When you’re trying to get people to “liking” and “sharing” your photo on social media, it helps if you get two countries involved.
Victoria and Joel Grindstaff won a recent Rome News-Tribune bridal photo contest by getting more than 1,300 people to like their photo on Facebook while more than 300 people shared the image.
One thing that helped, Victoria said, was having friends and family in her native Ukraine like and share the photo as well as friends here in the U.S. The result was enough online interaction to win the contest.
But the couple’s story starts long before their wedding photos were taken.
In 2012 Victoria Morokhovets was a nursing student at Shorter University. She came to Rome through the kindness of Billy Fricks, associate pastor at Pleasant Valley South Baptist Church. For years he had traveled to Ukraine as the leader of mission teams. Victoria’s father was a pastor at a church there and Fricks befriended the family on his trips to the small Eastern European country.
Related: http://www.sheindressaustralia.com/grey-bridesmaid-dresses
“Reverend Fricks and his wife invited me to study in the United States at Shorter,” Victoria said. “I came to Rome and I lived with them for five years while I went to school.”
During that time, Victoria became a member at Pleasant Valley South. She said the congregation, knowing she was far from home and her family, welcomed her with open arms and several families treated her as if she was their own, taking her on trips and introducing her to American culture.
In 2012 she first saw Joel Grindstaff.
“He was attending Georgia Tech at the time,” she said. “But his parents live in Silver Creek and he would come home on the weekends and go to church. So I saw him there. I thought he was a very cute young man.”
The two would see each other at Sunday School and during service but it was a year before Joel finally got up the nerve to approach Victoria and begin talking to her. They quickly became good friends. In 2014 they officially began dating.
Victoria said their relationship flourished under the guidance of their church family.
Joel graduated from Georgia Tech in December, 2014 with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. When Victoria graduated from Shorter with her bachelor’s degree in nursing, her family traveled from Ukraine for the graduation. Two days after the event, the two families went on a picnic to the Rocky Mountain Project. Joel took Victoria on a bike ride and in a quiet spot next to the lake, he proposed to her…. in her native Russian.
“He hired a Ukranian tutor and she helped him learn to speak enough Russian to propose to me,” Victoria said. “That was so special. I was overwhelmed when I heard my language coming out of his mouth.”
She said “da.”
Unbeknownst to her, a few days earlier, a very nervous Joel had again used his newly-found Russian skills to ask Victoria’s father for her hand in marriage. Her father, who doesn’t speak any English, was as impressed with the gesture as she was, and consented.
On Oct. 10, 2015, Victoria and Joel were married at Antioch Baptist Church by her “American dad,” Billy Fricks. Not only was the church close to their proposal spot, but it was the church at which Fricks was a pastor when he first traveled to Ukraine to begin mission work there.
“We knew we wanted him to perform the ceremony,” Victoria said. “We wouldn’t have even met if it wasn’t for him. He was the one who started it all.”
Though everything about her wedding day was special, Victoria said the coming together of both families and both cultures made the day even more remarkable. Joel read his vows in Russian and she read hers in English.
“What made our ceremony so special was that everyone we loved was there to see us make a promise to God and to each other,” she said. “We believe that this is how God creates families. He brought us together.”
For garnering the most likes and shares in the Rome News-Tribune bridal photo contest, the Grindstaffs won a two-night stay at the luxurious Reid Ridge Lodge in Blue Ridge and this feature in the Rome News-Tribune.
Also see: http://www.sheindressaustralia.com/one-shoulder-bridesmaid-dresses
Victoria and Joel Grindstaff won a recent Rome News-Tribune bridal photo contest by getting more than 1,300 people to like their photo on Facebook while more than 300 people shared the image.
One thing that helped, Victoria said, was having friends and family in her native Ukraine like and share the photo as well as friends here in the U.S. The result was enough online interaction to win the contest.
But the couple’s story starts long before their wedding photos were taken.
In 2012 Victoria Morokhovets was a nursing student at Shorter University. She came to Rome through the kindness of Billy Fricks, associate pastor at Pleasant Valley South Baptist Church. For years he had traveled to Ukraine as the leader of mission teams. Victoria’s father was a pastor at a church there and Fricks befriended the family on his trips to the small Eastern European country.
Related: http://www.sheindressaustralia.com/grey-bridesmaid-dresses
“Reverend Fricks and his wife invited me to study in the United States at Shorter,” Victoria said. “I came to Rome and I lived with them for five years while I went to school.”
During that time, Victoria became a member at Pleasant Valley South. She said the congregation, knowing she was far from home and her family, welcomed her with open arms and several families treated her as if she was their own, taking her on trips and introducing her to American culture.
In 2012 she first saw Joel Grindstaff.
“He was attending Georgia Tech at the time,” she said. “But his parents live in Silver Creek and he would come home on the weekends and go to church. So I saw him there. I thought he was a very cute young man.”
The two would see each other at Sunday School and during service but it was a year before Joel finally got up the nerve to approach Victoria and begin talking to her. They quickly became good friends. In 2014 they officially began dating.
Victoria said their relationship flourished under the guidance of their church family.
Joel graduated from Georgia Tech in December, 2014 with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. When Victoria graduated from Shorter with her bachelor’s degree in nursing, her family traveled from Ukraine for the graduation. Two days after the event, the two families went on a picnic to the Rocky Mountain Project. Joel took Victoria on a bike ride and in a quiet spot next to the lake, he proposed to her…. in her native Russian.
“He hired a Ukranian tutor and she helped him learn to speak enough Russian to propose to me,” Victoria said. “That was so special. I was overwhelmed when I heard my language coming out of his mouth.”
She said “da.”
Unbeknownst to her, a few days earlier, a very nervous Joel had again used his newly-found Russian skills to ask Victoria’s father for her hand in marriage. Her father, who doesn’t speak any English, was as impressed with the gesture as she was, and consented.
On Oct. 10, 2015, Victoria and Joel were married at Antioch Baptist Church by her “American dad,” Billy Fricks. Not only was the church close to their proposal spot, but it was the church at which Fricks was a pastor when he first traveled to Ukraine to begin mission work there.
“We knew we wanted him to perform the ceremony,” Victoria said. “We wouldn’t have even met if it wasn’t for him. He was the one who started it all.”
Though everything about her wedding day was special, Victoria said the coming together of both families and both cultures made the day even more remarkable. Joel read his vows in Russian and she read hers in English.
“What made our ceremony so special was that everyone we loved was there to see us make a promise to God and to each other,” she said. “We believe that this is how God creates families. He brought us together.”
For garnering the most likes and shares in the Rome News-Tribune bridal photo contest, the Grindstaffs won a two-night stay at the luxurious Reid Ridge Lodge in Blue Ridge and this feature in the Rome News-Tribune.
Also see: http://www.sheindressaustralia.com/one-shoulder-bridesmaid-dresses
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