Title:  Sarah Traynor & Benjamin Strattman
By:  Submitted by NBC 10
Desc: 

Sarah & Benjamin are from Providence, RI and have been engaged since August 29, 2008.  Here is why Sarah thinks they should win the NBC10 Free Wedding Giveaway:

“Truthfully, I never thought I would get married. I know that must sound like a poor introduction into my reasons for why I should receive this amazing gift, but it’s the truth - I never thought I would be lucky enough to have the good fortune of spending my life with someone like Ben. Since I met him, I feel like my life has taken a different direction. He is just the greatest: charming, funny, thoughtful, sensitive, sweet (and cute!). I have never met a man who genuinely and innately puts his female counterpart before himself. If he senses that I am having a tough time, he will buy me flowers, write me a nice note, or offer to do something for me. It’s almost as if he’s too good to be true. I hear women complain about their beaus, and I am instantly reminded of how incredibly lucky I am to have Ben in my life.

Ben has been there for me through some really tough times. Without revealing too much, I was in the hospital for acute appendicitis and then sick with one infection or another thereafter for a while, many difficulties and stressful situations at work, and some very emotional issues with my father. I come from a family that had very little money to go around. Hand-me-downs and the help of others were essential income to my family. My mother got divorced when I began college and my father estranged himself from our family at that time. She was forced to sell our house while going through the divorce, raising my younger sister and brother, working fulltime and getting through college herself. She is heartbroken that she will not be able to help us pay for a beautiful wedding. Ben has been right there for me (and especially important to me) my family to listen and be supportive. While all these things have been hard, the positive side to that is that we have gotten to know each other in the good and the bad, and therefore I truly know that we want to get married for the right reasons. Neither of us views marriage as a need (i.e. dependency, or not being able to live without the other person). I think we both know we would be ok on our own, but we choose not to because we know life would not be as fulfilling without the other.

Ben and I are putting all of our money and efforts into trying to buy a house together. We want to start things right. Having a home in which to have a marriage is the most important thing to us. While we would love a big, beautiful wedding, we want to do the ‘smart’ thing for the long term. We would love nothing more than to have the best of both worlds because it would be so much fun to be able to celebrate our special day with all of our friends and family, but there is simply no way we could afford to pay for both. I know you know what an incredible opportunity this would be for one fortunate couple, but nothing like this has ever happened to either of us. Both of us have been in graduate school since we graduated college, we work fulltime jobs in (overtime more often than not!), have very difficult commutes (Ben’s is one hour each way, mine is two hours each way). This doesn’t leave a lot of time for relaxation. Ben has always gone the extra mile for me to show me how committed he is, and I would love to be able to surprise him with a wedding package such as this.

Sensible stuff aside, I think we would do a wonderful job of representing young couples in love in Rhode Island. We are fun-loving, well-spoken, interested in the community, LOVE living in Providence, and are absolutely ready for the road of marriage ahead. I would love to get married in the littlest state, which has been my home all my life. Now Ben, a native of New Jersey, can’t stay away either! He selected this state when he chose colleges because of the opportunities it offers surfers on the east coast but he never left. We are proud to live in RI.

The notion of receiving this fabulous gift is beyond my ability to describe. All I can say is that I am so in love with my husband to be, and it would be such a blessing to experience the start of our marriage as part of Channel 10’s Wedding Giveaway. We are both very open people, and I think it sounds like a lot of fun to have the community involved in our special day.

In closing, due to the expense of weddings, even for us to elope we would have to save up for at least a couple of years. The thought of getting married so soon is thrilling to me because in my mind it’s just like Billy Crystal says in When Harry Met Sally – ‘the minute you meet the person who you know you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.“

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