me... a florist?

So I came across a blog post about a month or so ago about a nearly vendorless bride.  It intrigued me and I began to realize that I'm nearly vendorless myself.  Since I was still lost in florist world, I took some inspiration from the vendorless bride and decided to order flowers from Fifty Flowers and arrange them myself with the assistance of my sister-in-law and a few friends.  I saved a ton of money.  This was a great option to have in lieu of a professional florist.  Since I know nothing about flowers, I'm nervous.  This is what I ordered...

larkspur

lisianthus

spider mums

I hope I ordered enough.  Thinking about going back and ordering hypericum berries as a filler.  

jewels!

my bridal jewelry came in yesterday... the first thing for the wedding that I've actually ordered from Etsy.  It's even more beautiful in person...

bling!

stuff I've been working on...

flower girl wands.

hand stamped napkins.

lip balm favors.

...and bridesmaid gifts, but I can't post pics because a couple are probably reading this as we speak.

wedding bands

we ordered our wedding bands last night!  exciting! And we decided against wedding band tattoos (as pictured... really never even considered tats, I just liked the Google image).  We thought for a while about what to engrave on the inside of our bands and we decided to go with "let's do this!" and the date.  We both say it all the time anyway and especially since we've gotten engaged.  Let's do this!!!

our sign.

I hope that 5 doesn't look too much like a 3... I stained, painted and assembled this all by myself!  It cost me about $13 to make... or I could have bought one on Etsy for $50 or more!  Maybe I should change my last name to Thrifty instead of Crawford.

cake topper.

why spend $100 or more on a cake topper, when you can make one like I did?

$12 to make... now let's eat some cake!!

1000 paper cranes

I'm working on this to hang on our arch for the wedding.  I'm at 869 right now... 

so close.

say cheese.

We've booked our photographer.  My friend Emily and her sister of Peacock Photography will be taking all of our wedding day pictures.  So exciting!!

register!

I had no idea how exhausting registering would be... I'm pooped.

we have decided to register at 3 different places, and we still have some decisions to make on a few larger items, but here's the list (click on the pic to go to the website)...

Target

Bed, Bath & Beyond

MyRegistry.com

venue!

we have a venue...

The Marks House in Pike Road, Alabama

Let the rest of the planning ensue!!!

It Is Happening!!!

I am really excited to be marrying Allison. I am also excited to blogging for the first time in a very very long time. So It is Happening....I am getting married and I am blogging. It is strange. I will not say much more than this right now....I love allison very much and I am excited to do this. Secondly, I love this picture of us...really of allison but I am in it as well. Allison Crawford? haha....lets do this

shop to you literally drop.

wedding dress shopping = exhausting.

I rounded up some girl friends and we went dress shopping the other day.  I tried on so many dresses.  It was fun, but extremely tiring.  No pics of me in a dress, but here's some of us goofing off.

engagement pics!!!

We had our engagement pictures taken tonight... it was flamin' hot outside and we romped around downtown Birmingham with our awesome friends Bethany and Brad, who very generously took 2 hours worth of pictures.  Here's a little taste of what we have...

the last one is a picture of me with little David... he told his mom he wanted to marry me just weeks before I got engaged.  I had to have a pic with him, too!

tutu

I think I like this for flower girl dresses.... slightly different colors, but you got the idea.

I passed my national board exam for massage therapy, so now I can get serious about wedding planning... more ideas and such to come :)

venue hunting...

It is so frustrating looking for a venue.  Today we decided to go to Oak Mountain State Park and take a look at what they have.  It's pretty inexpensive to use their facilities, but it didn't speak to my heart like I needed it to.  Here's what we found...

Pavilions... a LOT of them.

a barn.

It was actually pretty cool and there were many animals walking around pooping and wanting to be pet.  We liked it, but thought it may be a little rough around the edges.  We can only imagine hearing "You're getting married in a barn?!?!"  So still looking.  Will post our other options later :)

our new adventure!

David and I just got engaged on June 30, 2010... 2 days before my birthday!  We went for a run on Jemison Trail in Mountain Brook, Alabama and right after crossing over a small rocky creek, he stopped me and proposed!

What a beaut!

We'll be posting plans, ideas and other adventures in wedding preparation as we make our way to saying "I do."