Our Engagement Party

The party went exceedingly well. The food was done on time, my design elements really popped, and there was just enough food to feed everyone and send everyone home with a few leftovers. For a casual at home party, it felt like a serious life event.

I managed to take a very small quantity of photos (I had my hands quite full), and this post is supplemented with some my mom took on her Nikon coolpix as well. 

Click here for a full recap>>

The party took place at my soon to be mother in laws house, as is customary. We went over at noon with a bucket load of things we prepared the days before.

Strawberry Pineapple Cake. (made from scratch!)

One of those is a made from scratch cake, the very recipe for cake I own. I took a cake decorating class for situations like this. It took me 6 hours because the cake didn't rise enough the first time so I had to make a whole second one for the second layer. I also ran out of frosting after the crumb layer so I had to send an exhausted fiance to the store to buy 2 more pounds of powdered sugar. As much frustration and heartache I felt about that cake, I am really glad we went through that trial. The cake was beautiful, and it turned into one of the most memorable parts of the party for my guests. They also weren't complaining about how it tasted. That made me feel proud that it was made from scratch. You can't get that kind of quality off the assembly line.

I decorated the cake and champagne room with some "ivory" balloons (which I felt were more pale yellow than anything), some manzanita branches, and tea lights that we never lit because it was 95 degrees that day.

The "toast" room

Decorated with Manzanita Branches

 The food table was decorated with our ampersand, some manzanita branches (that we got from craigslist, by the way), and some very distinctive food. The dried apples looked great in a clear tub, and we used some lovely bowls and dishes that Alex's parents owned. This table was gorgeous.

I am wishing I took more photos of this table. 

The appetizer table during setup

 The ampersand looked great when we lit it up at night. We didn't recieve as many complements about it by the party because everyone had already complimented us like crazy when they saw the engagement photo sent with the party confirmations the week before. I am incredibly happy we had it becaues that design element really pumped up the formality of the event. The situation elevated from just another at home dinner party to a hosted family event. I found it to be elegant.

The appetizer table when the party started

We played a truncated version of "The Newlywed Game" at the party. Almost every couple of the party participated in 2 rounds. Even Alex and I played. We definitely could have had more questions because it ended up being a 5 way tie, the only losers being me and Alex. Alex said that it was probably good that we lost because it would have been suspicious having won seeing as we are the ones that organized the game. The game went over exceedingly well and people were paying attention and snickering. I think it sort of broke the ice because no one really knew eachother before the party started.

Party Goers paying attention to the party game. (this is one of my moms photos)

Party Gamers (this is one of my moms photos)

 Everyone looked great the party!

The patio had a great view, but since there were so many festivities going on inside, it sort of discouraged people from being out there. 

My dog was so well behaved all evening.

Some of my moms photos were quite blurry, but those are the only ones with me in them! I felt like wearing white as is customary, and I settled on a beautiful Silk Minnie Ross Shirt Tail dress. It was the perfect combination of casual and classy that I needed to host a house party this dynamically.

This is me with my gorgeous cousin, Melody. 

Here is my Aunt Gina, Uncle John, and Cousin Joe. 

Here I am with Alex and I's favorite professors from college respectively. 

Here is me and Cousin Joe! 

My red lipstick is really popping in this photo!

 Mama got the best group photo of the evening (even though this is only a subset of the attendees!)

I think my dress looks beautiful here!

I don't think my flesh colored balloons came off as well, but it at least kept people out of that room. I was treating that cake very gingerly and I had a tiny mini heart attack every time we transferred the cake. I am glad people stayed away from it. I am glad I had the presence of mind to put the first layer of cake on a cake board so it was even possible to transfer it from the decorating platform to the cake carrier to the terminal cake stand 35 miles away.
The cake room was the spot for our final toasts at the end of the night.

Alex Preparing to open the Champagne

My Mom and Aunt Gina after the toasts!

Alex and I took turns making speeches at this point. I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that we were having a party for them as much as we are having a party for us. The whole point of a marriage is about building a relationship that has a community, and them showing us that they care enough about us to attend a party about our relationship means that they are apart of our community. Its hard patching together a collection of loved ones in a city this big. All you have to do to drift apart forever is to be too busy to pick up the phone. It really meant something to us to have a reason to get together.

 

Everyone stood around unexpectedly as Alex cut the cake.  I was talking it up all evening.

  

Mama got a hilarious photo of me laughing at Alex while he cut the cake so insecurely. He knew messing up the cake was the single easiest way to ruin the whole party.

Alex and I decided to have an engagement party because we were really dragging our feet in planning a wedding. We also really didn't feel like anything changed by our engagement. Our friends and family kept feeling like they should congratulate us so having a party really helped me feel out how seriously I should take the ceremony and symbolism of engagement and marriage. It was such a success. I feel the love from all the corners of my life

My most special parts of the party

-  My mom flying out from Missouri to attend and help prepare
- Everyone saying they loved my cake
- My favorite professor from college eating copious amounts of my mom's Pancit.
- My aunts makeing vegetarian lumpia for me for the first time ever.
- Everyone being surprised that I dehydrated all the fruit myself
- My uncle john correctly guessing his wife's underwear color during the newlywed game (Aunt Gina was mortified!)
- Alex's Parents printing our engagement photo on cardstock for mounting.
- My boss telling me that he is going to take my speech and reuse it.

Our Engagement Photo

Thank you everyone that came. It means so much to us that all of you take our relationship as seriously as we take it. Also thank you family and friends that tried their best to come but couldn't make it. You are still our family, regardless of what your schedule looks like.