Our Engagement Party in Virginia

This past  weekend was our Engagement Party in Virginia. My parents threw the party for us in honor of our recent engagement and upcoming wedding. It was a great reason to have our family and friends get together for an night of fun!

Everyone was recruited to help out in some way or another. I volunteered to be in charge of the flowers. Check out one of my arrangements, look familiar?

My parents friend and neighbor was in charge of the cupcakes which turned out incredible. Rhonda is a master baker. The cupcake selection included red velvet, raspberry mousse and carrot cake. YUM!

We tried to keep the decor focused on simple details.

Here is the dessert table all pretty and ready to go. Check out my first engagement present on the table too! It made the voyage down to VA just for the party. Thanks Pat & Bill!

At the party we had a beer, wine and specialty drink bar. The specialty drink I dreamed up was called the “Marry Me Mojito” – pretty much a regular mojito, but I liked the new name. I tried to think of a drink that guys and gals would enjoy. I think they were a hit!

This is the table where we set up the appetizers. My mom picked up these cute bride and groom bottle covers. They make me laugh a little.

Some more floral creations by Leslie. I am available for hire!

 

Then it was time to open up a present from my parents before the party got started!

Champagne flutes!! Woohoo!!

I wanted to put them to use right away! Haha.

Jackson had a fun time watching us open presents.

After opening our gifts we set up an area to the side for a champagne toast. The toasting glasses all had raspberries in the bottom. Yum!

The bronze goblets on the right side of the champagne are my parents toasting glasses from their wedding 30+ years ago. The ones on the right are the brand spankin’ new ones my parents got for us!

Then it was time for a little photo shoot action before the guests started to arrive.

Here is my brother, uncle (holding Jackson), mom, fiancé, me and my dad. Hi family!

 

My parents and their favorite (only) daughter/bride-to-be!

    

Then the future in-laws came by before the party started for pictures too!

Group shot

Then all we had to do was wait for our guests to arrive. While we waited I gave the future in-laws a tour of our house and we put the finishing touches on the decorations.

My mom got us this matte frame for everyone to sign, which was very nice. I can’t wait to put one of our engagement pictures in the middle.   

The dining room all set up for appetizers.

 

And then the guests started flowing in! It was very hard to talk to everyone because the second I started talking with one person, another person would arrive and I would go over to greet them. I feel like I got to talk to mostly everyone a little bit which is important, but I wish I had more time to spend with everyone. I know so many people traveled to come to our party, which I greatly appreciate. I can’t even imagine how hard its going to be to talk to everyone at the wedding!

Any tips on this subject are well appreciated!

After a while of talking to everyone I remembered that I needed to take some pictures! Here are some party shots.

 

I snapped a picture of the future in-laws and future sister in-law, Kate finishing their dinner. I know my family and friends were so excited to meet them! 

Villanova girls Ashley and Dana. Ash got married the day before I got engaged!

Amid all the craziness I managed to spend some time with fiancé. It was a party to celebrates us, so I wanted to make sure we were able to see each other a bit! 

 

I know fiancé had an awesome time seeing all his friends that came down.

   Villanova boys.  

Haddonfield boys. 

Brides-to-be

Michelle snapped a pic of me looking a little partied out, but then it was time for the champagne toast so I perked right up!

My dad gave an awesome speech welcoming everyone here to the party and thanking those who had traveled.   

He spoke some kind words about me as his favorite (only) daughter and he recognized some influential people there too.

It was so nice of him to say a few words about me and about fiancé and I. It made me feel very special and I appreciated it very much.

PS – Look at how happy my mom looks! That makes me so happy too!

PPS- Isn’t my mom’s dress rocking? I heart it!

Then my dad welcomed fiancé into the family, and we all raised our glasses and everyone toasted the happy couple

Cheers to love, laughter and happy ever after!  

Thanks dad!

Cheers to our future together!    

  

Then it was time for some more partyin’ and some more picture takin’! Here are some group shots of everyone who went to Villanova that was there.

Go Wildcats!

PVI girls.

 

PVI girls and their men recreating a prom picture moment on the stairs. Haha.

  

Michelle and I doing our signature high school pose.

My mom and brother enjoying themselves.

Then when some people started to head out, a group of us went downstairs in the basement to party it up, beer pong style! Does it get any classier to play pong at my engagement party in my pretty white dress? I think not!

I think everyone had a good time.

 

Fiancé and I then busted out our bride and groom koozies!

If this isn’t love then I don’t know what is!

 

Jackson made another appearance downstairs. He is pretty much the life of the party.

And then the boys busted out Mario Kart! Check out the focus on all of their eyes! Intense!

When all was said and done we had a massive amount of gifts to open, but we saved that for the next day.

Here is a little up-close look of the amazing champagne flutes we got from my parents. I love them!

 

And I wanted to give a little shout out to Michelle (with 2 L’s) who made me these awesome planning boards. She made an inspiration board, a to-do board an another future wedding collage board (not pictured). She personalized them all and they are just so awesome. She’s so sweet I had to give her a shout out! Seriously, how creative is that? Love you girl!

 

All in all it was an amazing party with my family and friends. I hope everyone had a great time and I want to thank everyone who helped out. Apparently I learned that night that many of my parents friends are avid blog readers, so thanks for that!

I also wanted to give a special thank you out to my parents who planned and organized the whole thing. We really appreciated you throwing the party for us. It was awesome.

I love you mom and dad. XO.

So there you have it. That is the big recap from our engagement party this past weekend. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed living it and writing about it! Regular blogging will resume tomorrow.

May 21, 2011 is coming! Don’t forget to Save the Date!

My friend Kate also did a recap of the party on her blog. You can check that out here. Another perspective of a party is always fun!