Day 560 - RSVP

Today is the first of June which means the time to RSVP has passed. We actually had almost all the RSVP's in. The open dance invites were left with 21 who have not RSVP'd however 8 of those RSVP'd verbally and 1 of those expressed to me yesterday that she would not know until she heard back when her surgery was. There is obvious leniency with the open dance as the restrictions are far less. Still, it's nice to know your numbers by a date with some distance to the wedding.

I hope to see no more drama around this guest list but I am not going to count my chicks before they are hatched. For now I am just going to look forward to the next part, solidifying the vegetarian custom menu, verifying the numbers with the venue, rehearsing our coreographed dance, our stag parties and then marrying my best friend. 52 days to go. :)

<3 your hippie bride 

Day 529 - Calm waters

It's amazing, a few weeks ago I was stressing about all those extra details and now here I am waking up each morning just excited to be getting married in 2 months. It's hard to believe that in 83 days I will marry my best friend. Have I said that too much lately? It's starting to sound redundant over here but as redundant as it may sound it feels new each morning.

There are still a few things that pop up to stress me but for the most part it is simply other people's roles now that I am dealing with. Speakers, speeches, readings, vows... just a lot of words put together and of course our first dance as husband and wife.

We met with the Justice of the Peace yesterday to arrange the order of the ceremony, readings and vows. Having that sorted out now I am focused on writing my thank you speech for the bridal party and those close to us.

We have solved the extra guests problem and don't have to worry about turning people away at the door. A great sigh of relief for all.

• 19 days left until I run the marathon
• 22 days left until my bridal shower
• 25 days left until my first dress fitting
• 26 days left until I protest Prop 8 with my daughter
• 29 days left until my daughter's 3rd birthday 

So many things I have to accomplish in the next few weeks it's a little overwhelming. You'd think I'd be at my wits end. Instead, I'm living in the now. I know, looking ahead, that in 2 weeks I AM going to be stressed, tired and overwhelmed....probably easy to weep. But I feel that there is nothing I can do to spread those days further apart and so I will instead take a deep breath and enjoy the now. Focusing mainly on training for that marathon. Train, train train! In the next week I will be running 5km every second day on a flat stretch. The next week I will start running that 5km up a hill every second day. The final 5 days I will spread out getting only 2 days in. The focus then will be on sleep since the marathon will be early in the morning.

The bridal shower I don't have to stress too much about personally. I simply have to be able to walk after the marathon.

The dress fitting should take care of itself, with all that running I should be in prime shape....here's the hope.

The protest will be a pretty simple activity too, simply remembering to get there on time and with the beast in good spirits.

Lastly her birthday, perhaps the only part I have to prepare for. I am hoping for good weather so we can have it at the playground this year. This will reduce the amount of preparing within my home. I have a small dwelling and if there are any more than 5 adults here it gets very crowded very fast.
Having it at the playground will require some transportation planning on our part and getting the cake there etc. But I feel that will be much better than trying to make room in our own little itty bitty apartment.

Frustratingly we are still waiting for some RSVP's but considering how many are left it's not too bad in the grand scheme of things. Only 9.5% have not RSVP'd and 2 of those told us they were going...they just haven't carved it in stone yet.

I guess I should get back to some DIY projects with this 2 week break I have. But first.... some meditation while I still can.

<3 your peaceful hippie bride

Day 525 - Wedding crashers...

What is so complicated about an RSVP that people do not understand? Lending back to the beginning or at least the early part of our engagement I was asked, "Do I really have to RSVP? You know I'm coming." To which I gave a resounding, "YES...YES YOU DO!" Sure I may figure you are coming, I also figure most of the people I invite are coming. So, yes! Yes you absolutely need to RSVP.

I suppose I could have said, "Do I need to send you an invitation? You already know I want you there!" *facepalm*

But now we face a new problem. All along people who were not given a guest would ask if we would mind if they brought this guy/girl they just met the other night. Because of space we could not offer a guest to each of our guests. Had we done that we'd have only been able to have half the guests we invited. We'd have basically had to decide whether we wanted our friends there or our family. Our answer to these requests were for them to check back with us in April of 2012 after all the RSVP's were in. If there were any who RSVP'd with "not attending" then we'd clearly have room for an extra person or two at that point. These people were more than happy to oblige and as indicated in my previous post... by April.... they were broken up with that guy/girl and the extra space was not necessary.

We are fast approaching May now and still a few stragglers have not RSVP'd, this we expected, anticipated and are prepared to chase down those meal selections. What we were less prepared for were the guests who did not ask if they could bring a guest but we have now found out planned to bring one anyway. I don't understand how they planned on that working out. If you have an RSVP and it does not imply a guest then you have just invited your best friend since childhood to attend a wedding with you and they will not have a seat or a meal. What's worse is it's not the people in question who have told us, it's mutual friends who say, "Oh I didn't know you invited Sally Sue." and we squint and say, "who?"

