ELKHART COUNTY — As she walked down the aisle at the RV/MH Hall of Fame, Bobbie Diehl knew she was marrying the man of her dreams.

"I was just taking care of my kids," she told WSBT. "Going to work, doing what I needed to do. And God brought him into my life."

Before Sunday afternoon's ceremony, Diehl described her fiance as everything she's never had.

Raised in foster care, she didn't have much of a family. Diehl gave birth to her two children — Johnie, 4 and Leilyn, 3 — before she was 20 years old.

Diehl and SPC Jeremy Bontrager met on a blind date about one year ago. He proposed last September — a day before deploying to Iraq.

"I came home [from Camp Atterbury] for four days and didn't know how I was gonna [propose]. The last day came and I was like 'OK, I've gotta do this,'" said SPC Bontrager.

But planning their wedding wasn't easy.

"It's very expensive," said Diehl. "And with him being all the way in Iraq, and me being a single mom of two."

That's where Hottie's Bridal Boutique owner Angie Baldwin came in.

"I also take in consignment gowns at my bridal boutique," she explained. "I had a lot of war brides from World War II and the Korean War that would come in and bring their gowns after their husbands passed away. So that gave me the idea to find out what the love stories were like now."

Baldwin contacted local vendors who agreed to donate everything — from the RV/MH Hall of Fame, to the flowers, the gown and the wedding photography — to the bride who submitted the most touching military love story.

Sunday afternoon in the middle of his two-week leave from active duty, in the company of about 150 friends and family members, Diehl and SPC Bontrager wed.

"It's a blessing," said Diehl of the day. "It's a lot bigger than we expected."

Diehl and Bontrager beat out 15 other couples in the love story competition. Jeremy heads back to Iraq in five days.