FREDERICTON -- Anthony O'Leary and Rina Sherwood have won an unexpected Labour Day prize at the Fredericton Exhibition -- one they're hoping will last so long as they both shall live.
The New Brunswick couple, partners since they were in their teens, have won the inaugural contest for an all-expenses-paid wedding at the fair.
They will be the first pair to perform their vows before a justice of the peace while standing on a carousel at the annual event.
The couple have been putting off a wedding for years, and they expect their three sons to attend along with friends, families, co-workers and anyone else strolling through the grounds at around 4 p.m. Monday.
O'Leary, a 36-year-old carpenter originally from Gagetown, met Sherwood, a 35-year-old retail store manager from Cambridge-Narrows, at the Gagetown fairground when they were still in high school, and they've been together ever since.
One of Sherwood's co-workers suggested entering the Fredericton contest and the couple's teenaged son Ethan prepared a video that clinched the prize.
The video narration by the bashful couple pitched a love story tied to agricultural fairgrounds in their past.
Their first encounter at a fair in Gagetown was brief, but a few years later they met again at the exhibition grounds and their relationship soon flourished.
"Our first kiss was on a ride called the rock and roller. It was kind of awkward, but we managed," Sherwood recalled on the video.
She called O'Leary that same night and asked him if he'd be interested in dating on a longer term basis.
"We've been together ever since and I can't picture my life without him. I love him. I love him a lot," she said.
Their 15-year-old son Evan contributed his pitch for the exhibition ground wedding, saying he had already been hoping for free admission for himself and his girlfriend.
Ethan, 14, kept his video pitch simple, saying: "They've been dating 19 years, so I think it's time."
The video wraps up with country singer Tim McGraw's lyrics: "It was Labour Day weekend I was seventeen / I bought a Coke and some gasoline / And I drove out to the county fair / When I saw her for the first time."
The fair prize includes a gift certificate towards Sherwood's wedding dress, and a New Brunswick honeymoon at the Fredericton Inn.
But the couple says the true thrill is in accomplishing a milestone, with sons helping as groom's men and their youngest boy as a ring bearer.
"We're not very organized, so it would have taken us forever to put this together," said O'Leary.
The groom says he gets nervous in groups, but he intends to tough it out.
"I hope everyone comes and watches. It's going to be fun."
