Dead End Zone!

I have a secret to admit and its not a pretty one. This past winter I got lazy and I used my FI Head and Shoulders 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner for a good 2 months. What a mess! And THEN I read Miss Nachos blog about buying store brand products and what it does to your hair and I cringed!

I know using Head & Shoulder's was a HUGE mistake but at the time I got really lazy in the morning and would wait until the last second possible to get out of bed which didn't leave me much time to get ready. I also had to let you know that I haven't had my haircut since last September since I wanted to grow it out for the wedding. So you mix those two factors in you get this:

Isn't this scary looking??? Source

My hair had so many dead ends all over and they were also fried to crisp. LITERALLY they were crispy if I just let my hair dry naturally. I knew I had to do something about this so I took the first steps and sucked it up and bought quality salon products from Harmon Beauty Supply which is my savor when it comes to saving money!

Source

I have been using these products for 2 1/2 months now and I notice a HUGE difference especially when I FINALLY got an appointment with my stylist and got my hair trimmed. I walked in and his eyes opened wide and I turned red. It was like I totally got caught with my hand in the cookie jar! His first reaction was, "WOW your hair got so long!" And then I saw down in the seat to discuss what we wanted to do and I instantly caved in and told him everything that has been going on! He just laughed thankfully and mentioned that he will take care of it but won't be able to get rid of ALL the dead ends since it would make my hair too short (aka - you waited too long!).

Much better! *personal photo taken same day as haircut*

I won't ever make the mistake of going 7 months without another hair let alone wash my hair with such crappy shampoo! My FI is much happier as well since I'm not using up his shampoo/conditioner! LOL

I know as brides we want to grow our hair out for the wedding and we think that just by not cutting it that we are doing ourselves a favor but honestly we're not. The ends of our hair split for a number of reasons: heat, color, lack of vitamins or lack of protein. Then the end either breaks off or continues to split up further and keep breaking.

Another lesson learned for me! Are you even surprised at this point?? Did you make the switch to salon products and did you have results? Anybody else want to admit that they too have used H&S as well?

Lesson Learned: RSVP cards UPDATE!

As if you couldn't top that subject with an update....BUT I actually can. First update, I received another no name response and just a "Y" next to the home reception.




So is that "Y" for YOURSELF? Or is that Yes I'll bring my entire extended family?? It came from NJ so at least I can narrow it down to a few choices.



SECONDLY I received another different kind of response today. I'm kind of lost for words yet its a little funny at this point because every day is new adventure in the Land of Response Cards!

*personal phone*

I was utterly shocked. I realize this person is on my Mother's side (I believe her aunt) and so I quickly called her and told her the news. It went something like this:

Me: Hi. Ummm did you know Emma died last year?

Mom: Oh yeah back in March I believe. Why?

Me: Well I sent her an invite to the wedding and she responded! Well more like someone in the family did. I thought you reviewed the list before I sent the invitations out?!

Mom: I did...I must have missed that.

HA! Ya think?! I am not sure how any other response is going to top that one.

Lesson Learned: RSVP cards

I didn't listen and I ignored probably one of best pieces of advice when it comes to wedding planning: numbering your RSVP cards! I first learned about this method a couple weeks ago from Miss Hamster and I brushed it off in denial.

Nice Job Kristen!

Gotta love camera phones! *personal photo*

Luckily we aren't having a seating chart for the home reception so this doesn't cause a major issue but I have no name to put on my RSVP template I created. More on that later.

So be wise and number your RSVP cards so you can avoid trying to figure out who the mystery guest is! Anyone else encounter this problem?

Lessons Learned

I've learned a "valuable" lesson after putting together my invitations and I wanted to pass along to you so hopefully you don't make the same mistake.

I wasted stamps. Ugh.

When I went to the post office to get regular stamps for the RSVP envelopes I got a total of 120. I figured that should be enough for now and I could always buy more. I got home and put all 120 stamps on the envelopes to only find out after that we only sent out roughly 90 invitations. That leaves us with 30 extra stamped envelopes. Bummer.

Luckily I didn't do that for the outer envelopes and I'm left with two booklets of $1 and .05 stamps so I guess that makes up for it.

Valuable lesson learned!