A Weekend of Wonderful — 2026 official rules

Sponsor: Milk & Honey Ranch, 8202 Brandt Rd, Burton, Texas 77835. The sponsor provides the prize and administers the contest.

This contest is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by Google, Apple, Meta, Facebook or Instagram.

Entries open now and close November 2, 2026. Voting runs from October 2, 2026 until December 21, 2026. The winner is announced December 21, 2026. All times are US Central (America/Chicago), and the sponsor’s server clock is the official timekeeper.

The person submitting an entry must be 18 or older at the time of entry and a legal resident of the United States. For couple entries, both partners must be 18 or older. If your entry includes anyone under 18, you must be their parent or legal guardian, or have the consent of one. One entry per story, and one entry per account.

Employees, officers and directors of Milk & Honey Ranch and Never Just Exist Ministries Inc., and their immediate families and households, may not enter. They may vote.

Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

Entry is free. Create a free account, then submit your entry at /enter: both first names, your town from the list provided, your story, what the weekend would mean to you, a photo, and a short video.

The video is required. It must be 60 seconds or shorter and must show at least one of you speaking. Say who you are, where you’re from, and why you entered — that is the whole brief. It is filmed on a phone and it is meant to look like it.

Do not play music in the background of your video. Recordings containing music — anything playing in the room, over the top, or added by an editing app — will not be approved, whoever the music belongs to. This is not a style preference: we share these videos publicly and on social platforms on your behalf, and a recognisable recording in the background can get your video muted, taken down, or blocked in some countries, which costs your entry votes. Just talking is what we need.

Every entry is reviewed before it appears publicly. The sponsor may decline or remove any entry that is incomplete, not genuine, not yours to submit, or unlawful or offensive.

By entering you confirm that both partners consent to the entry and to appearing publicly on this site, and that everyone who appears or can be heard in your video has agreed to appear. If anyone under 18 appears in it, you confirm you are their parent or guardian. Do not submit a video filmed anywhere you do not have permission to film.

Anyone with a free account may vote. Each person may cast one free vote for each entry every 24 hours. There is no limit on how many people may vote for an entry, and no limit on how many days you may come back.

Vote totals reset at every round boundary. A lead in one round does not carry into the next.

Bonus votes cannot be purchased this season. An entry can earn them two ways, both free:

Social posts. A public Instagram or Facebook post that tags @milkandhoneyranch and includes an entry’s hashtag earns that entry 3 bonus votes, whoever posts it. Each account can earn a given entry this bonus once per calendar day, awards are capped per entry per round, and the post must remain public. Posts or engagement the sponsor determines to be automated, purchased, or misleading are void, and awarded votes may be removed; the sponsor’s determination is final.

New voters. When a person who has never voted joins through an entrant’s share link and casts their first vote, that entrant’s entry earns 2 bonus votes. One bonus per new person, ever.

The Wildcard save. At each cut, the sponsor may restore one eliminated entry to the field, selected at the sponsor’s sole discretion from that round’s tagged posts. The selection is editorial, not metric, and is final.

Bonus votes count toward advancement exactly as free votes do and reset at every cut like all other votes.

Every entry competes on a single nationwide leaderboard, and the field is cut round by round. Winners are decided entirely by vote count — there is no judging panel and no subjective element.

1. The Open Field — October 2, 2026 to November 2, 2026, the top 50 nationwide advance.
2. Top 50 — November 2, 2026 to November 16, 2026, the top 20 nationwide advance.
3. Top 20 — November 16, 2026 to November 30, 2026, the top 10 nationwide advance.
4. Top 10 — November 30, 2026 to December 7, 2026, the top 5 nationwide advance.
5. Top 5 — December 7, 2026 to December 14, 2026, the top 2 nationwide advance.
6. The Final — December 14, 2026 to December 21, 2026, the story with the most votes is the champion.

Vote totals reset at every cut: everyone who advances starts the next round at zero.

Ties are broken in favour of the entry that reached that total first. If a tie cannot be broken this way, the sponsor will extend the round by 48 hours and announce that it has done so.

One grand prize, approximate retail value $10,000:

• A two-night all-inclusive stay for two at Milk & Honey Ranch in Burton, Texas, valued at $5,000 and donated in kind by the sponsor. Non-transferable, not redeemable for cash, subject to availability, and must be taken within 12 months of the announcement date.
• $5,000 in cash, awarded by Never Just Exist Ministries Inc..

Referral prize: A free two-night stay at the ranch, awarded to the person whose invite link brought the winning entry to the contest, if any. You do not have to enter the contest to be eligible for this prize — any registered account holder who is 18 or older and a US resident may win it. An entry is credited to exactly one inviter, determined at the moment the entry is submitted and never changed afterwards. You cannot invite yourself, and an entry submitted through your own link earns no referral credit. If the winning entry did not come through anyone’s link, this prize is not awarded.

Taxes are the winner’s responsibility. Prize winnings are taxable income. The winner will be asked to provide a completed IRS Form W-9 before the cash portion is paid, and will receive an IRS Form 1099 where required. No substitution or transfer of prize is permitted except by the sponsor, who may substitute a prize of equal or greater value if the stated prize becomes unavailable.

The winner will be contacted by email at the address on their account within 5 days of December 21, 2026, and must respond within 14 days. A winner who cannot be reached, who does not respond in time, or who is found ineligible, forfeits the prize, and the sponsor may award it to the next-placed entry.

Keep the email address on your account current — it is how we would tell you that you had won.

Automated, scripted or bot voting is prohibited, as is using multiple accounts, paying people to create accounts, or any other attempt to cast votes that do not represent one real person’s single daily choice.

The sponsor may remove votes, block accounts and networks, and disqualify entries where it finds manipulation. Where a removal affects a close result, the sponsor will say publicly what was removed and why rather than adjusting a standing quietly.

Harassment of other entrants or voters, and misrepresenting who you are, are also grounds for disqualification.

You keep ownership of what you submit. By entering, you grant Milk & Honey Ranch a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display your entry on this site and to use it to promote this contest and future contests, in any medium, without further compensation.

That includes posting your video on social media accounts belonging to Milk & Honey Ranch — which is much of why we ask for one. It may be shown in full or as a shorter clip, with captions or subtitles added, and alongside your first names and town. It will not be edited to change what you said or to suggest you said something you did not.

You confirm that everything you submit is yours to submit: that you filmed the video or have the right to use it, and that it contains no music, footage or images belonging to someone else. If you want your video taken down, email our contact page and we will remove it from this site and stop using it in new posts. Posts already published elsewhere may not be recoverable, and removing the video from an entry that is still competing may mean the entry can no longer be shown.

If you win, the sponsor may announce your first names and town publicly. Tell us if that is a problem and we will discuss it with you.

If a technical failure, outage or other event outside the sponsor’s reasonable control affects a round in a way that matters to the result, the sponsor will extend that round rather than let the clock decide it. The sponsor may modify, suspend or terminate the contest if it cannot be run as intended, and will announce any such change on this page.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the sponsor and beneficiary are not liable for lost, late or misdirected entries or votes, for technical failures, or for any loss arising from participation, beyond the value of the prize.

Information collected is handled as described in our privacy policy. You can delete your account and data at any time; deleting a winning entry before the prize is claimed forfeits it.

These rules are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Washington County, Texas.

Winner list: after December 21, 2026, request the winner’s first names and town by writing to contact@neverjustexist.org.

Questions about these rules: contact@neverjustexist.org or our contact form.