wedding flowers and bridal party

Kelly @ Kelly's Korner is hosting "Show Us Your Flowers and Wedding Party" today. I don't have a lot of picture of my flowers but here are the best ones in my opinion. Below those are pictures of the entire bridal party. Hope you enjoy!

My beautiful bouquet

Bridesmaids bouquets

Groomsmen boutonnieres

Tall vase centerpieces on the tables

My bridesmaids

My beautiful sister

The groomsmen

The entire bridal party

we have a winner!

I'd like to announce the winner of my first giveaway...

Candice @ Lovely Tonight

Here is the winning comment - "And I am now a follower! Love your blog and congrats on the Colgate Showdown! Good luck on the finals!!"

Thanks Candice! Please email me (elassiter13@gmail.com) your traditional stamp of choice and any info. I would need for it, including your address. I hope that you have a wonderful wedding and hope you will use this for your thank you notes! Enjoy!

And thank you everyone for entering my giveaway! I had so many sweet comments and was able to learn a lot about you fabulous ladies!

final notice to sign up for giveaway

Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway!

Final entries due in by 5 pm EST on Thursday July 30th

I think I am really digging this periwinkelish color!

me and my new hubby

Pictures of me and my new hubby right after our wedding ceremony. The lighting at 7 pm was gorgeous!

The spot we we got engaged 5.11.08

This man is NEVER without a pocket knife. Even on wedding day!

happy birthday grace!

My good friend Grace is turning 27 today (well it's actually on the 28th but most people will see this tomorrow anyways). I met her and her husband through Justin several years ago and we have become very close friends! You have to visit her blog, Watch Me Grow and see her precious little boy Bryce. He is five months old and as cute as he could be! Grace I hope you have a simply wonderful birthday!

my first giveaway from Sweet Papery

As promised, I am happy to announce my very first giveaway from...

{Sweet Papery}

I found Sweet Papery via their Etsy shop one day and fell in love with their adorable stamps. I purchased one for our wedding thank you notes to use as the return address. It came in the mail adorably packaged. I was very impressed for all that they did for me purchasing one little stamp. They even included stickers with my name on them! This is the one that I bought, except that it said Mr. and Mrs. in the larger font.

I am giving away 1 traditional stamp from the Sweet Papery website (not the Etsy shop).

So here are the rules of the giveaway...

1. Go to Sweet Papery's website and tell me what your favorite stamp is for one entry.

2. Be a follower or become a follower on my blog for a second entry.

3. Post this giveaway on your blog and link it back to mine for a third entry.

Please post each entry in a seperate comment space, for a total of up to 3 entries (comments).

The deadline for entries is Thursday, July 30th at 5 pm EST. I will announce the winner Thursday evening. Please check back to see if you are the lucky winner!

look out nashville!

Okay so I don't ever plan on being compared to Carrie Underwood or Faith Hill but someone had faith in me last night when I placed in the final round of the Colgate Country Showdown! Yee haw! I entered on a whim last Friday and didn't really start to practice until yesterday morning. I sang Patsy Cline's version of "Crazy." I have always liked to sing, but just not in front of people. Only in the last year or so did I stop caring what other people thought when it comes to things like this. I entered this for fun and of course Justin is excited that you can win money! Did I mention that Garth Brooks, Billy Ray Cyrus and Sara Evans were all discovered in this showdown?

Here we are before I performed. There were 14 people to singlast night and there will be 15 more next week. They take the top three people from each night and then we all perform again on August 15th. The winner of that final will go on to compete at the state final! I don't know if I'll win or not buy I'm sure gonna try!

This was right before the performance. Check out my cowboy boots! Thanks to my sister for letting me borrow them! I went #13. I don't believe in superstition at all, but 13 has been a good number this year (like June 13!).

This is right after my name was called for the top 3. My name was first so I didn't have one of those wait until the last name is called moments. My family and Justin were with me and they were so proud! My dad said he knew I was going to do good, but I exceeded his expectations!

Justin took this picture right before we left of the HideAway where we performed. Even if I don't make it to the next round, I'm still proud of myself for having the courage to get up and try!

And a big thank you to my friends Grace and Jason for my good-luck present, a pink snuggie!

my wedding dress

How could I not participate today in Kelly's Korner, Show Us Your Life Fridays? She is doing wedding dresses today so of course I had to talk about mine! It is by Mikaella Bridal and is style #1302. The color is champagne and it is full chantilly lace with a satin banding around the waist and a flower detail.

This is the first time that I ever put my dress on. I went to Bella Rosa, a local bridal shop in Richmond, Virginia, and I brought a picture from a magazine of this dress. My sweet cousin actually works at the store and she helped me pull some dresses. I tried this one on first and then seven more. I ended up buying this dress! I fell in L.O.V.E. with it! I lost 15 lbs. after this picture was taken!

I love the bottom edging which is scalloped and so pretty. I love it even more that it twirled a bit. When I was six I cried to my mom that my little sister's dress spun more than mine. It has been a family joke always so when I tried it on I had to see if it spun. It did so I had to get this shot!

Here it is hanging in the dressing room on my wedding day. It just looked so beautiful.

We splurged a little and opted for a french bustle, which is bustled fifteen times in the back. I think that it turned out so beautifully once it was bustled. I felt so beautiful in this dress.

Here I am with my handsome husband. I told him the entire planning process that my dress was slime green with big puffy sleeves and sequins. Boy was he surprised when he saw me in this! He absolutely loved it and kept talking about how beautiful I looked it all night.