Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Wedding Day Photography!!!!!!!!

I have to admit.... several times today, I randomly burst out in song and dance and then pinched myself to see if it was all a dream.  Y'all.  Today, God answered our prayers.  


You see, on April 24th, I prayed for a long, long time.  In particular, I was worrying over how on EARTH we were going to plan the wedding I had always envisioned with the budget we have.  Yes, it is possible.  But I knew I couldn't do it without God's help and guidance.  Lots of budgeting and searching are going to have to be done!  So I prayed.  I prayed for help and guidance.  I prayed for the Lord to guide me to find ways to save money and to find peace from the stressful situation that can be wedding planning.
The next day I looked at my favorite wedding blog, Southern Weddings, and they had announced a giveaway.  Now, this isn't unusual for this group of gals, but this was bigger. Much Bigger.  It was a giveaway for free wedding day photography!! Not only was this just some photographer...Maile Lani is the BEST I have seen. My heart skipped a beat as I read the details.  This wasn't some random number drawing.  It was essentially an essay contest.  There was actually something I could do to better my chance of winning!!! God gave me just exactly what I wanted.  He gave me guidance and led me straight to a way to save money with the wedding.

So even though I had finals coming up, I poured myself over the application for the giveaway.  From this, the girls at SW were to pick 3 finalists for people to vote on.  I described my wedding to the best of my ability and clicked send.  I waited for about a month, and then started to get that feeling like I needed to go ahead and start contacting wedding photographers.  Later on that day, I was pulling into work and as I sat in the car, I checked my email.  I saw that I had an email titled "Maile Lani Photography Finalist".....what? WHAT?! I was a FINALIST!!!!! Immediately, I ran into the office and printed off copies of the URL for friends to vote and passed them out.  I encouraged the office to vote. I hopped around my boss's office until he voted. I harassed my friends on facebook.  My mom got all her friends to vote at the hospital.  She emailed her church.  I emailed my church.  We worked and worked and worked to get people to vote for two LONG weeks.  Votes added up.  It was a real race with another couple, but we persevered. The voting closed, and we waited.


Friday went by....

Saturday went by...

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.... went by....


Today I looked again in my car, right as I went into the office.  I nearly dropped my teeth!! (har har)
OHMYGOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!! I cried. I gasped for air.  I ran around the office screaming and acting a fool (see above).  Please, please, PLEASE check out Maile Lani's amazing photography!!!! All of the pictures in this post belong to her.  She is incredible!
Thank you SO much to everyone who voted for me and Zach.  Thank you Maile Lani for having this giveaway - we cannot wait to meet you!  Thank you Southern Weddings for being such gracious hosts as I emailed y'all with annoying questions!  We are beyond blessed to have such incredible, faithful, loyal, loving friends and family. Most importantly, thank you God!