The winner of our Luckiest Day mini-makeover giveaway is Beth, who wrote:

“Ruben and I were busily preparing for our destination wedding in 2003. Because it was illegal to have a religious ceremony in Mexico without having a civil ceremony first, we we planned on going to the courthouse to get legally married the day before we left. That happened to be the day before Thanksgiving so we planned on getting there early since the courthouse closed at noon.

Thinking that getting a marriage license would require the same amount of paperwork (or more) as getting a driver’s license, I gathered all pertinent documents. We went to the courthouse but after going through the metal detectors and getting up to the marriage license office, I realized I was missing most of my papers, including my passport and birth certificate. I must have dropped them somewhere. We frantically scoured the building looking for the papers but they were nowhere to be found. How was I going to get to Mexico without a passport or a birth certificate?

We went home and began working the phone, calling relatives in Illinois (where I was born) and getting them to go to the courthouse. We called friends who worked for members of Cognress trying to get an expedited passport. We wouldn’t be able to get either a birth certificate or a passport within a day and with the next day being Thanksgiving, we probably wouldn’t be able to get one of the documents until the next week. That would mean we’d have to postpone our flight and possibly not get to Mexico in time for the wedding.

The courthouse was going to close at noon so we decided to go back there to look some more and at least try to get the marriage license without the papers. As it turns out, all you needed to get married in Virginia is a driver’s license!

We got the license and started walking through the parking lot, headed to the office of the magistrate who would perform the civil ceremony. As we walked across the parking lot, we noticed a thin piece of paper blowing over the ground until it landed under a car’s tire. We walked over and picked it up – it was my birth certificate! That was all I needed to get to Mexico!

We had the civil ceremony performed, got on a plane the next day, and had our wedding on Dec. 6, 2003.”

I cannot believe you found your birth certificate blowing around a parking lot after leaving for (I assume) hours. You were obviously meant to be together!!

I’ll be doing a mini-makeover at Beth & Ruben’s house in the morning and hope to post before/after pictures later in the day.

Thanks to the other participants for sharing their meaningful moments! It’s great to be reminded that we have many reasons to feel thankful, even when it seems like scary times…

P.S. I should’ve shared one of my own luckiest days…the day I flew to NYC to move there from Texas. I didn’t have a job, I barely knew one of the four other people I was going to share a one-bedroom apartment with, and I only had about $1,000 to my name. I stepped into a cab at LaGuardia airport and found a $20 bill in the floorboard. It felt like an auspicious sign, like the universe was telling me, “don’t worry about moving to this big city…what you need will be provided.” And you know…it was.