Now we must sit over our guest list and thumb through to see how many other wedding crashers we should be prepared for! Not what we signed up for. As it is we are over quota right now by 3 people and that's before these uninvited guests are tallied in. I don't want to have to beg my Venue co-ordinator to make an exception for guests I didn't even invite! How embarrassing, it makes me look so unorganized when in reality I have kept on top of my numbers the whole time. It's my guests who haven't.


*sigh* oh the politics of weddings. I believe I have officially entered the realm of, "I can't wait to get this over with!"

<3 your flustered hippie bride

Day 518 - The curse of the guest

Today I am starting to wonder if my guest list is a curse to my guests' plus ones.

Let me explain. Our guest list has been so extremely shrunk over the months and for the most part our guests don't have plus ones. Some of these guests did as they were dating them for a while and/or living with them.

As the guests rsvp'd it became apparent that with the online RSVP I needed to give the plus ones their own RSVP ID because some guests's plus ones desired a different meal than the guest. I had told the guests I would rectify this in time. Since then, each time I add a plus one by name to the guest list ..... they break up!!!

This has happened half a dozen times now! Each time it goes like this:

Me - "Hey, can I have your boyfriend/girlfriend's name so I can give them their own ID."
Guest - "yeah sure it's Sally/Sam"

Me *insert name on guestlist*

~ 2 weeks pass ~

Guest - "So...um... you might as well take Sally/Sam off the guest list. We...well... we're no longer together."
Me - "what?! Are you serious?! I'm so sorry."

I would leave the plus one on the guest list for a few weeks and when I was certain the time had passed for reconsilliation I removed them.

I know people break up and life goes on. It's just tripping me out that my guests keep breaking up within weeks of having been added to my guest list. I'm relatively scared to add any other official names. I think they will remain plus one and any other alternate meals will just have to be run through us privately.

In wedding related news, picked up our marriage license today! Now to book an appointment with the Justice of the Peace.
I also found out I can't change my name for 3 weeks after I'm married. What's up with that?!

That's all from me, don't break up <3 your hippie bride

Day 310 - 63% accounted for

Oh, so very addictive. Every day that I can't afford to put money into my wedding I instead input time. Time spent logging in to see if anyone new has RSVP'd.
63% of my guests have RSVPd, there are still more to mail out and we already know that Krista is waiting until May to RSVP .... maybe I shall serve the food in order of RSVP received ;)

I kid... I swear... or do I? :p

Day 301 - Addicted to RSVPs

I think I have reached a point where I might actually need clinical help! I log in as soon as I awake and squeal with excitement the moment I see that little rsvp check next to another guest.

However, a downside to this is that other guests who know they should be getting invites and have not yet received them are starting to question our friendship. David and I must hurry and finish up some more envelopes for the mail before we are disowned.

WEEEE WEDDING WEDDING WEDDING

I'm getting married! Yup, yup I am! *dances* 

Day 300 - Addicted to RSVPs!

Ever since I sent out my wedding invitations I find myself logging in first thing in the morning to see if anyone has RSVP'd.

I can see how this wedding stuff can be completely addicting. I have a small guest list of 50-60 people and everyday I get so excited by new RSVP's. I also smile when they sign my guestbook in addition to rsvping.
So when I woke up this morning to fresh RSVP alerts! I declared aloud, "EXCELLENT!" I love non-procrastinators :) ♥ 312 ♥

Day 296 - RSVP? YES PLEASE!

Invitations are sent out and as I was speaking with one of my guests the other day I was asked an RSVP question, "Do I have to RSVP? You already know I'm coming."

The answer: YES! and just in case anyone else was wondering it is yes for you too.




You see a lot of people think, "OH, I don't need to RSVP they know I'm going." Sure, you and 50 other people? Are we supposed to look at our final RSVP numbers and then add the other 50 people that we are pretty sure are coming? what if we miscount? What if when naming people off the top of our head that we are sure are coming we miss you or say you twice?




Sure I may know that you are coming but I also know that 15 or 25 others are coming. I can't search my list of RSVP's to see if you did or didn't RSVP. When I give numbers to venues I will be looking at the number of RSVPs and if your name isn't there then ... I guess you're not coming.

Hey, I like to think I made it really simple for everyone, it's all done online on our website. No postage, no post office, just a click and you're done.

Day 288 - Extreme Couponing Wedding style

All my couponing and sales watching has paid off. Today by paying the rest of my ring off and placing David's back on layaway plus combining my coupon for signing up for their e-mails I was able to save $232.5 off our rings! :) that's not including the original $300 I saved on them initially so all-in-all $532.5 saved.

Better yet, I will have my bridal set in time for the the engagement party. Had to get it resized down 2.5 sizes.

47% through our engagement! That day just keeps getting closer, as days typically do. Now if only my best man would hurry up and submit his RSVP. ;)

<3 your couponing hippie bride