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)
