At this month’s Bridal Spectacular bridal show, four lucky couples competed in the first “Build Your Love Nest” Contest on Friday, January 20, 2012. As these couples took their places in the contest area, emcee Laura Covington announced they had been randomly selected to compete for the grand prize of a free furniture set from RC Willey and a gift basket valued at $500.

box houses
Couples constructed box houses in the "Build Your Love Nest" Contest to win free RC Willey furniture.

With this motivation, bride Igse Delatorre and her groom David Martinez stood beside three additional couples, excited to begin their race to the finish.

Each couple represented a team, and their team goal was to build a house of painted pieces of cardboard boxes. Yes, grooms, it’s like playing with life-size Legos! But with bigger boxes came bigger stakes for the prizes on the line.

At the signal from emcee Laura Covington, grooms dashed to the sites of their new building projects at the end of each aisle. Brides then ran cardboard boxes down the aisles, delivering each piece for their “Love Nest.” As brides gathered the materials, grooms constructed their houses.

Race with boxes
Bride Igse (left) raced to deliver boxes to her house-building groom!

While it may seem easy, grooms also had to pass a series of building codes. No window pieces on the floor. No grass gardens in the sky. And the houses must have ceilings.

Groom builds house with boxes
Grooms had to build houses to meet "building codes" for an added challenge.

Brides raced down the aisles, including one ambitious lady in cowboy boots and a sweet sundress. But there was no stopping this woman from meeting her man!

bride in boots delivers box
Nothing could stop this spectacular bride!

Once the house was built, a groom needed to carry his bride through the threshold to their home. We saw everything short of the fireman carry as guys carried girls through the doorways to their cardboard box constructions.

This groom, David, carried his bride through their doorway in a classic piggy-back.

Through teamwork and encouragement, each couple built their love nest together. While only the first team to finish won the RC Willey furniture, each participating couple was awarded prizes, including tool sets, jewelry, hand-sewn aprons, and gift cards to restaurants and home décor stores.

The winners celebrate
The "Love Nest" first-place winners celebrate!

After the contest, I had the opportunity to meet two competitors, bride Igse Delatorre and groom David Martinez. While they took third place in the “Build Your Love Nest” Contest, both sustained good spirits and enjoyed their opportunity to participate in a contest during their first-ever visit to a bridal show.

“This is our first time doing one of these events,” David said. “It’s nice.”

Igse and David with house
Bride Igse and groom David enjoyed their bridal show experience!

Igse agreed. While they’d been engaged for a year, this young couple came to Bridal Spectacular to start planning for their wedding date of May 6, 2012.

“We had no idea what we were getting,” David said.

But in their short time at Friday night’s bridal show, they had discovered the steps they needed to take to plan their special day.

“We found a reception and a tux for me,” David said, listing his favorite finds.

“Yeah, we had no ideas,” Igse said. “But we came here, and now we have a lot of ideas. Now we know where to go, and we had fun.”

“This helped a lot,” David said of the show. “Anyone who’s trying to plan their wedding, they should come here.”

While David and Igse didn’t win the “Build Your Love Nest” grand prize, this couple gained a wealth of information, experience, and inspiration at Bridal Spectacular.

“Hopefully we can be ready by that date now,” Igse said with a smile and a look toward her groom.

As David held her close and smiled back, I had no doubts. Las Vegas wedding vendors will help them pull their wedding’s details together, but it’s David and Igse’s love that will carry them through the threshold of marriage into their new lives together.

Congratulations, David and Igse, and best wedding wishes to all our “Love Nest” couples!

Author: Allyson Siwajian © 2012

Photographs: Allyson Siwajian

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