Our engagement party was such a great night, and it left so much to look forward to. We invited close family and the wedding party, that alone was 60 people. It was hosted in our favorite backyard, my parents'. It would not have been as amazing with out the help of all of our friends and family that contributed.
food & drink
John and I each had a signature cocktail. La Dama, was a tequila cocktail, made with muddled cilantro and cucumber, and with lemon juice and a splash of lemonade. El Catrin was a bourbon favorite: bourbon, ginger ale and a lime wedge. Our friend Ian bartended and was great! Our other beverages were canned Tecate and champagne for toasting.
John's sister, Shannon made all of appetizers, inspired by John's favorite foods, in miniatures. We had cocktail servers serving the mini size chicken and waffles, shrimp and chorizo quesadillas, and bbq, bacon & cheddar sliders. It wouldn't be a party without cheese plates too.
decorations & theme
I went pretty simple with a black and white theme cocktail party. I kept it clean and simple with white lights and the "K" "J" marquee lights made with the help of this
Oh Happy Day diy. I also made tassles that were hung from big round balloons around the party, (no pictures snapped of them, sad). I also made some food picks for the sliders that had little flags on them. The bridesmaids helped to hang some black wheels, bought from Party City, from the patio.
guest book & games
We of course had a photo booth that all of our guests's enjoyed. The guest book was a mad libs sheet, that I will provide as a printable. We really enjoyed reading them the next day.
Our friend Chamberlain acted as MC for the night. He started off by recognizing the couples that had been married the longest, shortest and the couple to be married next (our friends Efren & Miranda, married this past June) We played two truths-one lie and guess who's answer. For "guess who's answer" Chamberlain asks the guests's to guess which one of us gave the response. For example, he would say, "Who do you think said they're favorite cereal was Lucky Charms?" And the crowd would guess. The games were so much fun everyone had a good time participating. (Lucky Charms was John's answer)
photosharing
As I said in the set up post, Mike took the photos for us. But we also wanted to have all of the cell phone pictures that friends took. We used
Tapshare, a photosharing app. Guests join the album and upload their photos; anyone that joins the album can save the photos (unlike Instagram where you can only screen cap or having to text pictures to everyone)! Our instagram hashtag #johnloveskarissa, that we will continue to use through the wedding, acts as a good way for us to see all of the pictures posted.
I still have to share the invitation that I mailed and the mad libs printable!
p.s. I loved my dress! I found it at Crossroads in West Hollywood and it was $15!
