Very late Thanksgiving challenge

I feel like sometimes I only feel compelled to write things that bother me but these days I've noticed more and more of how God has blessed me.  It's been a whole year since the last Thanksgiving challenge but I didn't want to try to pull something out of my butt just to write about it.

But this year, I'm thankful for:

1) Apples

With my upcoming wedding, every penny counts.  But at the same time, I didn't want to sacrifice the big day so I'm doing most things DIY.  I was planning on making wedding favours - apple jelly!  They're so beautiful and the colours change with each batch depending on the skin of the apples which is perfect with the rustic theme.  However, I was really hoping to keep prices down.  In the beginning of planning, I didn't even want to give favours because they're usually thrown out after the wedding which (even if it's only a dollar per favour, it's still hundreds of dollars wasted).

So with the jelly, the jars are already quite expensive and now I need the ingredients.  Usually my colleague will bring apples from her tree to the school so I was planning on using those but I knew there wasn't going to be enough.  THIS year - the first year that it's happened - another colleague randomly emailed me about her neighbour's tree overflowing with apples and offered to give me 2 boxfuls!  That's an amazing blessing from God and I would be doing Him an injustice if I called this a lucky coincidence.

After I made a status update on Facebook due to feeling extremely blessed, my friend emailed me and said he's got some green apples in his yard that I can have too.  I didn't even know he had a tree! 

And to put a cap on all of this, I got the pectin for half off :D  Oh how glorious...

2) Mason Jar Centerpieces

I needed 3 different sizes of Mason jars for each centerpiece - 250mL ($1.44ea), 500mL ($0.67ea), and 1L ($1.33ea). 
The specialty shape of the 250mL, I probably still need to spend the big bucks on those.  But I managed to get the 500mL at $0.32ea and the 1L at $0.45ea and get this - I asked my friend and fiance to check the Superstores close to them and they were all out EXCEPT for the store 5 minutes from my house.  I couldn't be more blessed :)  That definitely helped me save some money on centerpieces and I can re-use the jars for food afterwards.  Another things not wasted ^_^.

3) Gourmet Catering

Due to the huge number of people in our lives, were are limited in who we can invite to the reception.  So as a thank you to the lovely people who will be attending our ceremony only, I wanted to provide some nice snacks for them while they wait to have their pictures taken.  I was going to add the food prep as part of my DIY but the idea of having to organize all the food (which is perishable) the day before the wedding was already stressing me out - and then getting people to store and transport them...ugh!  It probably would have been a bad idea and I was going to get professional caterers to do it but that'll cost an arm and a leg. 

Amazingly, a student of mine is planning on starting an event planning company with a group of older friends.  They've already planned a very successful party over the summer, serving hors d'oeuvres and desserts.  One of her friends makes macarons as a side business and the other thrifts and creates her own serving platters and tea cups.  All of this fits perfectly into the theme of the wedding.  I asked her if her friends are interested in working the wedding to build their portfolio and experience if I gave them a budget for the food.  They happily accepted and I'm ecstatic.  I really didn't want to ask my guests to miss the ceremony so they can set up the food. 

4) Gorgeous Photography

Having met Jun (Kunioo) years ago when we both just started our thing, I never expected that he would grow to be such an amazing wedding photographer.  Him doing multiple pre-wedding photoshoots at an affordable price makes us (Jason and me) feel like millionaires even though we are at a budget.  These memories will last a lifetime and you just can't put a price on that.  I'm so thankful that Jun came into my life ever so randomly all those years ago.  Who would've thought?


There are many more blessings that I still haven't mentioned but I gotta say often times, I feel so distant from God and I wonder why I don't feel His presence.  However, I've learned over the years with Jason's career and all, that God's planning is WAY more advanced than ours. 
He put me at a particular place at a particular time (kairos - hello! cell group ftw) and inserted people into my life years before which will help me get through many obstacles that I would come across.  It just keeps reminding me that no matter what seems bleak ahead of us, there's really no need to worry because He will always provide.  And that kind of faith in every aspect of my life is what I hope to achieve.