Reply Cards

I wonder if I still have any blog followers out there since it's been a month since I've posted anything.  I had to go back an reread my last few posts since it's been so long.  I should just take a September hiatus from blogging every year since I never do a good job blogging in September because work is so busy.  Maybe I can be like the tv shows and do blog reruns or something ha ha.  I know work is a lousy excuse, but it's true.  My friends with September birthdays always get their cards late (sorry!).  And my once clean house is suddenly filled with clutter.  It gets better by October, but at times in Sept, Oct feels a long ways away.  Anyway, I'm HOPING to be a better blogger this month.  For now, it's back to wedding talk.  Today, let's talk about reply cards.  We asked our guests to RSVP to our wedding by June 30th. I sent three invitations to foreign countries and told them they could save a stamp and just e-mail me their RSVP.  In this day and age, I find it strange that you cannot put stamps for foreign countries on your reply cards.  I felt bad that they would have to pay for postage.  One friend e-mailed me and the other two people mailed their cards back.  I tell you this because my cousin who lives in what some would call the middle of nowhere had to drive a half hour to the post office to buy a US stamp and mail me a reply (and she wrote a nice note).  She managed to do this and get the card sent back to the US ON TIME.  Meanwhile, some other guests of ours who live quite close could not do the same.  I gave them a few days after the deadline and then started asking for replies. One had a legitimate reason for not replying yet, another plain ol' forgot (she was forgiven as she is a good friend and usually reliable), and another in her words is always late (she was forgiven too), and one seems to have really gotten lost in the mail, but others just hadn't gotten around to it.  I understand for some people it depends on work, baby-sitters, etc., but we did send our save the dates out 9 months before the wedding so it's not like they didn't know about it.  And the reply cards have stamps on them so really all you have to do is check yes or no and then if you checked yes, please check chicken, beef, vegetarian.  My friend Joanne told me that after she got married she always RSVPed to weddings right away.  I think in the future I will do that too.  (I think I always reply to weddings on time, but sometime I do it closer to the deadline.)  On the due date, we were still missing replies from 30 people!  We did eventually hear from everyone, which some married people have told me was not the case for their wedding--I was like what did you do?  Did you order them a meal or not?  I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that.  And while two people canceled, they did so BEFORE the final counts were due so we were fortunate to have all the yesses actually show up to our wedding because I have heard that does not often  happen.  We are fortunate to have such good friends and family.  Anyway, back to the reply cards, I have been to many weddings so I always check the boxes and mail the card back.  I didn't know that some people write notes on the reply card.  We got some "can't waits," a sarcastic comment from my brother (that is normal), a nice note about my shower, and a funny sweet note about how one of my friends in her words "squealed like a little pig" when she got the invitation.  I think I may have to save them for the scrapbook, which is going about as well as the blogging is right now.  Oh, well, I have a week off in December ha ha