When Roman and I got engaged and
started planning for the wedding, we had no idea how were we going to pay for
everything. With both of us being missionaries and having a very low income,
saving to be able to afford the wedding was not a possibility. Though both of
us had some savings, it was not by far what we needed. But going into debt was
not a solution either. So we chose to trust God and go forward trusting that He
will provide. Whenever I would start to worry, Roman kept reminding me that God
owns everything and that He will take care of our needs. And He did take care
of everything. In the end, not only were we able to pay for all our bills
(including renting a bus for a round trip from Germany to Romania and renting
the facility for the whole weekend, meals and accommodation included for 120
people - which were the most expensive bills) but we had something left over.
Isn't God great? We have seen God doing many miracles for our wedding and we
are so thankful! One of the most amazing ones is that the owner of the place
were we spent the weekend and had the wedding gave us a pretty good discount
when he heard that we are missionaries. But there are many more miracles like
receiving the equipment and everything needed for free so we can have
livestream.
We wanted a simple wedding
surrounded by family and close friends. And this is exactly what we had. We
took into consideration many factors (finances, accommodation opportunities,
help with the wedding, number of friends and relatives of each one of us) and
decided that a wedding in Romania would be much cheaper, would allow us to have
the help of more friends, would provide cheaper accommodation opportunities and
would also allow more of my friends to come. We also decided that we want to
spend the whole weekend with our friends since we had not seen many of them in
a long time because they came from different parts of the world. So we spent a
wonderful weekend together listening to the Word, praying together, taking
walks and having fellowship.
We had our wedding in this
beautiful location:
And we were surrounded by dear friends who
traveled from different parts of Romania, Germany, Austria, United States,
Brazil, Norway, Portugal, Mexico, Italy.
We planned for an outdoor wedding, but the
weather forecast was not favourable. On Sabbath we had a storm and hail. For
Sunday they predicted the same weather. But God is more powerful. Not only did
we have sunshine, but we had more than we needed. We could have used some
clouds here and there, especially for pictures. :-) Anyway, we cannot complain.
God has been more than good to us and we are deeply thankful to Him.
Roman and I decided not to take pictures or
see each other before the wedding. So last time we saw each other was Sabbath
evening. He had not seen my dress and I wanted to be a complete surprise for
him. And we were happy we did so. His facial expression caught on camera by our
wonderful photographer before I came in and after I started to come down the
aisle is priceless.
We had friends singing, sharing their wishes,
than there was the sermon and the blessing... And faster than we realised we
were declared husband and wife. There was no time to let everything sink in. In
fact even now, four and a half months after the wedding, we are still
marvelling sometimes that we are married.
Our reception was simple. In fact, we payed
for the whole weekend (5 meals + wedding reception and two nights) per person
less than we would have payed for a wedding reception (per person) at a
restaurant. Friends sang for us, they had us play a game. We had sweet
fellowship and even squeezed in a photo session while our friends kept singing
for the invitees. We also decided that we do not want to have the reception
until late in the night, as it is the habit in Romania. It would have been
against our values and heath principles we proclaim. For the same reason we
decided to have an appetiser and than a Swedish buffet instead of having several
courses brought an hour apart as it is the habit in my country. Here are a few
pictures of the reception:
Our wedding was exactly what we dreamed about:
a quiet, simple, Christ-centered wedding, a celebration with the closest
friends, a time to rejoice with the dear ones. It was simply wonderful to see friends we met at different
stages of our lives and in different parts of the world finally meet, get to
know each other and interact over the weekend. And it was wonderful to have
them with us at this mile stone of our lives.
We are thankful to God for His guidance and
leading at every step. And for all the miracles He has done for us. He proved
us one more time that He is faithful and that He can supply for all of our
needs when we ask Him to and want to honour Him.
For more pictures, visit the webpage of our photographer: Ana Mindaianu Photography
Photo Credit @ Ana Mindaianu Photography.
