Anonymous RSVP Cards

I saw on a blog, 2 years ago so please forgive me for not remembering, where they had secretely numbered all of their RSVP cards.

It is such a pain addressing return RSVP cards with the individuals address. Most people, like us, stick to just putting the mailing address for the RSVP card and return postage. I saw on a blog where a girl had done just that. She then received a few RSVP cards with no names and no return addresses. They had just RSVPed they would be attending. Odd. Once her RSVP deadline approached, she had to call all the people who had "not" RSVPed to see if they were coming or not, and see who the anonymous attendees were. 

Her solution: Using a black light pen, or Invisible Ink, to number each RSVP card.

I didn't think much of it, but figured it wouldn't hurt to utilize it. Plus I wanted to see if it worked.

It worked.

We received an RSVP card in the mail today, but it was just marked as not attending. Ok people, who is not attending? We have a huge list of people and I don't want to call the wrong person when the mailing deadline arrives and hassle them for their RSVP. There is a line for your name, use it! haha

When you look at the back of the invite with the naked eye, this is all you see.

Lucky me, I used the black-light pen! I shined the little black-light tip to see the number, looked at our list and figured out who the anonymous non-attendee was based on the number. 

Genius.

SO, for those planning a wedding and wanting clever/unique RSVPs - or simply want to track your RSVPs - get the black-light (Invisible Ink) pen! :-]

You can also add my little caption: P.S If you do not RSVP, bring a chair and a sandwich

Seems to have worked well so far! :-]

I bought two at the time from DealExtreme

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/invisible-ink-pen-88

I paid $2.78. Not bad.

Alana XoXo

Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 19}: Country First Dance Songs Continued

Texas Country First Dance: Randy Rogers Band - One Woman


Lonestar - Amazed

   

 Tim McGraw - My Best Friend

 I am rather fond of Tim McGraw, he was the first country artist album I ever owned. I remember my dad bought me the CD and I listened to it over and over and over again. Still do.

   

 Kenny Chesney - Me and You

   

 Garth Brooks - Every Woman 

Now this isn't Garth singing it, but my goodness he sings it just as beautifully!!! I slightly fall in love with him singing.

   

 Lee Brice - Woman Like You 

What I love about Henry, we dont have one song, we have many. This being one he loves especially. He gets a kick out of the yoga part. :-P

   

 Dustin Lynch - Cowboys and Angels

 If my sister could pick our song, this would be it. 

Her boyfriend and her insist this is our song, and she says she is going to tell the DJ the day of the wedding we changed our minds to this song and see if she can get him to play this instead. lol

   

Keith Urban - Only You Can Love Me This Way 

His voice makes me melt.

   

 Brad Paisley - She's Everything 

This song is up there with Lee Brice - Woman Like You 

It's sweet!

 

Check out my other posts containing more Country First Dance Songs:

1}Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 17}: Country First Dance Songs

2}Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 7}: Texas Country/Country 1st Dance Song Suggestions

Me Myself & I

Link up with the ladies above! <3

1. What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?
I would be a Victoria's Secret Model. No? I adore those ladies! I always watch the Victoria's Secret fashion every year in such of awe of the beautiful ladies, that from the interviews, seem to have such lovely personalities! *Sigh* haha

I would also buy some land and open up the biggest no-kill shelter in the world.

Do those even count?

2. If you had only six months left to live, what would you do with the time?
Try to see as much as I possibly could with the ones I love. So cliche, I know. But it is true. I would also try absolutely EVERY food item I possibly wanted without the worry of gaining weight. I am such a foodie.

Scotland Fairy Pools

3. If a front page news article was written on you, what would the headline be?

Oh lordy. It would have to be something along the lines of "Woman Caught Stealing Puppies".

I don't really steal puppies! Buuut, it is tempting. If I lived on a little more land I would definitely kidnap malnourished animals I constantly see people having tied up to their trees, etc. and possibly cuddle them to death. Not literally death people.

Hes not missing an eye, he is just winking

4. What is your biggest pet peeve?
Smacking

OR

Inconsistent noises - such as a fan that randomly creeks, a random beep, or whatever noise I keep hearing this moment in my house that sounds like someone about to throw up. I am about to go insane if I don't find it!

