Wedding Plans - Booking the Photographer

We booked our photographer today! I did a TON of research on local photographers and was really hoping to find someone who fit in our budget who also appealed to me personality-wise, because I know how important it is to find someone who really fits with the couple and their personalities.  We arranged to meet Ashley Dupree at our venue (Theatre 98) today to see some of her prints and her pricing arrangements.  I knew pretty much right away that I liked her and wanted her to work with us.  I just really enjoyed talking with her and she truly loves taking photos.  So we put down a deposit to have her hold our date and will be having several other meetings with her to discuss the particulars.  I took her on a tour of the theatre and told her where certain things would be happening and she saw so many possibilities for great shots in the various areas.  She's never shot a wedding in a place like this (who has, right?  nobody has ever been married there!) so she was really excited about it.  We talked about how nontraditional we are and that I absolutely wanted her to take some shots of us having a sword fight and she said that was perfect.

So we are using Ashley Dupree Photography for our wedding.  A two-person team, with an hour before the ceremony, the ceremony, and 2-3 hours of the reception.  I don't anticipate our reception lasting longer than that, being that the wedding is at 2 in the afternoon on a Sunday.  People have places to be!  And of course, we will want to leave for our honeymoon as soon as we can!  : )

Home Sweet Home

So I guess the biggest news from the last few months is that we moved to a house!  We are currently renting with an option to purchase the house at the current market value anytime within the next two years.  We have already decided we want to buy it, we just need some time to pay off some bills and get a down payment together.  Here are some (somewhat blurry) photos of the house as it is now.  I'm just posting the living room and dining room/kitchen photos right now because most of the other rooms are still kind of a mess from moving.  We still have boxes everywhere!  It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with an office and a huge living room.  It's very open and there are tons of windows, so it gets great natural light.  The back yard was landscaped by a landscape architect and is so fragrant and green right now, and the front yard has lots of pretty flowers.  We want to do a garden in the back yard when we buy the house, to grow veggies and fruits! It's paradise, really.  I'm in love with this place!

Living room

Living room window - I love these curtains!  My dad made the dragon clock on the wall for Jon's birthday

Kitchen - I love the open cabinets - I think it looks really cool

Dining room - this is not our official dining room table.  That will have to come later. :)

The other side of the living room.  We're going to put another one of those chairs on the other side of that chess table.

Kaylee in the Guest room

We've planted some flowers to decorate back porch.  He also planted an herb garden, which is thriving.  I can't wait to cook with the fresh herbs we are growing!

This creek is right behind the house and is in a protected wetland owned by the local university, so it will never go away and it will stay the same.  They even have cleanups out there a few times a year to combat litter.  It's a gorgeous spot for reading and writing.  I've gone down there several times already just to sit and enjoy the sound of the water.

Catching up

You will notice a bunch of back-dated posts.  These are my effort to catch up a little on posting since it has been such a long time since I've posted.  There are more to come, but for now, check out my work travels and wedding plans.  It's fascinating, I promise!

Work Travel - Florida

Just got back from Bonifay, Florida and the first completely trouble-free install!  I was co-primary on this one because it was a combo install and followup for the site.  It was a pretty good trip.  Only a few hours from home and less than an hour from Panama City Beach!  We did go to the beach one night and it was pretty awesome.  I hadn't been down there in years and it's changed a lot!

Bonifay is a little town but like all the little towns I've been in recently, the people have a lot of heart.  Great people, great hospital, great town.  All in all, we had a great time.

Work Travel - Oklahoma

Sadly, there are no pictures of Oklahoma because my SD card on my phone freaked out and lost everything.  We went to Oklahoma for another Med Management install, and we had a great time up there.  We were in the town of Idabel, close to a town called Broken Bow.  We actually flew into Arkansas, a few hours away  We would have done better flying into Dallas or something, but oh well!  This was my first site as primary, which means I was in charge.  Yikes!  But things went pretty well and people were using the program after we left for the airport, so that's promising!

My favorite part of the trip was the winery we found called Girls Gone Wine.  It was a fantastic little place!  We did a tasting and I purchased a bottle (a special one they made for charity, the proceeds go to the college funds of the children of one of the "girls" who recently died of breast cancer)  It is called Friends 4 Life and is a lovely blush with a really nice strawberry flavor.  I haven't opened the bottle yet.  I may save it for my bachelorette party.

Oklahoma was a lot of fun, even though the songs from the musical kept running through my head, and I never did see a shiny little surrey with fringe on top.  :)