Our Engagement Party

Today marks 11 months of marriage for Dave and I, and looking back at our first year I can't believe how fast it went. Now with only 4 weeks until our big 1 year anniversary (and 5 years together!) I thought I'd be fun to recap our engagement, ceremony, and reception each week until our anniversary. So without further ado, we'll start with our engagement party!

ENGAGEMENT PARTY

August 4, 2012

Dress

Our engagement party was held about 4 months after we got engaged, and my parents were gracious enough to host the party at their house in Colorado! Over the years they have turned the backyard into a gorgeous setting complete with a Koi pond and small waterfall! The weather in August in Colorado is awesome with really warm evenings, so it was perfect for hosting the party in the backyard.

THE INVITATIONS

Invites: Wedding Paper Divas "Wine Bar"

For anyone that knows us, they know how much we love wine, so naturally, our engagement party needed to be wine themed! I was really excited when I found these invitations on Wedding Paper Divas and they matched the theme perfectly. 

WELCOME BAGS

We had quite a few friends and family fly in to town for the party, so my mom put together some welcome bags.  Inside we included some water bottles, sunscreen, and some special Colorado items like mints, chocolate, postcards, etc. They turned out really cute! The morning everyone arrived, I drove around and dropped off the bags at all of the hotels so they would be there when guests checked in.  These were a fun way to help kick off the weekend.

The Welcome Bags!

THE FOOD

Main food table

My mom and I decided to put the menu and all of the food together ourselves for the party -- from scratch. I am never doing that again haha. We were baking/prepping for 3 days! Luckily we had lots of help with aunts, girlfriends, etc to make everything come together but whew! That was a lot of hard work. We wanted to keep people mingling throughout the party, so we opted for a "small bites" type menu that would be easy to eat while standing. We also hired one of our family friends to manage the food/drinks during the party so that we could actually sit back and relax.

MENU

Assorted Cheese & Crackers Platter

Swedish Meatballs

Caprese Bites

Blue Cheese Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Dates

Parmesan & Sausage Stuffed Mushroom Caps

Lamb Sliders on a Brioche Bun

Pear & Walnut Spinach Salad

Champagne Cupcakes

Dark Chocolate Chili & Whiskey Brownies

Assorted Fruit Salad

Lamb Sliders!

THE WINE

The Wine Table

Since this was a wine themed party, it was only fitting to have a full table dedicated to it! Dave and I decided that we should serve wine that had a story behind it that fit with our lives and we somehow managed to narrow it down to 3 main wines.  Check back later this week for the stories that match with the wine! :)

Four Vines Naked Chardonnay

Loxton Zinfandel

Buena Vista Carneros Pinot Noir

THE DECORATIONS

Photo wall

For all of the decorations, I decided to go with the DIY route. Armed with my Pinterest inspiration board and Etsy favorites, I came up with quite a list of decorations to make! Living so close to the vineyards of Northern California made it quite easy to get TONS of corks for free. TSA probably thought I was nuts though with all of these decorations and extra corks in my carry on suitcase! 

My favorite piece!

THE GUESTBOOK

Instead of doing a traditional guest book for the party, we thought it would be fun (and fitting) to have everyone decorate a coaster! I ordered a bulk set of blank coasters through Etsy for people to decorate. We also had an empty wooden wine box for people to put the completed ones in. Armed with colorful sharpies and a custom push me-pull you stamp, our guests created some awesome masterpieces.  Can you tell which ones were designed by adults and which were by kids? :)

Some of the awesome coasters!

THANK YOU GIFTS

Custom Wine Glasses

I ordered custom wine glasses from The Tipsy Grape to commemorate the occasion and everyone got to take one home with them! The design was etched in so they hold up to the dishwasher. These are still our favorite wine glasses to use. :)

We had such a fun time celebrating with our friends and family that night and it was exciting to see all of the tiny touches come together for such a wonderful party! Thanks again to everyone who came and to my parents for hosting. And to one of my best friends, Jocelyn, for playing photographer and capturing all of the details.