Wedding Miracles

Well, once April 15 rolls around, Jill and I will have been married for five months. If you don't already know, we were able to see God's hand in a lot of significant ways in the building of our relationship, especially in the way that our wedding came together. Our pastor told us that we should write down the wonderful things that God did for our wedding as a testimony to encourage others (and ourselves, farther down the road). Well...here are the miracles that I (Sam) remember from our wedding!
The first miracle that I remember (other than God speaking to our hearts about one another and sending us to one another) was the way that we got our engagement photos. God has placed an amazing friend named Jennifer into our lives. Jennifer does top quality photography, and we had asked her about her rates right after we got engaged. Well, she gave us the rate, and we put it in our budget. But, once we had taken the pictures (in locations that Jennifer had personally scouted before the shoot), she told us that she would not take any money. A few weeks later, Jennifer gave us the photos (over a hundred, to the best of my recall) after personally reviewing and editing them for highest quality. We still get compliments on the quality of photos that she took for our engagement!
Soon thereafter, we took those pictures to another wonderful friend, straight from the Lord (actually one half of two - Jenn and Josh, with Josh being the friend in question at the moment). This friend happens to be a graphics designer, and he wanted to help us with our engagement by helping us design our invitations. Well, he masterfully designed our invitations and sent them to us several times for our approval and to make sure that he conveyed our ideas. When it came time for use to settle our balance, he refused to take any money from us, and we got excellent professional quality invitations for nothing but a printing fee of about $75.
Another miracle happened in our lives at our Wednesday night church meeting. An evangelist who uses our church as him current home church walked up to Jill with an envelope and told her that God had told him to give her some money for our wedding, then quickly walked away. When we opened the envelope, we found a check for $500! That certainly helped ease our fears about wedding money.
Napkins...not something usually associated with miracles, but hey, God is on His throne! Jill found some reception napkins online that she really liked. They were printed to look like a little tuxedo and a little dress, and they came in two packages at $50 each (expensive napkins!). Well, we bit the bullet and ordered the napkins. After all, you can splurge a little on your wedding, right? Well, a couple of weeks later we get a package delivered containing the tuxedo napkins, but there were no dress napkins to be found. Even more troubling, I could not see a charge on my credit card for the purchase, and I was getting nervous about the order. Jill emailed the company from whom we had ordered the napkins about the issue, and they wrote her back explaining that they had discontinued to dress napkins but sent us the tuxedo napkins anyway. Because the napkins were all one order, they simply cancelled the charge and gave us the $50 tuxedo napkins free!
Cake is another wedding staple that can really run up a big charge. Well, when God is with you and sends wonderful people into your life, even cake gets His attention. My grooms' cake was bought from a bakery where our friend Bethany used to work and our friend Cory currently works. Because of the favor that God has given them in the eyes of the bakery owner, we got that cake at a huge discount. Then, my wonderful sister Jenni and my cousin Ellen came to us asking if they could have the honor of taking care of the bride's cake. To Jill's delight, they got in touch with a baker friend of their own who made 150 delicious and beautiful cupcakes (complete with icing "O's" on top) that sat just right on the amazing stand that Jenni made just for the occassion.
Let's not forget the rehearsal either. That night, my family (primarily organized by Jenni, Ellen, and Kathy) laid out an amazing lasagne dinner! A lot of couples have to stress over things like that, and I am so happy that Jill and I never had to.
In other money news, Jill's parents were able, through God's blessing, to give us $500 more for our wedding than they had planned, which allowed us to give gifts to different people who had blessed us in the course of our union. Then, in addition to so many of our friends and loved ones helping out in a staggering array of capacities, we received so much cash and wedding gifts that we were able to enjoy our honeymoon and start out our new lives together without having to go a penny in debt!
Jill could probably tell you more about the different acts of the Lord that have occurred in our relationship, but I just wanted to lay this out for anyone who might be struggling with concerns about God caring for them, especially as the economy isn't at its best right now.
As Jesus taught his disciples, little sparrows aren't worth anything to the people of this world, yet God does not overlook a single one of them. There is not a single little bird to die that God has not personally attended its funeral. He loves them so much that he doesn't even make them work for his food. They just have to get up, sing, fly, play, and find his abundance on the ground. How much more does God care for you? He knows how many hairs are on your head, and he knows everything about you. He loves you so much that he sent His Son to die for you so that you may be saved from the evil that has overtaken all of our souls. Won't he take care of the little things like our physical needs. If God cared enough to take care of a couple of his kids' wedding, won't he care for your daily needs as well? Of course He will!

In a nutshell. God loves you. He took care of our wedding because He loves us. He loves you too, and He will take care of all of your needs if you let Him into your heart.