5. What is your favorite chick flick movie?

The Notebook. 

I just can not get over how sweet this movie is! Not to mention Ryan Gosling - Helloooo Baby!

Alana XoXo

Henry and A Wedding Registry Scanner - Oh My!

Henry and I had a lovely wedding shower hosted by my sister, Stefanie/Maid of Honor, my aunt, Robin, and my mom, Rayshel. It was a lovely Mad Hatter themed shower and it was SO MUCH FUN! Upcoming blog post on that later.

We had a great turn out of friends and family. However, people were telling us that almost everything on our registries were online or catalog only. UH OH! We made the mistake of being lazy and making all three of our registries online. It was easier for us since Henry is gone 5 days a week and on the weekends we are trying to catch up on other things. 

After the shower Henry and I made a conscious effort to at least go to Macy's and take off things that were catalog only, and replace with in-store items that wedding guests could find easier and buy right there - especially for those last minute shoppers.

You know who you are haha! I am guilty of that myself. EEK!

I figured wedding registry stuff wouldn't be too exciting for Henry, so I know most guys enjoy gadgets and let Henry have the little scanner they gave us. We agreed to start at one end and wind down to the other. As we are browsing, I get a bit ahead of Henry when I hear, "BEEP!....BEEP! BEEP!" I immediately turn around to see Henry grinning. I laugh and ask, "What are you scanning? We are suppose to agree on what we scan." He points to a few items, "These look really cool." One being a really neat wooden chip bowl with a white porcelain dip center. Ok fine, I will give it to him, he picked something cool I had missed. 

We keep walking around and he says, "We need flatware. Let's register for this one." 

"Henry we have cool flatware. And that is $150"

"But it's Henckels, and it's an entire set....I'm registering for it." 

Before I could react, Henry had the bar-code spotted and "BEEP!" It's on the registry. LOL

I point to a mixer I had registered for to show Henry - "This is what I registered for online. I really want this!!!" Henry spots the 5 other variations of the mixer next to the one I want on the same shelf. "Let's scan them all so people know we REALLY want it!" Henry starts aiming his scanner towards the other mixers. I start cracking up at his logic, but in a serious tone tell him, "No way! Only register for the one you actually want goof!" and pull the scanner awaaaaaay from the mixers.

Henry wanders off to find a "Ninja" - food processor, juicer, blender, and one other thing all in one. Henry thinks it looks cool and "we could really use it" let's get it! "BEEP" I had already registered for a food processor and blender, but this thing was rather cool and I would love a juicer. Guess I will go take the others off later. HAHA

"OH A TAMALE STEAMER!" "BEEP!" "Henry, are you going to make tamales?" "No, you are." LOL Ok, guess I need to sign up for the tamale making workshop at Central Market. 

"A FOOD PROCESSOR!" "BEEP" 

"I already registered for one and you just scanned the 'Ninja'!"

"A WAFFLE MAKER!" "BEEP!" 

"That's it, give me the scanner. You are done punk!" LOL 

After that he got really bored rather quickly. LOL

Henry's mom also stated how she would like to get us China like her mother got for her on her wedding day. However, Henry hated all the China. I really wanted to the same country rose one my Grandma Black had, but Henry hated it. 

I took my cousin Phoebe and Henry's cousin Megan to the mall with Henry and his best man, Casey. We were in Macy's and Henry and Casey were rather bored to say the least. We buy my cousin a dress and can't find the guys. I get a call from Henry, "Hey come upstairs. Casey and I found some china for the registry." 

"Really? You and Casey...are shopping for china?"

"Yea, it has cows and chickens on it. It's pretty cool."

"You have got to be shitting me. Right?"

"The girl already has the scanner and everything for us, just come up here and look at it."

Our cousins and myself all look at each other with a "WTH, you have got to be joking look" and head upstairs, quickly. 

We get upstairs to see the Macy's lady standing on a tea-cup. Henry points toward some hideous china and says, "Look! Don't you like it?" 

I do not mind stating I do not like something, at all - I look at Henry and tell him that I am not registering for any china with chickens or cows on it. 

