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Love Is Not Cancelled – The FINAL WEEK| Congrats to the last of the Giveaway Winners!

The Wedding Dress Giveaway has officially ended, and we are proud to have helped so many brides-to-be who have struggled in the midst of COVID-19. Our hearts go out to everyone who has been affected by the virus. Here are the final 7 winners of the Giveaway!

Akilah W.

Real Brides, Giveaway, Contest, Azazie, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Love is not Cancelled, engagement

My name is Akilah W. and I am a bride who was very much looking forward to getting married in July 2020 to the man I’ve always prayed for! We got engaged July of 2018 and were going to get married in July of 2019 on the anniversary of the proposal. A few months later, to our surprise, we found out we were expecting and the baby was due the month before we planned to get married. We decided to push the wedding back to July of 2020 because I wasn’t sure how the pregnancy and delivery would go and I wasn’t sure I’d be healed in enough time. I’m glad we made that choice because I ended up having a moderate risk pregnancy. I had a long and painful recovery, but I am so much better now and just when I thought we were all cleared to get married, Coronavirus comes along.

It is a very sad time for this world and it has personally affected us in a few different ways, but we try to always look on the bright side of things! Even though it’s not the way we wanted to do it, I can still marry my amazing fiancé!

We have been forced to push our dream wedding back again, but in the meantime, we would still like to get married on the anniversary of the proposal. Honestly, it feels like destiny in a way because my parents just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary last month so it is going to be awesome to be getting married 30 years after they did!! I am saving the dress I got for our big wedding for whenever we are finally able to have it, so I set out to look for another dream dress for our smaller wedding. Lo and behold, I found it at Azazie!!! I was already very familiar with Azazie because that is where my bridesmaids will be getting their dresses when the time comes for our larger wedding! Scrolling through the bridal gown section, I immediately fell absolutely in love with the Azazie Jojo BG!!! It is perfect for me! The only issue is that I already had a set budget for a dress and that budget was spent on the dress for the bigger wedding. I don’t want to wear the same dress twice so I really would like to win the Jojo dress!

Imagine my joy when I came across this amazing giveaway!!! I very much appreciate Azazie doing this giveaway in this time of need as I know many brides are in need and have lost a lot of money and dreams behind this pandemic. Thank you for considering my entry and I hope that the Azazie team is staying safe and healthy!! Love to you all.

Sam S.

My partner and I are both resident physicians in the hardest hit COVID area in the world, New York and New Jersey.  Eddy is a resident anesthesiologist at Northwell Health, every day he is called into the ICU to care for and intubate the sickest patients with COVID.  I myself am a labor and delivery resident doctor, every day I push with, and operate on patients who have COVID, and decide care for very sick pregnant patients with COVID.  We love what we do, and wouldn’t give up the opportunity to help other people for anything in the world, though at times it can be trying.  As new doctors we are collectively in very much debt from medical school (more than half a million between the two of us ).  All of our money goes towards housing, and paying back our loans, it would be the best thing in the world to have help with our wedding.  Needless to say we are planning a very simple wedding, and it would mean a lot to me to be able to wear a beautiful  dress on our day.  

Our love story is that we met in medical school, for the first semester eddy would always try to find excuses to study with me, and I would always make excuses to study alone, not wanting to get distracted from my work.  We went to school in the Caribbean, and at the end of the first semester, due to flight issues, we both got stuck together on the island for an extra week.  During that week, every day he would come to pick me up, pull me away from my books, and take me on adventures.  Every day I felt myself becoming more and more attracted to him.  By the end of the week we hadn’t kissed, but I had a major crush, when I flew home I could not stop thinking about him, I’ve never felt this way about a man before.  When I flew back to the island after the break, I told him my flight was going to come in at 6am.  After a series of delays, I finally made it to the airport by 5pm.  When I got off the plane, there he was, standing in the airport waiting for me.  I asked how he knew my flight was going to be late, and with such sincerity he said he had been waiting there since 6am.  I immediately knew he is my forever.  We’ve been together ever since (6 years.)  As an aside, my grades actually went up after we started dating. 

About my career: I always knew I wanted to be an obstetrician/gynecologist as I feel it is my calling.  I love connecting with other women about all kinds of wellness: physical, emotional, and spiritual.  I love being knowledgeable about the body, how to heal. It’s been amazing to be supportive of other women during the one the most intimate, and challenging times of their lives, particularly now in light of the virus, and all of the challenges that has brought with it.

Thank you for reading, and for considering our story.

Lexi C.

Real Brides, Giveaway, Contest, Azazie, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Love is not Cancelled, engagement

My name is Lexi C. and I would like to enter in your #loveisnotcancelled giveaway. I have been dreaming of getting an Azazie wedding dress, but COVID-19 has changed a lot of our plans! My fiance, Paul, is an essential worker, but was also furloughed. He was having to go out, putting himself at risk, while also getting his paycheck reduced by almost half. If money weren’t enough to push our wedding, my entire family lives 1,500 miles away! I am the only member of my family that lives in Texas, as the rest of them are still in Michigan. Once COVID-19 hit, we knew they wouldn’t be able to travel down for our wedding, my parents and little brother included. We have rescheduled for next December and this dress would be a dream come true to help kickstart what is hopefully a celebration with loved ones! I have attached a picture of Paul and I, as well as a picture of him with a mask I sewed for him as he continued to work long hours in the sun, so he would at least have a reason to smile!

Thank you for your consideration!

Shin W.

Real Brides, Giveaway, Contest, Azazie, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Love is not Cancelled, engagement

Hi there, I would like to say how grateful we are for giving back to the community during this time!

