John Melia and Amy Perea - an elementary education major at UNM - met three years ago at the Jewish community center where Perea works.
They've been a couple for a year and a half, and on a recent trip to Mazatlan, Mexico, Melia asked Perea to marry him.
"I knew I wanted to propose to her," Melia said. "Mazatlan has really beautiful sunsets, so I knew I wanted to do it during one of the sunsets."
Melia said he was nervous because before he proposed, he had the ring in his swimming trunks while the two swam in the ocean.
"I was checking my pockets every five minutes to make sure I didn't lose it," he said. "Amy kept trying to get me to dive and go in further, but I just told her, 'Go ahead. I'll be on the beach.'"
After fending off merchants while watching the sunset, Melia proposed.
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"We had always talked about getting married but never said anything official," Perea said. "It was a big surprise and very romantic. Of course, I was very excited, too."
In December, Melia and Perea entered the New Mexico Dream Wedding Giveaway, which pays for traditional ceremony costs and a honeymoon trip. Out of about 1,500 contestants statewide, they made it to the finals.
"I found a flyer in a trash can about the contest," Perea said. "We had to write a two page essay about why we depicted the New Mexico dream couple. We just wrote about our roots here and what we plan to do as New Mexico residents in the future."
Five couples make up the finals for the contest, and the winner will be chosen by online voters and announced Feb. 22. The prize is a wedding worth $50,000, which includes a ceremony and reception at Sandia Casino, photographs by Kyle Zimmerman Photography and a honeymoon to Maui.
"Before the contest, we thought about the wedding and decided to wait until after Amy graduated from UNM," Melia said. "If we win, the wedding would be on May 3. If we were paying for it, it'd probably be smaller. But with $50,000 to spend, we'd be able to invite all our friends and families."
Megan Wall, Perea's best friend since the two were freshmen at Sandia High School, said Melia and Perea deserve to win because they both work hard but also work well together.
"They are a couple who I just can't see them not together," Wall said. "They're both at a place where they are ready to get married."
Voting will be held from Feb. 9-20 at NmDreamWedding.com
