This couple won a half-price wedding in a contest at one of the most spectacular venues in Snohomish County.
Amber Blomquist, 27 and Jonny Sanford of Maltby will be getting hitched on the hilltop at A Chapel on Swans Trail in Snohomish.
It originally was set for July 2, but their dream wedding unraveled before they got to the church.
Talk about bad luck, these folks lived it.
“Amber and I have known each other since high school,” said Sanford, also 27. They ran in the same circle of friends, the same first jobs at McDonalds and graduated from Lake Stevens High School together in 2002.
“Soon after we graduated our lives went in different directions,” he said. “Eventually we crossed paths once more.”
A few years ago he found her on Facebook. They rekindled their friendship, then started dating.
A lot had happened since high school. She was a single mother.
“She had become a caregiver for both of her parents after she left her job at the Muscular Dystrophy Association in 2009,” Sanford said. “I was working as a guitar technician and music teacher at a shop in Bellevue.”
He fell in love with the mother and daughter, Lilly Mae, now 3.
“We became a little family,” he said. “Lilly even calls me daddy.”
The little family didn’t know what hardships waited to be tossed in their path.
Blomquist’s father, William McGinley, died in June 2010. In December, Blomquist’s mother landed in critical care with a lung infection. She pulled through, made it home for Christmas, and Sanford proposed to her daughter Christmas morning.
Blomquist said yes and they started planning their wedding.
“She wanted to have the ceremony on July 2 because that was her Nana and Pop Pop McGinley’s 57th wedding anniversary,” Sanford said.
They put a deposit down at A Chapel on Swans Trail.
Nana Mae McGinley paid for the wedding and bridesmaids dresses, wanting her granddaughter to have her dream wedding. Unfortunately, the bride was hospitalized in May due to stress.
In June, the couple attended a Seattle wedding show. They entered the big drawing that included a wedding package at the Snohomish venue and gift certificates for services.
“With luck on our side, my name was drawn and we won,” Sanford said.
There were quite a few entries, said Lynn Hallstrom, owner of the hillside chapel. Hallstrom and I chatted about potential weddings on 9-10-11. She mentioned she had a cancellation in August that was a sad story.
I agreed.
Sanford told me how things went downhill for the couple. He reinjured an old back injury before summer.
“I suffered nerve damage,” Sanford said. “After some recovery time, and with the support from our families, we rescheduled the wedding for Aug 21.”
In June, there was another death in the family.
“Nana died unexpectedly,” he said. “It was terrible news. Amber had to fly to California right away to help assist her Pop Pop in planning a funeral, and taking care of him because he has several health conditions and is blind.”
While in California, Blomquist was hospitalized with cardio hypertension. She spent four days in a hospital and suffered minor brain damage.
He rushed to her side. When they got home, financially strained, they couldn’t pay rent and moved in with family in Maltby.
They also had to cancel their wedding again.
Sanford is still facing surgery and is out of work. Blomquist, who works as a caregiver, is also between jobs.
“Amber is still undergoing treatment,” Sanford said. “But we are optimistic.”
Above all, he said, they are still crazy in love. He hopes to adopt Lilly Mae.
“Hopefully we have gotten most of our bad luck out of the way early in our relationship,” Sanford said.
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com
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