97 days until the wedding...and we only have less than 1/3rd of the RSVPs we expect for the whole she-bang. I imagine July 24th doesn't seem as close to the one hundred plus invitees as it does to us, and I can understand that. I remember the days when I didn't RSVP to things until the last minute. Or I RSVP'd verbally and expected the busy, stressed, and over-extended bride to remember that I had randomly said, "I'll be there!". We've had some people verbally RSVP, some have mentioned in an e-mail that they plan on being at the wedding, and some people obviously won't let us know at all. I don't expect everyone who's been invited to be able to come. I don't even expect everyone who's been invited to want to come. And that's fine. But those who are coming...well, I'd like to know about it.

There are a couple of reasons. I love getting the responses. When I see people who mean a lot to Shaun and I, either individually or as a couple, letting us know that we mean a lot to them, too, it makes my day. I'm going to have four of my best friends there (number five...oh, number fiiiiiiiii-iiiive, the day won't be the same without you!) and every time one of them told me she was coming I nearly cried. Some of the people Shaun became friends with in Washington and I later became friends with when I visited are coming, driving eleven hours to see us be married. I've no longer started to see our wedding and reception as something people are going to take advantage of just to get an amazing free meal; I realize that for most of the attendees it will be a meaningful experience that they want to share with us. Even though the wedding is larger than I thought it would be or wanted it to be, it will still be an intimate day with people we love. The moral of this spiel: it brings me joy to know people are coming. It makes all the planning and worrying feel so worthwhile.

Another reason: AUGH! We still have to know how many we're going to be feeding!