I really don’t want to sound like a pampered princess here, because I am sincerely grateful for each wonderful gift that Mark and I have received from our wonderful family and friends. However, department stores are not comprehending the words “customer service” anymore. I have heard from a number of people that Dillard’s did not have the items that Mark and I put on our registry in their store. Or if they did have them in the store, they had no idea how to find them. Or they don’t ship it when they say they will. No matter what the “glitch” was, it does not help the customer service that these stores claim to provide.

I also want to avoid sounding too spoiled, but my experience with Younkers was irritating too. Ben and I had so many generous friends and family members give us gifts that many of them ended up being duplicated. Even with gift receipts, Younkers would only give us store credit. Now that’s fine, except that generous family/friends gave us almost everything on our registry (and really, how many ice cream scoops can a couple use?). So there we were with Younkers gift cards coming out our ears when we really needed things like Windex, groceries, and car repairs. With all of the business a gift registry gives to these department stores, it seems pretty ridiculous that they couldn’t help out the newlyweds in such an easy way.

So we are going to vote that couples now use Amazon, as they have a wide diversity of items and now offer wedding registries.

-Rebekah and Kirsten

With the wedding starting to wrap up (I know, it’s actually just about to get here actually), I’ve been thinking about what I will worry about/ work on once that is done. I know I should jump on the compositions database for mom and Wesley Acres web site for dad, and I probably will. But there’s that little part of me going, ya know….Christmas is coming soon after that too. Then I get all excited for Christmas carols, Christmas trees, Lego advent calendars – which needs ordered, and visions of the cats pulling the tree down. I get all excited again as if it were a second wedding like event. Who gets excited about sending Christmas letters soon…me. This is all kind of bizarre, but the older I get, the more I like Christmas. And for totally different reasons than a little kid. It’s all about the giving now, instead of the getting. Oh and the food. MMMM. Christmas is completely about the food. And best of all, it’s about seeing family!! So I get to see my ENTIRE family this weekend. Then take 3 weeks off, then Thanksgiving see some family again. Then a few weeks off, then more family! Oh wow….ok, that’s lots of family.

Once upon a time I was going to write every Thursday…I’m trying! There is a phenomenon that occurs the closer you get to a wedding. My brain is turning to mush. In general, I feel like I have always been fairly level headed. I’ve never been too concerned with make-up, hair, and dresses. Until now. I went to a hair salon to get my hair done yesterday (you’re suppose to test it before the wedding day). Next Friday, I’m having a manicure. I’ve even considered getting a pedicure and *gasp* getting my calluses from ballet filed off (that is a whole nother post though). The real phenomenon is that I can’t focus. If I don’t make a considerable effort to work on something, my brain retracts to “I’m getting married. I’m getting married.” In some ways, it feels kinda pathetic to not be able to focus. In other ways, it just makes me wish I had saved more vacation days to take the two weeks off before hand. Let that be a lesson to anyone getting married in the near future.

The total is up! We have 28 RSVPs so far. Not all of the votes made it online (this started on a white board). The winner is Dan with a vote of 25! Congrats Dan, you win…nothing.

Friday at lunch, I decided to start a little bet on how many RSVPs Mark and I would have by this weekend and then also by next Friday. Since all the mail is in for this weekend, I’m pleased to announce that both Ken and I won!! We had 3 RSVPs total (0 yesterday and 3 today). Everything is wide open for next Friday though!

So far:
Mark – 40
Bek – 15
Derrick – 60
Kevin – 50
Shane – 30
Lance – 47
Ken – 23
Bryan – 20

Put your vote in the comments! Disclaimer: closest without going over wins. There is no prize aside from being proud of yourself.