Drumroll please. Readers’ 3rd favorite post of my blogs first year is mine. Woo Hoo. Read about romantic Romance, AR and comment on this post for a chance to win your choice of my White books, White Roses, White Doves, or White Pearls,which are all set in Romance, AR. Deadline: Sept 24th, 11:59 pm central time.
Romance, Arkansas (population 1700) and is known for the post office re-mailing program and weddings. Romantics send stamped, addressed Valentine’s cards and wedding invitations in manila envelopes which are re-mailed from Romance, AR with a hand-stamped postmark.
I wove this setting and local flavor into each book in my series and visited the area on several research trips.
Fun facts:
- Each year, a unique postmark is designed for use from Feb. 1-15.
- Some brides request an invitation postmarked and mailed to her on her wedding day for a keepsake. The Post Office is happy to comply unless the date falls on a Federal holiday.
- People from as far away as Japan, China, Canada, Australia, Germany and Great Britain have sent wedding invitations, valentines and other mail to Romance for the special postmark.
- The 25-cent Love postage stamp was issued on January 18, 1990, in Romance, Arkansas. The stamp features two blue lovebirds over a deep pink heart and a decorative green garland. Designed by Jayne Hertko, this issue was the ninth edition in the popular Love Series.
According to Postmaster Angie Davis, they have three or four weddings a year on Valentine’s Day at the post office. Couples exchange vows in the lobby and outside the office. Someone carved a heart in the parking lot declaring it the Heart of Romance.
Angie gave me directions to The Romance Waterfalls. James (Buck) Weatherly has given me two tours of his privately owned property, which he and his wife rent to the public for weddings and events. Wisteria drapes over an archway leading to the landscaped garden with numerous flowers and bushes. A wooden walkway leads down to the waterfalls, surrounded by jutting rock/steps.
You can hear the waterfall long before you get there. Mr. Weatherly built two gazebos and balconies overlooking the waterfalls and he opens his home for receptions and family reunions. When real flowers are out of season, silk blossoms add beauty to heart-shaped flowerbeds and archways, along with numerous planters.
I couldn’t help incorporating the falls into all three of my books, including a proposal and a wedding at the site. Mr. and Mrs. Weatherly agreed to let me have my book launch party there.
So, if you’re ever looking for a beautiful outdoor place for a wedding in a town with the perfect name for romance, check out The Romance Waterfalls. And for the more traditional bride and groom there are three churches in Romance.
Come back Sept 17th for contemporary romance author, Dora Hiers.
Very interesting!! Went to AR years ago with church youth group (as chaperone); wish we had seen Romance! Would love to win White Pearls; I read and loved the other Whites…and church library ladies are enjoying them.
The Romance Waterfalls is one of those places, you have to know where you’re going, in order to find. One of our missionaries and his wife visited a few months ago. They set off to find it and didn’t. They decided I made it up, but I didn’t. It’s really there.
Jackie Smith won the drawing for her choice of my 3 white books. I appreciate everyone who stopped by.