Ahhh!!! It’s 10:00pm!  It’s about time I announce the winners!

I’ve been reading through these entries all day.  Then reading through them some more.  Then having coffee with Jesie and her husband to review the entries.  Then getting John on the line to put in his two cents.  Then getting on my knees and praying a little.

And I’m happy and relieved that God has provided peace in all of this.  The selection was DIFFICULT, to say the least.  Of course.  Every couple deserves to win.  Every one of you.  Every one of you has had trials and tribulations that has made your love stronger, better, deeper and ever so deserving of an all-expenses-paid wedding.  But you know what is pretty cool about all this?

All the great love stories never come easily.

What you have — those of you who entered this contest, those of you who took the time to write paragraph after paragraph describing your story — you have something worth fighting for.  You have a great love story.

I know you do.

I’ve seen it all.  And I can’t imagine some of the stuff you all have gone through…  If only your name was on this blog, I bet you’d have more wisdom than I could ever conjure.

THANK YOU for entering.  THANK YOU for sharing your hearts.  I’m truly touched.

With further ado, it is my pleasure to share with you the winners of our 2012 Wedding Photography Giveaway….

Chuckie and Melissa!!

I won’t go into all the juicy details of their story…I gotta save something for their engagement and wedding blogs!  But I will share with you the reasons WHY they felt they were the deserving couple.

Pictures are one of the most important aspects of the wedding because they capture that moment forever.  My parents have made to commitment to pay for our wedding.  That seems simple and straight forward enough, but I have a little, really quite frankly, a lot of a different story than most girls.  My parents, my mom and dad, have only been my family for the last five years.  They adopted and took me in when I was 17 years old.  Being young themselves with three very young children of their own, they went against everything and even though they were not in an opportune spot to take in a teenager, they decided to raise me up as best as they could.  They quite honestly saved my life.  My parents are missionaries and my dad is a pastor of a crisis youth ministry, they have always done the best they can with what they have, but I know that it is hard.  They have taken it in full stride and have decided to pay for a wedding, that before I came into the picture, they were not planning on taking on for a very long time for my young sisters.  But life was put on the fast track for them when I came along with proms, graduations, cars, college, boys, and now a wedding, and I would love to help them with that. My dad not only giving me away but also officiating our wedding is a wonderful picture of the family I am now apart of.  Winning the photography for our wedding would be a blessing beyond what you would know, both for Chuckie and I, but also my family.

Winning this photography package would be a dream come true because it would not only be having the opportunity to have beautiful wedding photos, but be able to help my family with covering our wedding.  Having these pictures of our wedding is a testament of how far not only myself, but Chuckie and I have come and grown.  Life has dealt an interesting hand of cards and we are so excited to start this new chapter of our lives and we would love to have and blessed with amazing photos to remember and not forget where we started!

Congratulations, you two!!!  We cannot wait to meet you!