Shot through the heart

Josh and autumn mcLean

“We sometimes talked on the phone three hours at a time while he was gone.”

Joshua

and Autumn McLean don’t mind crediting the nerve-quieting effects of alcohol with both their initial encounter and subsequent affection for one another. Wine-induced inspiration even helped them score a free wedding.

It was summer 2009. Autumn and her best friend, Brittany, were tipsy and reminiscing about old flames when Brittany had a brilliant idea. Her ex-boyfriend Jared’s brother, Josh, a handsome former Lake Highlands High School wrestling star, would make Autumn’s perfect match.

Sure, it was 2 a.m., but they had to inform Josh.

When he didn’t answer the phone, they left a sprawling message.

Upon return to sobriety, Brittany assured Josh that her friend Autumn wasn’t a wine-o or a nut. He would like her, Brittany insisted, adding, “She’s gorgeous.”

His curiosity sparked, Josh searched for

Autumn on Myspace, the social media tool of the time. “Wow,” he thought. “She was really pretty.”

The two chatted online, but Josh soon flew back to South Carolina where he was training to be an Army Green Beret.

When he returned to Lake Highlands to serve as groomsman in a fellow LHHS grad’s nuptials, Brittany, who would attend the event with Jared McLean, suggested Josh invite Autumn. He needed no prodding this time.

The date started out awkwardly, as they tell it. Josh was in the wedding party, so they were separated much of the time. When he joined her, they both had butterflies and bumbled through the requisite banter.

But at the reception, “beverages were flowing and we loosened up,” Josh recalls. “It turned out to be one of the best nights of my life. I got to see all of my old friends, my old wrestling coach was there and meet Autumn.”

They went on three dates before he re- turned to South Carolina. Autumn knew that a relationship with a guy who, in the immediate future, would spend months and possibly years in a faraway war zone was probably not ideal, but the damage was done.

“We sometimes talked on the phone three hours at a time while he was gone,” she says.

In 2011 Autumn moved to South Carolina to be with Josh. They rented a house. She awaited a proposal. The holidays came and went with no bended knee. Then, the day before Josh’s second deployment, UPS delivered a big box. Inside was a second box and another. The tiniest container held the diamond ring. (Turns out Josh was as distressed as Autumn by the delayed delivery.) Autumn’s answer when Josh asked her to be his wife was a resounding, “Duh!”

So the marriage was on, but Josh was headed to Afghanistan for up to a year. Plus, the couple’s finances were no match for the demands of modern wedding.

Autumn discovered a contest. Operation Marry Me, founded by a wedding photographer in South Carolina, offered a chance for military couples to win a free Veterans Day wedding. Autumn’s first entry was “halfassed,” she jokes, so several weeks later — after a long work day followed by sipping wine at her computer — she submitted a second, more imaginative entry, complete with slideshow. She later learned that this did the trick.

“One of the judges apparently thought it was funny and impressive that I entered twice,” she says. “And he liked the video.”

Aug. 15, the day winners were to be publicized, lasted forever and passed with no phone call. No emails. Nothing. What a letdown. The next morning Josh called and Autumn delivered the bad news.

“I wasn’t too disappointed,” Josh says, “because I knew there was no way we were going to win that thing.”

He was wrong. Operation Marry Me was just a tad tardy with the announcements. Later that afternoon, Autumn received a call from Teresa Hogan, the planner who would handle her prize wedding.

“I asked her to repeat what she had said and as soon as the words came out of her mouth I began to bawl. I hadn’t even realized how much I wanted this. A wedding was so far-fetched, considering the expenses and our situation. I have never been more thankful and flabbergasted in my life.”

Since Autumn couldn’t call Josh at the base, he didn’t learn his wedding date until the next day. He initially was skeptical. “I had never won anything. I had to do a little research to make sure it wasn’t some sort of racket.”

But it was the real thing. And beyond, Autumn says. Some 40 vendors — the consultant, a pastry chef, photographers, hotels, churches, caterers, florists, jewelers, tailors, bridal shops, spas and salons, a chauffer, engravers, travel agents and more — contributed services.

On Nov. 11, 2012, the bride and groom enjoyed a $35,000 event at an historic Cabarrus County hotel.

“When we won, I imagined it would be a modest little wedding, which would have been wonderful. But this was unbelievable. I mean, they made a Dallas Cowboys-themed cake for the groom, they drove us around in a Rolls Royce, the bridesmaids got their nails done … there was an ice sculpture. I don’t think anyone realized how amazing this would be,” Josh says. “It was just insane that all these people did all of this, pulled off this elaborate event — I didn’t have to lift a finger just to help out a soldier and his girl.”

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Amy And Joe mArtin

For her, it was supposed to be an easy jog in the park. For him, it was perhaps the most stressful fitness feat of his 20-something years. It wasn’t the run that worried him, but the event he had meticulously orchestrated along the trail at Moss Park — a marriage proposal complete with a picnic spread, spirits and even a chair in which his love could sit as he bent on one knee.

Amy, a teacher at St. Patrick’s, met Joe at a bar in the early ’90s. “We used to tell our kids that we met at church,” Joe jokes, “but, yes, we met at Lone Star.”

Both, having had previous long-term relationships, knew that this one was different. They were undoubtedly the yin to one another’s yang. After a couple of years together, the young couple took up running and planned to race a Memorial Day 5k at White Rock Lake. The evening before the race, they scheduled a 2- to 3-mile training run at Harry Moss Park in Lake Highlands. When, less than a half mile into the exercise, Amy saw one of her kitchen chairs in the park, she knew something was weird. “What the …?” she exclaimed. Joe guided his dazed date to the romantic arrangement and asked her to marry him. She said “yes,” let the situation sink in, and started with the questions. “What? When? How did you manage all of this?”

Joe pointed to the other side of the trail where their two best friends stood cheering and waving. Joe had enlisted help to protect the proposal area. “It took us more than three hours to arrive after we set up,” Joe says. Therefore, he doesn’t really blame his buddies for drinking his brew.

“I stocked the cooler with lots of beer and champagne. When we sat down at the picnic, there was just a beer or two left.”

Today the Martins have two kids, Meredith and David, ages 13 and 11, respectively, and, while Joe doesn’t run much anymore, just completed her ninth full marathon.