Being named the cutest couple is giving one Okotoks pair bragging rights.

Cam and Stacey Baker were among 25 couples who entered the Western Wheel Cutest Couple contest in February and walked away with a prize package worth more than $200. Photographs of couples on their wedding day, vacation and locked in kisses filled the contest page, but it was the Bakers’ wedding photo and close-ups including one hiking at Waterton Lakes National Park and the other Christmas tree shopping, were enough to attract the most votes to win the contest.

“It was a shock,” said Cam. “We get bragging rights and that’s key. I’ll make sure I have a few extra copies of the Western Wheel. I know a few people at work will like a signed copy.”

Cam said it was a tough competition right to the end as they were neck in neck with another couple.

“It seemed pretty fierce,” he said. “The last two minutes we were on Facebook telling our friends, ‘You’ve got to vote.’ It was pretty intense.”

The Bakers won the contest by just one vote as friends and family pulled through at the last minute.

“The last day a whole bunch of friends started spreading the word and helping us out,” Stacey said. “It just skyrocketed that night. It was crazy.”

Looking back on seven years together, Cam attributed their marital success to being best friends who are in love and taking time for romance.

“We hold each other’s hands and we show affection even though we have two screaming kids sometimes,” he joked. “We drop the kids off at friends or relatives and go out for a movie or dinner. We don’t get much time but when we do get it we definitely take full advantage.”

Cam said he finds it’s the little things that matter.

“If Stacey has been having a hectic day when I come home from work I will tell her don’t worry about the house and will pick up and do what I can to make her day a little bit better,” he said. “I think the biggest thing that’s made it work is we just communicate.”

The couple met during a STARS volleyball charity tournament in Fort MacLeod seven years ago when both were living in Lethbridge at the time.

It was at the dinner and dance where the two connected.

“We started dancing together,” Stacey said. “He was the wildest one on the dance floor and my group of friends was having a ball with his group of friends. He was just a real goof.”

Cam said it was Stacey’s sense of adventure that attracted him to his future wife.

“She seemed a little shy but she was adventurous,” he said. “I wanted to get to know her a bit more to see this adventurous side.”

When Cam asked Stacey for her number she did something she had never done before — she gave it to him.

Cam didn’t stall and he called Stacey the next day to ask her out.

“She actually picked up the phone when I called her,” he joked. “It wasn’t a fake number.”

Cam and Stacey hit it off and their lunch date turned into a day of mini golf, bowling and walking.

In 2008 the couple married in Fort McLeod.

“It was the best day of our lives up to that point,” said Stacey. “We couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

They have been living in Okotoks with their children Charles, 3, and Landon, 1, for a year and spend a lot of time outdoors.

The contest was just another way to put some fun into their lives, said Stacey.

“I like a good contest and it was just something for us because we are always focused on the kids,” she said. “It’s something we could participate in together as a couple.”

Okotokian Lyndsay Heaton, who met the Bakers through mutual friends at a play date less than a year ago, couldn’t help but vote for the couple.

“They are both so in love with each other,” she said. “It’s like they’re best friends. They have this real connection.”

Heaton said the Bakers are friendly and down to earth and their love for each other is evident.

“When they look at each other there is a connection and they are always laughing with each other,” she said. “It’s not very often that you see couples having so much fun together. After a few years of marriage and with kids it can get routine but when you see them together laughing it’s still fresh. They are still young in love and it’s lovely.”

As part of their grand prize package the Bakers were awarded an $80 gift certificate for Rylie’s Cattle Barn Cookhouse & Saloon donated by Okotoks cleaning company Now That’s Neat, “Skyfall” on DVD by Go Tire and the Cactus Club Salon and Spa donated a lady’s and men’s haircut.

The Valentine’s Day themed contest is the first online contest for the Western Wheel in what will be regular events. Future themes include golf, Father’s Day, cutest pet and photography.

To participate in upcoming contests check out the Western Wheel or go to www.westernwheel.ca

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