Casey and Henry start laughing and Henry points to other china that is actually rather pretty! It's made of some semi-undestructible glass, hence the girl standing on the cup, and has a beautiful silver scroll design on the edges of every piece. I look at Henry rather impressed and let him know I like it, a lot. He replies, "Good! We already scanned it!" 

Figures. LOL

Love my honey so much! Loving him is definitely fun, to say the least. <3

Alana XoXo

Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 18}: Bridesmaid Attire & Dilemmas

         With 53 days until our wedding day, we have had a fairly smooth wedding planning process. We have been engaged for over 2 years now, 2 years and 6 months by the time the wedding rolls around. 2 years allows a lot of time for malfunctions and dilemmas. Luckily, the only blimp we have had so far is the guest list.....Until today.

Thanks to Pinterest I fell in love with the eclectic/mismatched bridesmaid dresses.

Wearing boots was a must - the isle everyone walks down is a stone path, ankles would most definitely be twisted trying to walk down in heels - or someone would end up tripping or falling on there face. HAHA

Also, with the theme being Country Boy Meets City Girl, our wedding being outdoors, and living in Texas - boots just seemed to fit. :-]

Since our wedding is in the fall, we deemed a champagne color would be perfect for the dresses. This way we can take advantage of the bold colored flowers and foliage that fall blesses us with. The deep maroons, golds, oranges and browns would contrast wonderfully with the champagne dresses for a nice pop of color. 

All the bridesmaids went through David's Bridal to order their dresses to ensure the same color since I have bridesmaids all over the state and country! Each bridesmaid went to the store, picked their dress, then shared with the other girls to make sure no one bought a repeat dress. All the dresses came in during their 4-6 week time alottment. 

Audrey and Megan went to pick up their dresses together and try them on to ensure they were the correct dresses with no blemishes.

Audrey texts me a picture of them in the dresses - WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Megan, my youngest bridesmaid, being 16 years old, has on Danni's style dress!!! I immediately text back to them that Audrey's looks great, but Megan's is the wrong dress overall. 

The cotton sateen dress we had originally ordered for Megan was a little long and I had agreed to take her to get a bubble hem put into it in order to bring it above her knee like the rest of the girls. The dress she text me was sateen with a bubble hem already. Megan texted, "Does the bottom look different to you? I feel like we don't need to hem it." 

I immediately picked up the phone furious. I know, mistakes happen. BUT this dress took 6 weeks to come in. We are about 7 weeks away from my wedding. Get my dilemma? 6 weeks for the delivery of the CORRECT dress puts us ONE WEEK before the wedding. Which means we then have ONE WEEK to get the alterations needed. 

The manager apologizes stating she would get the problem fixed and would ensure alterations were taken care of in time for the wedding. I then have to stress to the manager that alterations are out of her control. Since we are getting the bubble-hem, David's Bridal can not legally perform the alteration because they can not alter the "style" of the dress. SOOOO, we must get the dress delivered and get it to a seamstress who CAN do the bubble-hem we intended on. Unfortunately, the David's Bridal manager can not tell our outside seamstress to go quicker because THEY messed up. She needs her 2 weeks and I am not paying a rush fee, because THEY screwed up. And I am not sacrificing the bubble hem either. HPMH!

I could tell the manager was annoyed with me, but I didn't care - they messed up and I have every right to be upset, especially with our wedding being pretty darn close. I really wanted to call the lady out on her rude tone saying, "Sorry, have I inconvenienced YOU!? Is this a bad time for YOU?!" Do your job right = happy customer = problem solved.  But I bit my tongue, remembering my days of working in customer service. If you know me, that was VERY hard to do. *Pat myself on back*

Deep breath.

Then about an hour later my sister texts me. My Maid of Honor gift to her was a new pair of cowgirl boots. 

Her tiny size of 5 1/2 is not in store, but luckily another store has it! Should take 7-10 days to come in since its a local store that has it, otherwise it could've taken 7 weeks to get from the Tony Lama factory. Uh oh. BUT they have it at the next store, sweet! 

I call my Seester: "Hey! Did your boots come in yet? I want to see a picture!" 