I would like to nominate my friend Shin Wei (@shinnny on IG), who is an oncology nurse at UCLA Medical Center and because of COVID, she has been floated to other units, all with COVID patients- ER, ICU, and medical/surgical floors- the first 2 months. The past month her original oncology floor became the designated COVID floor in her hospital and has been working there since. Not only is she out of her comfort zone, but also working long 12h graveyard shifts, averaging 5-6 hours of sleep during the day. Because of working with COVID patients, she has moved out of her home to keep her parents safe and has been apart from her fiancé as well. Despite being physically and emotionally exhausted, she still manages to make time to connect with friends and family to make sure they are doing well. She continues to stay positive even when sacrificing so much to protect her family. Not to mention, she got engaged just before COVID took over and has been trying to make time on her off days, if not exhausted, to plan her wedding. Due to many weddings being cancelled or postponed to next year, it has become more stressful for Shin because she needs to finalize arrangements before there are no more slots available for a wedding planner, floral designs, DJ, photographer/videographer, etc. It pains me to see her stress while being so exhausted from work. It would be the greatest gift if she could win a beautiful bridal gown from Azazie! She is the most selfless friend I know and would greatly appreciate it!

Carrie G.

Real Brides, Giveaway, Contest, Azazie, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Love is not Cancelled, engagement

My name is Carrie Grace and I’m a motivational speaker who travels the country inspiring schools, companies, and large corporations to make their cultures a better place for all. I’m supposed to be getting married this September but everything is so unknown right now. My bridesmaids all love the light pink dresses on Azazie! 

I’m entering this contest because both my fiancé and I lost our jobs due to covid-19. I’m in the events space as a speaker and won’t be able to go back to work until we can have larger events. My fiancé is a photographer and won’t be able to work until it’s safe to start shooting events again. He had planned a big epic Taylor Swift proposal and had to cancel it due to covid, and ended up proposing in my backyard with an incredible sweet video he made. 

Thank you for offering this giveaway. Since neither of us have much income coming in this would be a huge blessing to us! 

Elana T.

Real Brides, Giveaway, Contest, Azazie, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Love is not Cancelled, engagement

I saw your contest on instagram to win a bridal gown! My fiancé, Aaron Laviana, and I were planning to get married this July in Puerto Rico but recently postponed our wedding until 2021. Our venue was initial booked all the way through 2021, but after e-mailing our venue almost daily, a date finally opened up: 4-3-2 1! While it was difficult to have to postpone, we know this was the right decision for the safety of our guests and we are thankful it worked out. We are also pretty excited about our epic new date! 

Aaron and I met in college 15 years ago on a school bus to our science class field trip (super nerdy, I know!). We did not date in college and knew each other only peripherally but reconnected in the fall of 2017 via several mutual friends at a football game tailgate. He had recently moved from LA to Nashville and I was living in Chicago at the time. He invited me to visit Nashville so I ended up taking a road trip down one weekend and the rest is history. We dated long distance until I moved to Nashville last July. I have absolutely loved living in Nashville but 2020 has been a weird year. In early March we were hit by a tornado that went straight through our neighborhood. While our house fared ok, our neighborhood was hit pretty hard. We were without power for some time and wedding planning took a backseat while we worked to pick up the neighborhood. Shortly after this, COVID hit. Aaron and I both work in healthcare. I am an ER physician and Aaron is completing his training in Urologic Oncology (think bladder, kidney, prostate cancer). I actually tested positive for COVID towards the end of March. I fortunately recovered and am now back to work, but I did lose my sense of smell (although I’m still hopeful it will come back!). Aaron has credentialed to work in the ICU in case he is needed. 

Despite all of this craziness, we are so looking forward to next April when we can celebrate our wedding safely with our friends and family! I would absolutely love to rock one of your gorgeous gowns for this occasion! 

Thank you for what you are doing!! I know this giveaway will bring so much joy to the lucky winners and I applaud your company for this kindness. 

Stay safe out there! 

Sam A.

Real Brides, Giveaway, Contest, Azazie, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Love is not Cancelled, engagement

To say that 2020 has been challenging is a giant understatement. The year started out with the threat of war against my Family’s home country and 178 people dying in a plane crash because of it. Already, my future husband and I were feeling like life is very fragile, since both my grandpa and uncle passed away the year before. My grandma took it the hardest, losing both her husband and only son within 10 months of each other. We knew we wanted to plan a big engagement because after a solid year of mourning, we wanted something our families could celebrate. They say the two things that bring joy after loss are weddings and babies, and well, a wedding seemed like the right option for us. I always knew I wanted to get engaged with all my family and friends around, so my fiancee planned that at the end of March, while we were all celebrating his 30th birthday on a wine tasting getaway weekend, he would propose to me and all my family and friends would jump out and surprise me. I am so grateful that he would consider so selflessly giving up the attention on his big day in order to give me my dream proposal. When COVID-19 hit, just weeks before our planned birthday trip, all our plans of course went out the window. Not only have we been forced to celebrate all our wedding planning milestones by ourselves (the engagement, choosing a venue, picking the colors)- even though these were things I hoped we could do with my mom and grandma, but we probably wont ever be able to have the big engagement party we dreamed of. Even now, our wedding date is set for next fall and we’re not even sure things will be better by then. What was supposed to be a joy-filled experience meant to pull my family our of grief and stress has been largely overshadowed by the pandemic.

I’m still hoping that my mom and grandma can be involved in the wedding planning process somehow, even though COVID-19 has halted most of our plans. Because my mom and grandma are immunocompromised, I’m not sure they will be comfortable going out to stores to go wedding dress shopping before there’s a vaccine. Azazie is perfect because we can try on dresses together in the comfort of our own homes, which means I can still have this shared experience with them. Either way, we remain so so grateful for our health and my grandma’s health, and cannot wait to celebrate all as a family as soon as possible.

 

Congratulations to all of our amazing winners! We wish you all the best, and thank you for your support!

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