More Blessings

Darryn and I are continuing to be blessed in pretty much every aspect of wedding planning and budgeting.  The original estimated costs of things are actually lower than expected!  For example:

• Audio-visual equipment for the DJ:  Ended up settling on a quote that was about 35% less than the inital one! 
• My shoes:  FREE and they're cute!!  In a nutshell, I bought them online, received them, was unsatisfied with the quality and workmanship of the product, exchanged a few emails with customer service, they eventually gave me a full refund without needing to send the shoes back to their warehouse.  Because of the poor quality, though, I might have to buy one that would last throughout day!
• Sash:  Instead of paying at least a hundred dollars for a "bling" sash especially made for brides and sold at bridal shops which brides only use once, I found an equally-blinging belt from a store at a mall that cost $30.  Take that, vendors-that-mark-up-their-merchandise-just-because-it's-for-a-wedding!!!
• Centerpieces and decorations:  Every Sunday I get approached by fellow sistahs at church who offer their stash of vases and from their weddings to use for ours!  Eva has even offered for us to come to her garden and snip off the hydrangeas there!  Inhee said she has reflective mirrors plates!  Joyce is giving me her 19 vases and some silk flowers!  Grace has an aisle runner!  Lyn and Grace (Laura A., too!) have offered help with decorating ideas!
• Ring bearer and flower girl:  We were not going to have these two members of our wedding party because we heard we have to pay for their attire.  But it turns out that Corris' twins Liya and Noah, who happen to be celebrating their 2nd birthday on our wedding day, already have appropriate outfits for the job!  Plus, Dave and Corris have offered to train them to walk up and down the aisle.  I see great progress each Sunday.  They're in!
• Wedding invitation:  Aaron M. is designing them for us, and we are getting them printed taking advantage of one local printshop's monthly deals.  March's deal was cotton invitations!  Aaron pointed out that the cotton fits in nicely with our theme of growth and stuff.  :)  Each invitation is about 45 cents each!
• Boutonnieres for helpers:  In addition to my aunt, Grace has offered to make them for us!  The estimated cost is super cheap.  Because we are saving money in other areas, Darryn and I decided to put flowers for helpers back on the budget board!  I am glad that the worship team, ushers and other helpers will be able to wear special flowers to make them stand out in our wedding day!

We are saving hundreds of dollars, thanks to God's providence.  I am reminded of one of the lessons I re-learned from the marriage prep book we did:  like everything on this earth, money is God's and we are stewards of these things.  This lesson is helping me be more generous to others with the money that's been entrusted to me (one of the traits I admire in Darryn).  Because we get to save on many things in our wedding, we can reallocate the extra funds towards blessing others rather than ourselves for our wedding!!!