Seester: "No they haven't, but they should've. I am calling up there right now. Ill text you. Love you, bye" 

Seester: A little bit later "So basically a store said they had them, but then called and said they didn't [after we paid and left, but no one called to tell us] and they forgot. So now they're calling another store tomorrow and going to find them. He's making it his 'first priority'" - "He promised to have them by next week, because 'the weekend don't count'"

Me: "Weekend don't count? Wow. That's promising" - How about weekend "doesn't", "does not" count? Maybe? No? Ok.

Luckily, these are all problems that can be solved. However, they are a wee-bit stressful none-the-less. Once the dress and boots are in, safe and sound, I will breath easier. Until then, I am a bit tense to be honest. Blah!

Source for all images: Pinterest: Wedding Party Board

Halloween? Venice?

Halloween? Venice?

Do Halloween and Venice belong in the same sentence? As an october born, mid-20 year old, college-graduate and an American, Halloween is a very important holiday. It just hit me when booking our hotel today that we will be spending our first holiday abroad together, and that holiday is Halloween.

Growing up Halloween meant my upcoming costume birthday party and trick or treating.

In college it meant skimpy Halloween costumes with a weeks worth of awesome house costume parties, bar costume contests and pretty much wearing your costume any chance you got.

On our honeymoon......uhhhhh....do I include a costume in my packing list?
Do they celebrate Halloween like us? Is it more tame? Is it crazier? Does it involve costumes at all?? Or should we plan a day trip to another town to experience the halloween celebrations? I'm baffled.

Guess I better get to researching this intriguing topic!

Wedding Invitations: RSVP

        Ok, so all of the wedding invitations are out, except for about 20 due to either address changes, haven't received an address from the guest, or just recently got the address and I have been procrastinating about printing. I am awful. Tomorrow, they will all be printed and mailed though, I promise myself they will be!

         

          If you have followed my blog or know me at all, then you know I made these invitations myself. I was secretly jumping for joy inside when Henry's Uncle John walked into the office today and said, "Dang Heather!! Ya'll must have spent a fortune on those invitations! They were NICE!" I was happy to A) Know that a MALE noticed how nice they were B) He thought they cost a fortune C) Inform him that we didn't spend a fortune after all, just $300 and a lot of hard-work :-). I then enjoyed his bug-eyed reaction at the $300 and his reply of, "I thought ya'll had to have spent at least $15 a piece on those!" No sir, 130 double-pocket invites for $300, yes I did. Do the math people. 

        When I was putting these together I think I had to have fret the most over the RSVPs. I googled the crap out of "Creative RSVPs" "Original RSVPs" etc. I wouldn't say my turned out GREAT or very original at that, but I do like how they came out. I had the obvious "RSVP" title and the RSVP return date. I opted to put "name(s)" instead of "M" because quite frankly I have received invitations I had no idea what that meant, and figured it was less formal - like our overall wedding.

         I then gave the "Choice of Entree" - which I am sure people looked at and said, "What!? Huh? No fried chicken?" But the menu is themed around our favorite restaurant/cookbook - The Reatta <3 

         The "creative" part, which wasn't very creative, was just putting at the bottom the option of "REQUEST A SONG that will get you up on the dance floor" - I loved this idea because I obviously know a few classics and various songs that are popular for my "generation", but I wanted song options from other people too. It has so far worked out great because I have gotten some wonderful song requests I would have NEVER thought to tell our DJ. 

         "Creative" Part Zwei - "We have reserved _____ seat(s) in your honor" - I love kids, I do. However, when we started our guest list, we had 500+ people on it. Our solution was to limit kids and rando girlfriends/boyfriends. I am sorry single guys/girls, I love you, but I don't love your random fling of the week and I would much rather have two friends, than one friend and someone I don't know. For kids, this was tough. If we knew all the relatives were going to be at the wedding, such as a few of Henry's neices/nephews, and it would be near impossible for a babysitter, we let the kids slide. If it was a distant cousin/relative/friend of the sort, we had to cut those kids. If you can find a babysitter on your date nights or whatever it is you two do, I am sure you can find one this time too. It wasn't an easy decision, I promise! Then there was a friend's wedding who invited a single guy friend "Mr. Joe Bob and Guest" - and he tried to invite some random girl PLUS a college buddy and the college buddy's date. People, if the name isn't on the envelope, they weren't invited - it's etiquette. 

