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Erin Byrd and Jeff Kinzie wanted a dream wedding.

And they were willing to work hard for it. After learning they were finalists for the Triad Dream Wedding contest nearly three weeks ago, they began to come up with strategies to win.

The contest, sponsored by the News & Record and Proximity Hotel, provides the winners with an all-expenses paid dream wedding at the Proximity Hotel on Feb. 5.

As the winners, Byrd and Kinzie will have a wedding valued at $32,000 — including attire, flowers, food, cake and honeymoon — paid for by Triad sponsors.

They won by a large margin, and to do it, Byrd had to overcome her shy nature and become a competitor.

“I don’t like to brag about stuff, and I didn’t want to feel like I was begging,” she said.

But they had pushed back their wedding date at least twice because they couldn’t afford it.

Once they became finalists, both sets of parents committed to helping them. Kinzie’s parents, Bob and Patti, who had encouraged them to enter the contest, made fluorescent-green fliers about the size of business cards to distribute to everyone they met. The cards simply said:

Please vote for Erin Byrd
and Jeff Kinzie
At: www.triaddream
wedding.com
Please pass this on to
friends and family
Thanks, Jeff and Erin

Armed with these fliers, Byrd and Kinzie hit the streets. They distributed them at gas stations, shopping malls and coffee shops that had free Wi-Fi service.

Byrd, who works at Macy’s, wore a tiara and sash on Halloween that said “Bride To Be” and placed a stack of fliers at her register to hand to customers. She spread the news among co-workers and fellow students at Guilford College, and she even staked out polling sites on Election Day.

Kinzie, an emergency medical technician, gave out fliers at hospitals. His brother, Andrew, a firefighter, asked for support from his fire chief, who sent e-mails to all the departments.

And Bob and Patti Kinzie hit up their co-workers, former co-workers and church members. Patti even campaigned during her lunch break, visiting at least three places daily.

Bob and Andrew Kinzie even canvassed tailgaters at a Carolina Hurricanes game.

“We quickly learned if we turned our attention to females at the hockey game, they were most responsive,” Bob Kinzie said.

Byrd and her maid of honor, Michelle Oliveau, have dreamed about their weddings since they were little girls. Oliveau and her mother, Terri Wendroth, got onboard too.

Wendroth, who works at the UPS hub, suggested they position themselves near the parking lot where hundreds of people pass during a shift change. Wendroth, an Obama campaign volunteer, advised the young women about how to approach people.

“Sometimes it’s intimidating walking up to strangers and saying, 'Hey, vote for us,’ ” Oliveau said. “She encouraged us to loosen up and get in there. And it brought Erin out of her shell, too. It’s been a good experience.”

Byrd and the Kinzies continued to solicit votes until the midnight Nov. 7 deadline. Byrd, Oliveau and Wendroth sent continuous instant messages on Facebook until 11:59 p.m.

On Nov. 8, Byrd woke about 6 a.m., unable to sleep any longer. “I just had this extraordinary feeling we’re going to win this,” she said.
She got the call that they had won at 9:35 a.m.

“I just started crying. I said, 'Hold on, I’m going to have a heart attack,’ ” Byrd recalled with a big grin.

Contact Tina Firesheets at 373-3498, or tina.firesheets@news-record.com