Congratulations to Cy and Sabrina, the first recipients of the Great Wedding Giveaway.

Read their story below:

On September 14th, 2004 I was living down in New Orleans as a live-in nanny. Hurricane Charley was making its move and the family and I were getting ready to evacuate to Memphis. Someone rang the door-bell and asked for me, saying that she was from the health department. She gave me a letter stating that I had been exposed to HIV and it was in my best interest to get tested immediately. Luckily the woman that I worked for was incredibly supportive and went with me to get tested. About an hour later, I found out that I was HIV positive - at age 20. I was devastated and felt like I had died. The head of the family that I was employed by, Dr. Turkewitz, was a specialist in the neurological effects of HIV/AIDS patients. He was incredibly kind and tried to reassure me that everything was going to be okay because the disease was so highly treatable. He took me to get more blood tests in order to find out where my T-cell count was at along with my Viral Load (number of copies of the virus.) We originally thought that I had contracted HIV from someone that I had been seeing down in New Orleans since I had been tested the previous March and I had come up negative. However, when we received my numbers, they indicated a different story. My T-cell count was down to 197 which is considered full-blown AIDS while the viral load was at 78,000. Dr. Turkewitz told me that those are the types of numbers that he sees in patients that have had it for years. He thought that there was a good chance that I had been born with it and just hadn't known since I was adopted.

I started treatment and was very sick for about 6 weeks because of the medication. I was also extremely depressed and so I decided to go home. Once I returned home, I was happy to be with my family but things still remained hard to cope with. I continued my meds for about a month or two and then quit taking them altogether. I didn't tell my friends and family that I had stopped my meds. I was in such denial and I didn't want them to worry about me. I kept going through the motions of normal life but I felt completely cut off.

Then in May of 2005 I met Cy. At that point I really hadn't been getting out and I decided to head down to a local bar called Catacombs. There was Cy playing stick (pool) and he was very fun to be around. It was probably the first time in months that I had genuinely smiled. We started just hanging out together once a week. I was his Tuesday night girl and both of us were content with that. I wasn't looking for a new relationship and neither was he. Then as the weeks progressed towards summer we upgraded and saw each other two days a week. Then one night he had to stay up in Estes Park to work and invited me up there. I decided to go and he had the best face of utter surprise when I walked into the bar where he was at. He couldn't believe that I would drive all the way up to see him. Things kept getting more serious and we both knew that we were falling in love even if we were trying to fight it. When I introduced him to my sister Traci I told her afterwards that he was the one!

I kept putting off telling him about my diagnosis because we were so happy together. I was so afraid of losing him. I finally told him about 8 months into the relationship. He was incredibly wonderful and said that he didn't even think about leaving. He ended up moving in with me that week. During that summer of living together I tried once again to start my medication. I had a wonderful infectious disease doctor but I was still terrified of what would happen. I was expecting the same results as last time in the side effects. I tried to take them but after a week I was starting to get sick and then I stopped taking them. Then later that summer Cy said that maybe we should look at engagement rings. I was so excited! We went and picked a setting that I loved and On August 17th , 2006 he presented me with an opal (both of our birthstone) engagement ring and asked me to marry him. I of course said YES and we started planning our wedding for May of 2007. Still, I was lying to Cy and my family about taking my meds and going to doctor's appointments. I had even let my health insurance through COBRA lapse. But I said the right things and nobody seemed to question me. I was in such huge denial and so sublimely happy with Cy that I ignored it until December of 2006.

On the 15th of December I started getting sick. I thought it was just the flu and that it would pass. My joints and muscles cramped up so much that I could barely get out of bed. The second week that I was sick I started getting fevers that would reach 103 degrees. Still I told Cy that I had seen my “doctor” and that it was just the flu. I missed Christmas and New Year's Eve because I was so sick. Then on January 2nd Cy had left early for work and I was alone. I took a bath to warm up and then went back to bed. I couldn't fall asleep because I was so miserable. I took my temperature and saw that I had spiked up to 105 degrees. I knew that I had to call 911. They came and took me to Good Samaritan Hospital where Cy's parents came and stayed with me till my sister Traci came. Then Cy came straight from work. I had to finally admit that I hadn't been seeing a doctor and that I didn't even have insurance. My whole family was extremely upset but still took it in stride and stayed with me. Even Cy stayed with me when I thought he'd be sure to leave. Again, it never crossed his mind but we did have a few long talks.

It turned out that I had a blood staph infection. It had even caused infections in my kidney stones and bladder. I even had thrush which was yeast in my mouth and was a high alert indication of the HIV virus taking its toll. My T-cell count had gone down to 22 and my Viral Load was over 750,000. The doctor had told my family that I had been 24-48 hours away from dying. They started treatment and then so many people started stepping forward to help both Cy and I. The hospital case worker helped get me my IV antibiotics that I would need when I got home along with a home nurse service to see me though I didn't have insurance. Then I was introduced to the Midland Group who helped me start to get my paperwork in order to file for Medicaid. Then the biggest help of all that came to the rescue was Boulder County AIDS Project. My case worker Jorge De Santiago visited me at the hospital and got us financial aide from their rental assistance program for 3 months. This helped us keep our home that we rented. He also got us enrolled into Colorado's LEAP Program to help us with our energy bill. He got us in touch with the Beacon Clinic in Boulder as well. Also, our landlord Bill Pomeroy was so understanding and didn't mind that the rent was late for a couple months. I was in the hospital for 10 days and finally returned home.

The Beacon Clinic was doing the follow-up on my staph infection and they were wonderful. There they got me enrolled in CICP (Colorado Indigent Care Program) to help get my medical costs down to easy co-pays. Then I was also put on a program call AIDOP which got me my anti-retrovirals for free. I then started my HIV care down at University Hospital and they are absolutely wonderful. Their Infectious Disease staff was so caring and my nurse practitioner Abby Davis got me on my way to managing my HIV. I was still terrified of starting medications because of the side effects but she started me on Atripla and the side effects were extremely minimal. Within 3 months my viral load went down to less than 50 copies which made me undetectable and my T-cell count went up from 22 to 157. It's still going up and I expect to continue doing well. Cy has stayed with me through all of this and he accompanied me to nearly all of my doctor's appointments this year. Still because I was so sick and since the medical bills had drained all of our savings, financially we couldn't even think about getting married this last May.

We were both so excited to marry each other that we were even planning on eloping in Mexico just to cut out the cost of a formal wedding. Then we got a great email from Nancy Fitzgerald saying that we were going to receive our wedding for free! I can't wait till we get to present ourselves officially as Mr. and Mrs. Mahony! Since we are receiving a wedding that will be beyond anything we imagined; both Cy and I have decided that in lieu of wedding gifts we will be asking everyone to donate to the Boulder County AIDS Project. They were there to help us in our time of need and are connected to so many of the other organizations that helped us. We would love to give something back because we wouldn't even be here without them. If you would like to donate online please follow the link below. Thank you so much for this, Crystal Rose and American Bride TV! Thanks, you wonderful sponsors that are helping to forge our new beginning! We truly appreciate it and we will never forget this!