memorial box monday - wedding photography

It's time to link up with Linny for another...

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When Eric and I were planning our wedding, we were flat broke. We are talking I-am-still-a-college-student-he-just-graduated-five-days-ago broke. My dad generously gave us a lump sum of money for the wedding. However, we could not just spend it on the wedding, there was no way. We had to think frugally. We also needed to stretch that money for a honeymoon and a down payment on a house in the near future. Oh, and did I mention Eric didn't have a full-time job? That's right. I agreed to marry this man, for him to take care of me, without even the slightest prospect of a full-time job. (This is another mbm, I'm getting off track...)

Anyway, we I was trying to plan our wedding and I was trying to prioritize. What was most important? The memories. How did you remember? Through pictures. So I decided, photography was going to be a big part of my budget. Well I started researching photographers and realized that I had champagne taste on a draft beer budget. Wow! What I wanted, my wedding story told in pictures, seemed way out of reach.

Stress started settling in. (Stress and I got to be pretty good friends over those short 6 months of engagement.) I scoured the internet for hours trying to find someone, anyone who could do what I wanted, do it well, and do it cheap.

Then God moved. He brought me to a website of a photographer who had previously only done nature shots, and had ONE wedding under his belt. But, as I read his profile my heart knew. He was a Christian. His entire vision of what a wedding should look like was biblically based. He had scripture captioned under each and every picture. And...

HE WAS GOOD!

Like really good. I held my breath as I clicked on "pricing." And then I rubbed my eyes. Squinted. Called Eric over to see if he saw what I saw.

DIAMOND PACKAGE
- All day coverage (no time contraints)
- bridal portaits
- all photos on cd and in a custom album
- doubles of all photos
- 10 5x7s, 10 8x10s, 3 16x24s, customized wedding book
price: $1200

Less than what I had budgeted.

The most amazing part of this story is that not only did I get my dream photos, but our photographer raised his prices just a mere 6 months later to over $4000 for a package that included half of what I got! He was good, and people were noticing.

Praising God today for allowing me to have sweet memories like these:

sleeping beauty flower girl

my handsome fiance' and almost father-in-law

my crazy bridesmaids, flower girl and attendees

my beautiful bridesmaids and their flowers

dancing with my daddy to Elvis

me and my honey toasting the night away

So all of these pictures go in my (virtual) memorial box to remind me of God's provision on the happiest day of my life!

By the way, my friend Amy was getting married not quite a year after us and my photographer was so good she wanted to use him as well. He had already raised his prices outside her budget as well, but because I was drumming up business for him like crazy, he gave her a huge discount as well.

How cool is our God to supply us exactly what we want and need on our most special days!