{"id":1659,"date":"2014-06-25T21:08:01","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T21:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/?p=1659"},"modified":"2014-07-14T10:16:19","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T10:16:19","slug":"ex-forces-couple-become-uks-first-crowd-sourced-bride-and-groom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/ex-forces-couple-become-uks-first-crowd-sourced-bride-and-groom\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-forces couple become UK\u2019s first crowd sourced bride and groom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a UK first, a loved-up couple from Derby<\/a> have been chosen by Thomson\u2019s Facebook community<\/a> to tie the knot in a dream wedding ceremony in Cyprus<\/a> this September. Now Thomson<\/a> is inviting them to help style the big day and make some of their biggest wedding planning decisions.<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

Over 700 applications were received since April when Thomson Weddings\u2019 launched the #YourBigDay campaign in a quest to find the perfect twosome to say \u2018I do\u2019 in Cyprus. The lucky couple Natalie and Kriss from, Derby who have recently returned from military service in Iraq were firstly shortlisted by a panel of judges and later won the Facebook vote.<\/p>\n

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On #WeddingWednesdays, starting from 11 June for 10 weeks, the community are now invited to propose the theme and colour scheme, wedding dress style, bridesmaid dresses, stag\/hen dos and first dance song for the happy couple. The most popular suggestions will be shortlisted and put to the vote on Facebook before being provided to Thomson\u2019s expert wedding planners to create the magical occasion.<\/p>\n

Natalie and Kriss, who met in Canada<\/a> on an army exercise, got engaged on a hot, dusty and emotional tour of Iraq, where they sadly lost a few friends along the way. During their stint in the Army they never had the time to get married, and since leaving they haven\u2019t been able to afford to, despite trying to save up. On hearing the news that they had become the winners of the UK\u2019s first crowd sourced wedding competition Natalie said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m amazed at the amount of support we have received and winning hasn’t really sunk in yet, it still feels like a dream. Thanks ever so much to everyone who voted for us!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kriss said of their win: \u201cI would like to thank everyone who has voted for us as it is the Facebook community that has allowed us to have the wedding of our dreams \u2013 I still can\u2019t believe it! Thank you again and love to you all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jeremy Ellis, Marketing and Digital Director for Thomson and First Choice\u00a0<\/strong>said, \u201cCrowd sourcing a wedding is a first for the UK, a first for Thomson and a first for the holiday industry. In the digital age we live in, and the growing use of online websites and social media channels as a source of wedding inspiration, we thought it would be great to invite the Facebook community to go to the Thomson Holidays page, share their opinions and make some of the biggest wedding decisions for the chosen #YourBigDay couple – from the style of dress to the first dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith one in five weddings now taking place abroad, more and more couples are looking to destination weddings as both something different to the norm, and also a more cost effective option. We are thrilled to be able to offer our planning expertise in resort, as well as the input of our Facebook users, to make Natalie and Kriss\u2019 wedding dream a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wedding will take place at the\u00a0Thomson Platinum Athena Beach Hotel, Cyprus, with flights, transfers, accommodation, all-inclusive board, plus a wedding breakfast for the winning couple and their guests included. The winning #YourBigDay couple will also begin sharing their wedding planning journey by producing regular posts on the Thomson blog – www.thomson.co.uk\/blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Watch the Your Big Day video now:\u00a0http:\/\/youtu.be\/IwTgtTer3TM<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Thomson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a UK first, a loved-up couple from Derby have been chosen by Thomson\u2019s Facebook community to tie the knot in a dream wedding ceremony in Cyprus this September. Now Thomson is inviting them to help style the big day and make some of their biggest wedding planning decisions. Over 700 applications were received since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"post_views_count":1193,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[129],"class_list":["post-1659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidays","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1659"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1664,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holiday-weather.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}