Okay, are you ready to feel really sorry for me? Just kidding...  I'm okay, really. Please don't feel sorry for me, but please DO take to heart what I learned the hard way. 

I'm frugal. I admit it. It's a virtue... sometimes. 

For my second marriage (the one that REALLY counted) I planned a BEAUTIFUL wedding... small, meaningful and intimate. For around $6000.

I scoffed at all services labeled "Wedding," noticing that they instantly quad-deca-drupled in price just BECAUSE they were associated with the word "wedding."

Instead of hiring a professional photographer, I hired a well-meaning family friend who dabbled in photography for $300.

After the wedding, however, as we waited and waited and waited some more... we eventually found out a year later that her hard drive had crashed, and with it went ALL of our photos. Every single one.  

Fortunately our friends and family took a few snapshots with their point-and-shoots, but we don't have a wedding album, or any wall-worthy photos. 

And you'd think that would've been enough to teach me the invaluable worth of professional photography... but NO. 

Four years later, at the age of 42, I gave birth to our beautiful daughter, and our family of four (Travie, and his two beautiful kids) grew to a blissful family of five.  

Ever since we'd gotten married, Trav had wanted to book a professional family photo shoot... but then he was laid off, and money was tight... and then we were just so busy... and I was so frugal... and we never did it.

And 3 months after our daughter was born, he passed away.

And so to this day... this is the only photo that I have of the five of us. 

And I love it.

But oh, how I do wish we had one, beautiful photo of that brief moment in time. (Or at least one photo where I was actually wearing clothes.) 

Even if it had cost $5000, knowing what I know now, it would have been one investment I'd never have regretted. 

Professional photos (by a photographer who knows how to capture what you value in yourself) are more than just a one-day, one-hour splurge.

Valuing the love and the joy that you have in your life and giving yourself the gift of SEEING it on your wall every day is an investment that will touch even the most frugal heart...  every single day for the rest of your life.  

It's a lifelong gift to yourself. Take it from me, it's worth it! :)