Annie Le, fiance aimed to give back, wedding registry shows

In planning their wedding, Annie Le and Jonathan Widawsky planted the seeds of a hopeful legacy together.

They had no way of knowing what the future would bring when the couple signed up for a gift registry on WeddingChannel.com.

But they dreamed.

And they did what young couples usually do.

They selected a store, Macy's. They picked the silverware, towels and the bed linens. They picked out a vacuum cleaner, a sewing machine and a colorful gravy boat.

And they did something special. They also selected a charity - the I Have a Dream Foundation, which works to guarantee that all children can pursue a higher education - from a list of more than 100 compiled by WeddingChannel.com and a second, Washington, D.C.-based group called the I Do Foundation, which links engaged couples to charities.

PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos from the investigation, and photos of Annie Le

The couple's gift registry, a hopeful sign of the future they wanted together - and should have had - was still online Monday.

And, in one place, it carried a computer-generated announcement that the couple had been "Married for 1 Day."

That wasn't true, of course.

The wedding was canceled after Le was reported missing. And on Sunday, when the couple and their families should have been celebrating, a body was discovered behind a utility panel in a Yale University building.

And Monday, when the couple should have been "Married for 1 Day," the body was determined to be Le's.

It was a sad, shocking turn of events. A couple, so much like every other young couple, worked toward their dream of a life together. And it was so brutally and cruelly denied.

And that makes their registry so hard to read. There, on one page, there's a note about the I Have a Dream Foundation - "our charity of choice."

The foundation helps children in low-income communities achieve higher education by providing skills, knowledge and habits they need.

The foundation, which has programs across the nation, starts with children in early elementary school and stays with them through high school. And guarantees tuition support for college.

"They wanted to use their day to help others, to give back," said Charli Penn, managing editor of WeddingChannel.com. "They're so young and they're starting out doing philanthropy. It says a lot about them as people."

Penn did not know that the couple had registered at Macy's through her site. Neither did Peter Murray, co-founder of the I Do Foundation, which works with Penn's site to channel contributions to charities.

"Wow, it's just so sad," he said. "They clearly wanted to give back as they were moving forward."

WeddingChannel donates up to 3 percent of the total of gifts bought on registries through its Web site to the designated charity. The checks usually go out to charities about six months after the wedding, Penn said.

There's a chance the I Do Foundation never would have known about Le and Widawsky's decision to include the charity in their wedding plans.

"Sometimes we are notified and we write the bride and groom a note," said Iris Chen, the foundation's president and chief executive, who, like Le, attended Yale.

"To have a couple who is still in school think about pulling up the next generation is exceptional," she added.

WeddingChannel.com and the I Do Foundation have yet to determine what to do with the couple's online registry or their charity request.

Chen said she wants to send a thank-you note to the couple's families.

"This is a tragedy and I haven't had time to digest it," she said. "To do what they did makes them both exceptional."

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