Better Together: Long Lost to Finally Found

Our wedding - and engagement - was a little out of the ordinary. We just don't do things like most people. I mean, yes, I wore white, he wore black, our ceremony was in a church, our bridesmaids and groomsmen were uniform blah blah blah. However, we were engaged for *cough* 3.5 years *cough*, we had a very small wedding (85 people), we didn't do the garter or bouquet toss, we didn't have a flower girl or ring bearer, we had our reception in a winery/brewery.. not your typical reception setting, we took our honeymoon two months after our wedding to Scotland and Ireland, I planned it by myself while finishing my fourth year of undergrad, etc. We just wanted to get to married. We are so low key and were just not about the show, or doing things how everyone else does it, or going to a nice warm place for our honeymoon. We're just... different.

So why would the process of getting our wedding pictures be any different?

We got married in July. Then we went through this NIGHTMARE where we lost the better 3/4 of our professional wedding photos to a stupid stupid stupid faulty SD card. Our AMAZING photographer contacted the top three data recovery specialists in the states before telling us the bad news: none of them were able to recover our wedding pictures. The pictures we did receive were beyond gorgeous.. but it was pretty evident that big chunks of our day were missing.

I DID NOT want to give up. I searched online for HOURS about data recovery for SD cards that "die" and computers don't even recognize them, let alone register the data. I found this place in the UK called MjM Data Recovery. This place actually takes your SD card apart and gets the data (images) off the chips themselves. Reluctantly, our photographer sent them to this place thinking she was for sure setting us up for yet another heartbreak. She sent them our card August 31. We checked in a week later, a month later, six weeks later... they didn't receive our SD card.

So, to recap, not only did we deal with the fact that we would probably never see the rest of our wedding pictures.. the ones with our families, bridal party, ceremony, reception, prep before our special day, etc. , but now we had to accept that they were probably lost in space... at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean or something... so even the possibility of seeing them after it all was shot. I ordered prints of the beautiful pictures we did have for us and our families, made a wedding album, and canvas for our bedroom. We accepted that these beautiful photos were the only ones we were getting.

That is, up until 10 days ago when we heard from MjM saying they had finally received our card.. FIVE MONTHS LATER. The parcel had been floating between the US and UK because the postal worker did not label our international package correctly. Unbelievable. On all levels. At this point, I had such little hope in my heart they would be able get photos off it now. Surely, it was damaged beyond repair from FIVE MONTHS of travel. Plus, nobody else was able to get anything off it... so why would these guys?

WRONG AGAIN! They recovered most of the 5,000 pictures that were taken! I was able to see some sneak previews. I had almost forgotten how beautiful our wedding was (if I don't say so myself)! Our photographer will edit them once she receives them and hand them off to us when they are complete. God provides for our little family yet again.

Miraculous Miraculous Miraculous. Will share some when we get 'em! I am a happy girl :)

Here's some we received originally. Can't wait to see the rest!: