Have you ever won a contest? Well, newlywed Katie Terpstra wasn’t just lucky in love – she won ChaChaBella’s random drawing at GetMarried.com for a collection of wedding jewelry. Actually, her fiancé Chad had his name picked out of 15,000 entries making his bride ChaCha cheer! Not only did she receive for FREE five custom-made dark indigo bridesmaids rings with crystals and pearls to coordinate with their navy bridesmaid dresses, her mom received the Jecca ring and her mother-in-law wore the Daniela ring.

Of course, the bride had an array of beautiful baubles too. Katie worked with the ChaChaBella design team to create the perfect jewelry for her designer wedding dress by Maggie Sottero called the “Vonda”. She received a custom made crystal and pearl necklace and earrings that she ChaCha cherishes. In addition, she wore a ChaCha ring that was a simple cluster of pearls, and after her wedding, two of her best friends also wore it in their weddings. In fact, a couple friends getting married this upcoming summer are planning to wear it as well! Our staff loves this friendly new ChaCha tradition!

Katie and Chad met in a really funny way. One of her best friends set her up on a blind date...with Chad's room mate/best friend. As she continued to see his roommate,

she had met Chad a few times during the very brief time she dated his roommate. Soon after things fizzled with the roommate, Chad and she started seeing each

other everywhere from the gas station to the grocery store, at sporting events and at church. The ChaCha coincidence of random run-ins started to form a ChaCha crush that quickly grew into a life-long love.

The two live in Hudsonville, MI, which is only about 15 minutes from the Lake Michigan shoreline. In the summer, they go out to a private beach to enjoy the sun, sand, and water and gorgeous sunsets. One September evening, they had planned to go out to the beach to watch the sunset for one last time before the weather turned cold and Chad seemed a little "weird" that evening, but Katie didn't think anything of it. (We call this ChaCha Clueless!) As they walked along the beach, they came over a dune, and a line of roses stuck in the sand which formed a path to a huge white linen sheet that read "Katie will you marry me?" Her jaw dropped and she couldn't even speak. Chad was then on his knee with a diamond ring in his hand. He said a bunch of really sweet things that Katie can't remember for the life of her, but then he asked her to spend the

rest of her life with him, and of course she said, "YES!!!!!"

After dating for 7 months, they were engaged for just over 10 months before the big day on July 16, 2010 in front of 215 guests. Of course every wedding has a ChaCha moment, and Katie’s was after she had her hair and makeup done, she had to get into her gown. All the girls sat watching as her mom and mother-in-law helped her into her dress. This was a tough dress to get into because it had to be pulled over her head. They s-l-o-w-l-y inched it over her fresh hair and makeup and the whole time Katie was squealing with nervousness saying "I don't like this part, I don't like this part..." The photographer caught the expression on her face just as she came through the dress. ChaCha Priceless! All the girls laughed and cheered when they could see that she had made it into the dress without any damage to the hair or makeup! Obviously, that was ChaCha critical for the rest of the day.

Katie stresses for future brides to enjoy every minute of the day. The soon-to-be newlyweds told each other to "take a mental picture” throughout the day. She doesn’t think she’ll ever forget the mental pictures she took. As we all know, everything can’t be ChaCha perfect and one bummer was that Katie forgot to get a picture of her and her mom separately that day. I remember from my own wedding not getting a picture of me with my husband’s sisters. They weren’t my bridesmaids as I had my college friends, but Roy’s brothers were his groomsman and I kicked myself for missing that opportunity to have a picture with them, so I ChaCha sympathize with her. There’s no doubt that Katie got her picture taken with her sister-in-law/maid of honor because it is a ChaCha coincidence, that her name is Katie Terpstra too!

Newlywed Katie currently lives in Hudsonville, Michigan and works at Zeeland Community Hospital an Ultrasound Technologist, So, not only is she married to the greatest man but according to her, she has the greatest job too.

If you have ever won anything great, let us know and you can win a ChaCha ring just for your submission! Also, we love Katie’s engagement story. Brag on your fiancé or husband, as we love to feature the men who ChaCha charm their women, and you could also win a ring. Contact Suzanne at s@chachabella.com.

Let’s just call it the Girl Scout Cookie Conspiracy. Right when you commit to your diet, well re-commit since your New Year’s Resolution only lasted a week, the cookies are everywhere. I am a total sucker for limited-time-only products and feel like I must take full advantage of them before they disappear. This doesn’t bode well for bathing suit season, which is right around the corner. As you are wrapped up in your parka, boots and scarves, the only thing the store’s display are flip flops and bathing suits. Never mind that I am white as a ghost, my toes haven’t seen the light of the day, and I am not even going to discuss the extra pounds that have ChaCha creeped up since Halloween, but bathing suit shopping is out of the question.

Everyone has a friend who has tried every diet in the world. They literally are professional dieters and can tell you the ins and outs of each one. I don’t diet. I understand the ChaCha concept: eat less food and eat food that’s good for you. The premise is easy, but sticking to the actual concept… not so much.

Just for kicks, I Googled “top diets.” I found an easy to follow chart at www.topdiets.com. It discusses Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach,

Jenny Craig, Hollywood 48 hour, Grapefruit, LA Weight Loss, Slimfast, Glucose Revolution, Master Cleanse, Rice Diet, Escape your Shape, Kashi Go Lean, Perricone Diet, Suzanne Summers Diet, Mayo Clinic, and there are also 40 more on the list. On this chart, only two received the coveted 5 stars. One was Glucose Revolution, which helps you eat foods that have a good glycaemic index, which helps your pancreas with insulin release or some other ChaCha technical wording. The other was the Mayo Clinic Diet which promotes eating a grapefruit with each meal to burn body fat. Now, to be fair, the Mayo Clinic diet only had one reviewer, so statistically some of the other diets with 4 ½ stars had more critiques and comments.

When looking at WebMD’s best diet tips, though I already knew most of them, I found them interesting, and it’s always nice to be ChaCha reminded. Let’s be honest, who hasn’t gone to WebMD for a major medical issue? They are the experts; I sometimes think my own doctors use them as a resource. Their top tips include drinking water and other calorie free drinks, concentrating on adding to your diet (fruits and veggies) verse taking things away, only eat when you are really hungry, choose good snacks, eat mini meals, eat protein with each meal, and add spices to meals when eating. But in reality they don’t address real life, like how I need a diet coke to get my ChaCha brain to function in order to help my son with his fifth grade math homework. Or if I am at the movie theater, I am absolutely Pavlov’s dog and must eat a bucket of popcorn and overpriced candy. And when meeting the girls for a drink at the local Mexican restaurant, just one chip isn’t going to cut it. Hence, I haven’t been able to shed the five to ten pounds that I desire to lose. But I realize my mistakes, so at least I am ChaCha smart.

So, when I do go bathing -suit shopping (only after I have been spray tanned, fully waxed, and am wearing my highest heels) I will be focusing on tankini’s (does that rhyme with martini’s for a reason?) to cover up my mid-section - unless I master dieting in the next two months.

If you have recently lost weight with a great diet plan, send me pictures and details. We would love to reward you with a ChaCha ring of your choice! You deserve a “Yay ME!” shout out. Contact Suzanne at S@chachabella.com to be entered.