Out of thousands of entry forms and essays, we select the story of Andre and Sarah. We narrowed the field down to 5 stories and after verifying the accuracy of the engagement story; we selected this truly romantic essay. In speaking with Sarah, I learned how dear her family is to her and what an important role that her grandparents have played in her life. The way in which they got to Paris, (Sarah was once a travel agent and worked hard to be able to even afford to go to Paris using her former skills of negotiating the best rates), was barely even possible and the events that unfolded in the manner that they did were simply magical. Andre, Sarah's fiancée did an awful lot of planning the proposal behind the scenes, taking months of preparation to surprise his future wife. After several phone interviews, we surprised Sarah live at our July 2, 2006 Bridal Expo on-stage during the beginning of the fashion show at the Marriott Hotel O'Hare in front of a packed audience when we called her via cell phone while on a convention in Colorado for her company. The audience had the chance to hear Sarah's recanting of her story over the sound system and there were many audience members who had tear filled eyes. We believe that you too will agree that this young couple that are working hard to pay for their wedding expenses on their own are truly deserving of this prize package presented by our Sponsors.

-Bill Brennan

Winners:
Sarah Siete and Andre Filardo

Sarah and Andre's Story (Extended):

Andre and I booked a trip of our lifetime to Paris, France for Feb. 2005. At that point we had been dating for almost 5 years, we just purchased our 1st home after pulling our finances together, and ironically began looking at wedding rings. I picked out one almost instantly, but saw the price and knew I would have to keep searching. So the search went on for a few months. Soon, we were off on our trip to Paris, which happened to fall during Valentine's week. Andre kept asking when we were going to visit the Eiffel Tower, it kept getting pushed back another day due to other activities. On Valentine's day, I some how gained the courage to ride the elevator to the 3rd floor of the Eiffel Tower, where Andre pulled out a ring, not any ring, the original ring I had my eye on from months ago. I started to cry and then he asked me to be his wife. I was in complete shock. When we got back to the hotel he pulled out our video camera and showed me footage that he took right before we left, of him asking my grandparents and my mom for my hand in marriage. That was one of the best gifts ever, seeing my grandparents tear up with happiness, because they so dearly love Andre and have always been so important to me in my life and they truly wanted me to be happy! It ended up not only being a trip of a lifetime, but the beginning of new lives together, forever.