Love and Troy: Loyal Fans Get Very Special Wedding Gift at PBR Team Series Championship

By: Andrew Giangola

Last Saturday, a couple was married in Las Vegas. That much of this story is commonplace in the wedding chapel capital of the world.

What makes the newlyweds’ tale noteworthy is that three hours later, they were inside T-Mobile Arena cheering on their favorite bull riders at the PBR Team Series Championship, still wearing their Western-themed wedding attire.

“After 22 years, it was time to cowboy up. We got hitched and headed to PBR, finally attending as husband and wife!” exclaimed the overjoyed bride, Lisa Tveitnes.

For more than two decades, Lisa and her then-fiancé Troy Tveitnes have been a conspicuous presence at PBR events, cruising the concourses of arenas around the country decked out in colorful peacock attire.

This time, they traded their sparkly attire for something more appropriate for the big day.

For Lisa, it was a Western vintage high-low wedding dress, a turquoise belt originally bought as a necklace at the PBR event in Albuquerque, a homemade hat, and Ariat boots. Troy wore a Western outfit his bride chose at the PBR Last Cowboy Standing in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Holding up the groom’s pants? A “Cowboy Up” belt buckle.

Lisa is a Registered Nurse who founded a rehab farm in Wisconsin, Acres of Hopes and Aspirations, assisting special needs children and veterans with brain and spinal cord injuries.

With catastrophic injuries, every step of rehab is an opportunity to reinforce each forward advance. Lisa calls them “Proud as Peacocks” moments. She created programming branded “Proud as Peacocks of PBR.”

The RN who earned her graduate degree in rehabilitation at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee says it is an honor, privilege, and her life’s calling to care for gravely wounded soldiers facing daunting odds for a full recovery.

One of those she’s cared for was Sgt. Winlom Woods, a.k.a. Noah, who’d been shot in the head in Iraq in 2006, arriving back in the country with an open skull flap and on life support. The bullet was still embedded in his brain.

Noah was not expected to live. If he did, his prognosis was to exist in a vegetative state.

But Noah fought hard, and Lisa nursed him back to health for seven years, helping him learn how to walk and talk again. She brought Noah to PBR events before he succumbed to his injuries in 2014.

It was a 24/7 job. Noah battled through multiple surgeries and serious infections. Troy understood. For more than seven years, he was patient, often taking a back seat to Noah’s constant needs.

Others weren’t as charitable. Lisa lost friends.

Who is this ebullient ball-of-energy white woman who took in a Black soldier the system would have cast aside without her intervention?

She was raised on country sunshine on a small farm in Wisconsin. Her dad had beef cows. Her grandfather ran a large horse farm and owned a Western store. The men put her on a tractor when she was five years old.

She grew up watching rodeo legends Lane Frost, Ty Murray and Cody Lambert, and met Troy when she was a forklift trainer and he was one of her students as an engineer with Snap-on Tools.

Lately, she has been focused on taking care of rehab animals at her farm – peacocks, mini horses and donkeys, pet deer, pot-bellied pigs, ducks, rabbits, dogs, tortoises, and a parrot she trained to ride the farm’s 110-pound tortoise as if he were a bull.

Lisa didn’t have time to get Troy a wedding gift.

She knew he always wanted to be the Fan of the Night.

Now wouldn’t that be an unforgettable wedding present?

Lisa had a plan. The newlyweds headed to Southpoint for Flint Rasmussen’s “Outside the Barrel” show. She lobbied PBR’s Official Entertainer hard on the idea of choosing Troy.

“Wait, you two aren’t married?” asked Flint, clearly perplexed after seeing them at dozens of events.

Then it was off to get married. The ceremony was officiated by Lisa’s cousin, Iraq War veteran, 1st Sgt. US Army Craig Twinde. Once he completed his second deployment in Iraq, the 1st Sgt. had visited Noah at Lisa’s farm because, as Lisa says, “that’s what soldiers do – they leave no soldier behind.”

Following the wedding ceremony, after the No. 8 Nashville Stampede shocked the No. 1 Austin Gamblers on their way to the first team title, when it was time to pick The Cooper Tires Fan of the Night, Flint hopped the fence and headed straight for the loyal fans always dressed to kill at 7-9 PBR events a year for as long as he could remember.

Lisa and Troy have accumulated many fond memories at bull riding events.

Now, Flint gave them the greatest memory of them all, set to the soundtrack of an arena of fellow fans cheering them on. Best of all, they shared the moment as a married couple.

“PBR gave us a cowboy fairytale wedding day,” Lisa said. “Noah is smiling down on this blessed day.”

Lisa’s incredible story of helping Noah can be found in the PBR book “Love & Try,” benefitting injured bull riders and now available on PBRShop.com and the Amazon bookstore.

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