Well we're on our way to selecting the winner of the $100,000 San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway. Submissions closed on November 25th and this past week the sponsors of the giveaway all had the opportunity to nominate and vote for the couples whose stories resonated most with them.
Many voted via an online ballot and several of us got together to go over the totals and create the official list of semifinalists who will advance to the next stage of the contest. This Thursday the 5 finalists will be announced to the public. The public will vote for their favorite couple from Dec. 27th, 2009 through Feb. 3rd, 2010. The winning couple will win their dream wedding May 14, 2010 at the Hotel Vitale in San Francisco, CA. The winning couple will be announced on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2010.
Here we were hard at work tallying votes and reviewing submissions until the restaurant we met at closed down. I cannot tell you how hard this process was. There were so many deserving couples, so many favorites who we weren't able to carry on to the semifinal round. As much as it was fun to know how happy the selected couples would be when we contacted them, there was (in the back of my mind) the knowledge that there would be far more couples who would be disappointed that they weren't selected.
I can only tell you that we didn't take the task of selecting lightly and felt profoundly connected to many of the couples who entered. I hope none of the couples who didn't advance feel they wasted their time by entering. I truly believe that their love stories have already inspired all who have read them online as well as all of us on the selection committee showing us how amazing love, loyalty and dedication can be when two people commit themselves to each other. Having fun living day to day, sometimes helping others and sometimes facing hardships that would tear many couples apart yet those who entered the giveaway have all endured life's ups and downs and come through it all stronger and more in love.
So here are our semifinalists! Congratulations to all of you for advancing in the contest. If you'd like to read more about them, how they met, where they work, their proposals and what they do for fun, just click on their name and the link will take you to their profiles on the official SF Wedding Giveaway website. We will announce the final 5 couples who will advance this coming Thursday.
Sade and LawrenceWhy do you deserve to win the 2010 San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway?We are super broke and we dont want to go to the courthouse! Aside from that, we both never experience proms or fun moments to truly take in a day to call our own, so our wedding reception will be in place of what we missed.
What obstacles, loss, or hardship have you been faced with?Our childhood: growing up in fatherless homes with unstable mothers given to drugs, forcing us to be latchkey kids. Hunger, emotional abuse and abandonment. We decided together that if we could survive that, we can survive anything together.
Crystal and AdrianWhy do you deserve to win the 2010 San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway?We’re so grateful to have eachother and keep God present in our lives knowing it strengthens us. Beginning married life with a SF dream wedding would be the experience of a lifetime and a blessing.
What obstacles, loss, or hardship have you been faced with?Adrian’s brother was diagnosed with cancer in ‘06.It was a humbling experience.Adrian quit his job, moved nearer to the hospital,and was the bone marrow donor.Sadly, John left us in Dec 2007. Since his passing,there have been no celebrations.
Vanessa and MichaelWhy do you deserve to win the 2010 San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway?We’d be honored to win the giveaway because we’re enduring issues preventing us from planning and affording a wedding! When Mike deployed for 6 months, I was diagnosed with cancer. I’ve undergone treatments and my fiance is fighting the war!
What obstacles, loss, or hardship have you been faced with?Our obstacles include a long deployment to support the war and cancer. Right after Mike deployed, I was diagnosed with stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His Air Force job required him to deploy and we’ve been battling cancer with him 11,000 miles away!
Karolin and DerrickWhy do you deserve to win the 2010 San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway?My sister was diagnosed w/ ITP.The drs didn’t think she would make it.She overcame the virus and was health again. Soon after she got engaged and my family couldn’t give her a dream wedding.I refinanced our hm and paid for my sister’s wedding.
What obstacles, loss, or hardship have you been faced with?I have chosen to be the translator & support system for my family. I have been side by side with my uncle struggling with heart dieses & my aunt which has stage 4 colon cancer. All I want it is for my family to see me get married before I lose them.
Mia and DanielWhy do you deserve to win the 2010 San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway?Love. We aren’t better. We aren’t that different. But our love is vast and we love deeply.
What obstacles, loss, or hardship have you been faced with?There have been many. Four evacuations, some tropical storms, one major hurricane. After Katrina, we had to find each other. That made our love stronger. We can go through anything as long as we are
Dea and PatrickWhy do you deserve to win the 2010 San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway?WIth Mathias, being born with multiple medical problems, he has under gone 4 surgeries in the first 6 months, which has us completely deplete our savings fund for a wedding to pay for all his medical expenses.
What obstacles, loss, or hardship have you been faced with?Mathias is 6m old with the development of a 3m old
Rehanna and ChristianWhy do you deserve to win the 2010 San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway?We’ve been given a 2nd chance at love & life together. Winning this wedding would be more than a dream come true, it would give us an opportunity of a lifetime to share with our family and friends an event most thought would never have happened.
What obstacles, loss, or hardship have you been faced with?In addition to losing both my parents, my fiancé has suffered with kidney issues for 20 yrs. He was diagnosed with Lupus at age 17 & is now in the last stages of renal failure. He has dialysis 3x a week while we currently await a suitable donor.
Mary and TravisWhy do you deserve to win the 2010 San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway?We planned on getting married that December 31. Then on Dec 24 my ex-husband was killed in a motorcycle accident. We didnt feel right getting married before the funeral so we cancelled our wedding and havent financially been able to reset a date.
What obstacles, loss, or hardship have you been faced with? He is a great father to my boys & does all this knowing by marrying me he will never have biological children as I am sterile due to cancer. We really dont want to go get married at the courthouse but that is about all we can afford.
Joanna and DanielWhy do you deserve to win the 2010 San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway?Well…I feel we deserve the dream wedding giveaway because we have worked so hard for everything we have in our lives. We love to help others, no matter how much stress it may be.
What obstacles, loss, or hardship have you been faced with?Daniel had a serious accident at age 20 when he was helping a person fix their car on the side of the road and was struck by a motorcycle going over the normal speed limit. He was in a coma for several weeks and remained in the hospital for 3 months.
If you've ever spent an hour or more with Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak, you've most likely heard one of his infamous "sheets of $2 bills" stories. 
I had heard stories about his $2 bills for the past couple of years though to be honest, I wasn't really sure they existed because Woz loves a good prank. A few nights ago I finally saw them with my own two eyes. Hilarious!
