God provides in ways that are simply amazing!!

How God provided the funds for a wedding that was to take place in 2 weeks!!

Here's the scenario: We were having a skype pre-engagement counseling with our 19 year old daughter and her boyfriend and we give them both a thorough account of what it's like to get married young and be in the military...and the difficulties of both. After 2 hours of counseling, Kylie and Parker continue to skype and in 30 minutes, our daughter comes out of the other room to tell us that her boyfriend of less than one month (there's a story there... she will have to write about their story soon) wants to marry her next week in California... we live in Ohio... OK not going to happen... Jason is the interim lead pastor right now which means he has a lot on his plate and we also have a previously scheduled Young Adults Conference that weekend they were looking to marry... we can't just take off from our responsibilities to attend this impromptu wedding that they want to have NEXT week. In addition, we have two little children to think of and did I mention, NO MONEY for plane tickets for a whole family (we have a credit card that we don't use unless it's an emergency but this does not constitute "emergency"). So Kylie lets Parker know that if he wants to marry her now, it would have to be in Ohio so her parents and siblings can actually attend... Jason and I were thinking Parker will realized that this is crazy and too soon... I'm sure he will opt to wait at least until after Navy Bootcamp (November) Ah...nope... he says ok!! So we plan for a wedding two weeks from that night. What do I do?? I look at the savings account which does not have enough in it for a wedding (which in research I've seen costing anywhere from $10000-$25000)... or even a small wedding ($5000-$10000). So I go into my "wedding coordinator" mode OR should I say my obsessive, resourceful, pyscho mode and begin researching for venue, decorations, etc... within our funds ($1000 - which is supposed to be for my new dishwasher and Uhaul truck for when we relocate back to MD when that time comes) and see what we can afford! Hmmm a wedding for $1000 or less... sounds do-able, right??? Yup, it sure was... well it was over $1000, it was $1553.10 exact total!! BUT God provided in sooo many ways and through sooo many people!! I am still completely amazed how it all happened!! Here's the breakdown!!

$300 - An unexpected blessing
$150 - Another unexpected blessing
$100 - And another unexpected blessing
$100 - And yet another unexpected blessing

$650 total blessings + our $1000 savings = $1650 Wedding Budget

We spent $1553.10

Here are some of the other blessings:

 

A friend of ours opened her home for a "girls night out/bachelorette party" for Kylie. And that same friend knew a professional photographer that did Kylie and Parker's wedding ceremony pictures for free because Parker was going into the Navy and she wanted to bless them.



 

Kylie's dress was $105.69 from Alfred Angelo (one of the dresses they had in the back that was not on display because it was "last season's"). It was a blessing but even more so is when a friend from church blessed her with all the alterations to the dress as a wedding gift!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!  The groom, Parker, owned his own tux from his HS band playing days so we didn't have to worry about that!
 



A friend from church, who is a hair dresser, did her hair for the wedding... and since her next client was late, I got my hair done too!! 

 Our friend who is a Mary Kay Consultant and awesome make-up artist did her make-up for free and let her borrow the necklace Kylie wore at the wedding.

Her husband is the worship leader in our church and a friend as well, so he played worship songs for the ceremony.
 

The small ceremony location is at a local park. They have an outdoor Gazebo with benches. Gazebo rental cost $85.
 

The reception site (our church's connection center & cafe) was free because Jason  is on staff there.

 

A friend of ours painted her nails and toes and she is also a budding baker... she baked the wedding cake too!! Another close friend made the "cake topper"... For the Groom, it's the State of California and for the Bride, the State of MD (our home state).  She also made the bridal bouquet shown in the picture below.

 

 

Another friend was in charge of coordinating the reception. Our church family and my mom provided the cookies/desserts/fruit for the small reception after the ceremony.

My mother and my niece came from MD to help and celebrate with us.


Another friend recorded the whole ceremony and made several DVD copies for us. But I can't figure out how to get it from the DVD into this blog....oh well.  And there were many more people that did so many things to help make this wedding possible in 2 weeks... We were extremely blessed beyond words. The only thing I had to really "pay" for was that I had to sleep with the ceremony official to get him to perform the wedding!! LOL...just kiddin', my hubby was the wedding officiant so he was free!! hahaha...

Anyway, it was simply amazing how God blessed us abundantly!! The wedding was absolutely beautiful and it was only made possible by Jesus Christ... working through the love and blessings of our family (our friends, church and blood family)! Thank you everyone!!



Here are some of the professional pics!!