When senior Spanish education major Phyllis Jarrell got engaged last November, she and her fiance didn’t anticipate being one of three finalists in an all-expense paid honeymoon to Fiji.
Jarrell and fiance Tyler Claytor, a senior math education major at Wake Forest University, were selected as semifinalists in the the contest they entered on a whim after she saw an advertisement in BRIDES Magazine.
Claytor proposed to Jarrell near a Japanese garden and waterfall in Maymont Park in Richmond, Va. by presenting to her several boxes containing different movie ticket stubs, poems, letters and other things he had kept during each year they were together. One box was specific to Spain since the pair studied abroad there at the same time. In the last box was the engagement ring. Unbeknownst to the couple at the time, there had been an amateur photographer at the park and he snapped several photos of them while Claytor proposed.
“He came up to us after and said ‘You guys had the perfect look going on, and I couldn’t resist myself,’” Jarrell said. “We gave him our email address and he sent us the photos. That’s where the photo on the (contest) website came from.”
The couple used the unique proposal for more than fond memories.
“We wrote up the story and posted it,” Jarrell said. “When we started out, (Claytor) didn’t think we were going to make the finals.”
By telling friends, family members and schoolmates about their story, the couple was able to beat out other contestants, such as a couple who got engaged at the Grand Ole Opry on “The Biggest Loser.” Jarrell and Claytor both wrote to their university’s presidents, who spread word about the couple’s efforts. The grand prize honeymoon package includes a six-day, five-night stay at a beach resort in Fiji, according to the contest’s website. The couple was selected as a semifinalist, clinching the award for most romantic proposal. They won an engagement party from BRIDES, a cookware set and a set of champagne and toasting flutes.
The couple entered the contest because they wouldn’t be able to afford a dream honeymoon otherwise, Jarrell said. But their friends and family members have offered to pay for their hotel accommodations wherever they go, bringing the couple one step closer to having some sort of relaxation time, something they hadn’t planned on before the contest, Jarrell said. She said they will go to Los Angeles now that they have not won the contest.
Jarrell and Claytor met their freshman year of high school and, although Jarrell was dating someone at the time, she and Claytor became friends and started dating soon after her relationship ended.
“When we broke up, Tyler picked up the pieces and it was a blessing in disguise because we got to be really good friends,” Jarrell said. “He became a really good support system in my life. It got to the point where he got to be my best friend. So, why wouldn’t I want to spend the rest of my life with my best friend?”
According to Claytor, Jarrell seemed like a sweet person when they met at their high school homecoming football game Nov. 5, 2004. The more the pair saw of each other, the more he felt he was making the right decision. The couple has been together for six years, and that’s enough time to see their love is real, Claytor said.
“We see each other a lot and we’ve been with each other for six years," he said. “We’re already a part of each other’s families and it’s been that way for a long time. It’s hard to put your finger on it. It’s just time to (get married).”
The wedding will be very do-it-yourself and hands-on. The color scheme is pastel blue and green with pink accents and the reception will be in a large field behind Jarrell’s house, where they are expecting at least 250 people, she said. Claytor and Jarrell’s wedding favors awill be jam made from scratch, of which they’ve already made 232 jars. They picked out the fruits themselves and will prepare the food using family recipes instead of having it catered.
“We wanted to make sure people know it’s really from us and we’re showing our appreciation to everyone that’s helped us along the way,” Claytor said.
Jarrell’s brother, who is studying to be an Anglican priest, will officiate his first ceremony as a priest at the July 7 wedding.
The couple hopes to move back to Richmond, their hometown, and spend some part of the summer in Honduras, where Jarrell has studied abroad and worked with an organization that houses homeless children.