          "Creative" Part Tres - in the midst of googling I came across a girl who had put on her WEDDING INVITATION "P.S. If you don't RSVP bring a chair and a sandwich" - When I read this, I laughed SO FREAKING HARD! The reviews beneath were mixed. Some were appalled, some seemed to be just as amused as I was. Then I read the girl's reasoning - she had attended a wedding herself a few short months prior to her own wedding where 40 - yes, FOURTY,....FOUR-ZERO - guests showed up who had not RSVPed. My jaw dropped. Our venue can only accommodate 150 people comfortably - I mean comfortably as in pushing-it-comfortably - if 40 extra people showed up, there would LITERALLY be no where to add extra tables or chairs without diminishing the dance floor. Not an option people, this crowd knows how to get down. 

          After reading that, I asked a few family members - which all had the same cracking up response I did. If people get their panties in a wad over it, well then they are probably the people that wouldn't have RSVPed and would've shown up anyway. So, people can loosen up, have a little chuckle and send in those RSVPs - whether it is a yes or no! Please :-) 

       Now, I did put it on the back, bottom-side of the RSVP card so it wasn't all up in their face yelling at them and I included a little clipart piece of a heart being placed into an envelope. So, hopefully people understand I say it with love. :-)

       Last note - if you are a family/friend reading this, please RSVP one way or another, it makes life so much easier on the bride and groom. We even paid for custom stamps and pre-addressed the return envelope, so all you have to do is fill out the card and stick it in your mailbox. :-] If you are a follower reading this, please remember to turn in any RSVP you get for any event! It is such a pain to track down RSVPs when vendors are calling you to get final numbers and deadlines are approaching.  Yes or No - give an RSVP. It's the nice thing to do. :-]

Alana - XoXo

Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 17}: Country First Dance Songs

         I made a previous post listing mostly Texas Country First Dance Songs, but since then, I have listened to a lot of country songs and utilized my trusty iPhone Notes to keep track of them as I hear them. Below are ones I have fallen in love with:

        The most recent song release that I absolutely adore is by Easton Corbin - Loving You is Fun

The first time this song played with Henry and I in the car I was kind of in a daze, just thinking - I think A LOT - Next thing I knew, Henry was squeezing my hand saying, "Loving you IS fun." I looked over at him shooting me a quick smile before directing his eyes back on the road. The first thing I said was, "Huh?" - Then the chorus came back on "Ohhhhh! Awe!! Loving you is fun too! I love you!" Now every time this song comes on we think of each other. It is like our personal theme song. :-) This is actually one of the only songs that has made Henry reconsider his traditional George Strait option for our first dance.

A Texas Country First Dance option: 

Stoney Larue - Feet Don't Touch the Ground

Miranda Lambert's song "Making Plans" - this song is by far a new favorite. Her words are perfect - short, sweet and simple. She is so talented. "'Cause I'm not easy to understand, but you know me like the back of your hand, I'm your girl and you're my man, And we're makin' plans"

What every girl wants to hear: Keith Urban - Your Everything

I would've probably never thought twice about this song, until my sister texted me while Henry and I were at a country dancing bar saying, "Brice and I agree that 'Cowboys and Angels' should be yalls first dance!" I fall more and more in love with this song as I listen to it.

Dustin Lynch - Cowboys and Angels

You of course can't forget one of the classics. This is Henrys final choice. George Strait is definitely one of the most famous Country Singing Icons and this song is from one of Henry's favorite movies "Pure Country" - Which he made me watch and I rather enjoyed.

I remember growing up, like 3rd/4th/5th grade and listening to this song and thinking, "One day I want this to be my first dance". I just may get that wish. <3

George Strait - I Cross My Heart

Check out my other Country First Dance Song Suggestions:

1}Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 7}: Texas Country/Country 1st Dance Song Suggestions

2}Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No 19}: Country First Dance Songs Continued