, Gemma, aged 28, and Ronnie, aged 38, and Cory's mum Norma Jarrett, of Stoke, and his sister Rhe-an Archibald, aged 19.
Jolene joked: "Now I've got to try and better it for Cory's 30th birthday next year and I just don't know how I'm going to do it!"
By Rachel Katz
January 31, 2007
Against all odds, 120 friends and family kept a huge secret from Scott Games: his wedding day.
Games, 41, facilities manger for the state Department of Parks, only discovered the date of his planned marriage Saturday. Jan. 20, a few hours before he marched to the altar.
"I had no idea whatsoever," he said a week after his surprise wedding.
He woke up the morning of the wedding fully expecting to spend the day relaxing and watching the University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball game. But when a limo picked him up from his home and whisked him to the Capital Plaza Hotel, he knew his fiance, Mary Jo Slade now Mary Jo Games had other plans.
At the hotel, there were three gifts waiting for him: a statue called "The Promise," a watch with a card that said "this is the time," and a tape player.
Through the tape, his fiance explained that she was finally ready to set the date for that very day.
The Games love story began on Jan. 20, 2006, when Mary Jo, 42, drove to Western Hills High School, where she works as a library aide. On the way to school from her residence on Parkwood Place, she saw signs along the road that read, "My heart exposed" and "for the world to see."
"I said, 'Someones getting engaged," she recalled.
Then she saw the last signs, which read, "Mary Jo Slade" and "will you marry me?"
The proposal was for her.
On Nov. 18, 2006, she was browsing at downtown Frankforts Nitro where she had a gift certificate. While flipping through a catalogue, she saw a wedding dress that she had to have. Driving home, she decided to throw the surprise wedding.
"Within a couple hours, I had the whole thing in my head," she said.
Over the next few months, the bride-to-be worked on creating the perfect wedding and keeping it a secret from Scott Games, who wanted nothing more than to marry her.
"Ive been after her since then (the engagement) to set a date," Scott Games said. "I was reasonably sure shed give me a weeks notice."
Although Mary Jo had to keep some secrets from her fiance in order for the plan to work, she knew she would fill Scott Games in on the secret later.
"I kept a journal from the first day I started (planning) until the wedding day," she said.
She also let her three children, Ashley, 20, Ryan, 16, and Taylor, 9, and Scott Games two children, Lacey, 20, and Steven, 16, in on the secret. Steven served as Scott Games best man and all of the children were part of the wedding party.
She knew exactly whom to invite because it was something the couple discussed before the wedding. "We talked not about what kind of wedding we wanted, but who we wanted there," she said.
The matrimonial conspirator could not send out invitations because she did not want to leave a "paper trail."
"I kept stressing to people, 'You cannot tell," she said.
None of the family members and friends present at the wedding at Berry Hill Mansion told the secret, and Scott Games was completely surprised.
At the hotel before the wedding, Scott Games had no worries; his intended had planned everything perfectly.
"Everything was in the hotel room: a complete change of clothes, everything," Scott Games said. "She even ordered a pizza and had it delivered."
When the wedding began, Mary Jo stood on a balcony while "This is the Time," by Michael Bolton and Wynonna Judd, played.
"The one thing I wanted to say aloud and I wish I had, was, 'Dont let her get away," Scott Games said of his reaction when he saw his bride on the balcony.
In the end, Scott Games was glad his own plans were ruined.
"It was perfect," he said. "It was absolutely the most beautiful wedding Ive ever seen."
"Hes always doing romantic stuff," Mary Jo Games said. "So it was my turn."
****************************************
Our surprise wedding
Feb 13 2007
By Kerry Beadling
WHEN her boyfriend took her on a surprise trip to the caribbean for her 30th birthday Jolene Barker was overjoyed.
And when Cory Barrett proposed on the first day of their holiday in St Lucia, Jolene didn't think it could get any better.
But then Cory told her: "We're getting married out here in a week's time!"
Unknown to her, Cory had spent six months organising the surprise ceremony and had chosen the dress, shoes and meal for their dream wedding - which family and friends had flown out for from Coventry.
The couple met 10 years ago in Coventry.
Cory was studying at Henley College after leaving Sidney Stringer School.
They met through a group of Jolene's friends from Coundon Court School who were at the college.
Although both now live in London, where Cory works in fashion at the Shop At Bluebird in Kings Road, they both regularly pop back to Coventry to visit.
For Jolene the surprises started in the months leading up to her December 2 birthday.
She said: "In October I got small things like chocolate and was told it was leading up to something bigger.
"Then I got a massage and some clothes - but then I had to meet him at a doctor's surgery where I got a jab and I realised we were going away somewhere.
"After some nagging he admitted it was the Caribbean so I would know what to pack."
As they were sipping champagne in their luxury hotel and waiting for their bags to arrive, Cory got down on one knee.
Jolene said: "I thought he'd done his back in at first.
"Then he asked me to marry him and I said yes but couldn't stop giggling because I just wasn't prepared for it.
"He told me we were getting married the next week - it didn't sink in."
Cory, aged 28, had asked his friend Margaret Kinuko, who has designed jewellery for Emma Bunton and Ms Dynamite, to design their rings.
When their bags arrived he pulled out a wedding dress by Irish designer Sharon Wauchob.
Jolene said: "When I saw it I couldn't have imagined anything better."
Cory said: "I knew her size and what she liked so I wasn't worried about buying her wedding dress.
"The only bit I was worried about was that someone else might let it slip to her."
Special reception in the city for friends
THE couple married on December 5 and held a reception for their friends on Saturday at the Royal Court hotel in Keresley, Coventry.
At the wedding they were joined by Jolene's parents Ron and Mary Barker, of Allesley, her siblings, Ian, aged 25, Gemma, aged 28, and Ronnie, aged 38, and Cory's mum Norma Jarrett, of Stoke, and his sister Rhe-an Archibald, aged 19.
Jolene joked: "Now I've got to try and better it for Cory's 30th birthday next year and I just don't know how I'm going to do it!"