WEDDING WINNERS
ONE lucky couple have just won a helping hand towards their dream wedding as they have been named winners of the South Wales Echo’s Win a Wedding competition.
Alexandra Jenkins, 24, and Cai Tomos, 27, both from Bridgend, are set to get married in March 2019, at the Bryn Meadows Golf & Spa club.
The couple, who have been together for five years, arrived at the Bryn Meadows thinking they had made the top 5 list of couples for consideration.
After getting a tour of the complex, the couple were presented with envelopes, containing what they thought were questions about them.
However, the envelope contained celebratory messages, informing them that they had actually won the competition.
Alexandra, who works for a housing association, said without the help of the competition it may have been years before they got married.
She said: “We met at a bar in Bridgend, where Cai used to work, and I became a loyal customer. We got engaged last year on his birthday and we’ve been to a couple of wedding fairs. Cai’s auntie tagged us in a Facebook post about marriage!
“We’ve been trying to save for a while but if we hadn’t have won this competition it would’ve been quite a while before we got married, especially at such a beautiful venue like this.
“I didn’t get my hopes too high so I wouldn’t be too disappointed if we’d have lost but right now I’m absolutely delighted. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us, because we’ve had a lot of support.
“I’m amazed that we’ve won, we thought we’d maybe come close but it’s hard to predict how many votes you need to win. My dad helped us a lot and predicted how many copies people would need to buy for us to win, so that definitely helped.”
Cai, who works as a barman, said he was shocked to arrive at the venue to find out they had won.
“I’m definitely shocked, I had a feeling we’d come close with the support that we had. We used social media to raise awareness and that ensured people knew what the competition was about.
“But we also had lots of help from Alexandra’s father, who helped spread the word and calculate how many votes we’d need to win, so that definitely helped.
“Right now, I’m delighted but I guess it’s time to start planning ahead.”
Win a Wedding tokens were printed every day in the South Wales Echo from July 16 to September 1.
The contest, which is one of the Echo’s most popular competitions, saw the couple who collected the most tokens winning the wedding.
Alexandra’s dad Robert, 53, from Bridgend, says he calculated roughly how many votes they would need to win and got family and friends involved.
“It was quite a commitment but a huge gamble, you just didn’t know how many tokens you’d need. It was
only when we realised we were doing quite well, I was able to make some calculations,” he said.
“It’s still a shock today. I told them prepare yourself for being second and you won’t be disappointed. But this is just fantastic, and the wedding will be
on my birthday.”
The social worker, added: “I’m absolutely delighted for the couple, you can see the look on their faces, and how happy they are, it’s just fantastic.”
Alexandra and Cai’s wedding is set to take place on March 22, 2019.