Will you be my bridesmaid?

Genna, the Diva. 

Reason 1,347 why Genna is the best.

Genna is just holding it!  We are not promoting underage drinking!

The first couple of months of being engaged were filled with questions, "When's the date?", "What are you thinking for colors?", "What's the theme?", "How did he propose?".   I didn't have the answers to all of their questions, truthfully it's all overwhelming.  

To answer one of the most pressed questions, the date, we started brainstorming.  I knew I wanted a fall wedding and fall 2013 seemed so soon.  So we settled on fall 2014.

For the first two months I binged on wedding planning, mostly location hunting, contacting venues for prices and such.   We went to one venue, fell in love with it, and that was it.  We had our venue.  (more on it later.)  

Of course, I had a good idea of what friends I wanted to be bridesmaids.  It seems the trend lately is to have little or no bridesmaids.  But there were some people I wanted to have with me through and through (planning, walking down the isle).  I didn't want to just ask them casually, so this is how I asked them.

We had the engagement party because our engagement was going to be so long and everyone wanted to celebrate.  It so happened that the museum that is our venue was hosting their annual Victorian Fashion Show and Tea.  So I invited the girls and they didn't see my question coming.  The only person that knew I was going to ask them was my mom (John of course knew).

We watched the fashion show, which was so much fun!  There were outfits from the 17th century up to the early 20th century.  Then I found a spot on the porch of the Hale House and presented them with their gifts.  There were little frames inside that said "Will you be my Bridesmaid?", thanks to my mom for capturing the moment of them opening them and their reactions.  Too bad Teresa, our (mine and Christina's bestie) couldn't be there, but she is also a bridesmaid!

It was so much fun to see their surprise.

This weekend I try on dresses for the first time! Eeek!

Speaking of dresses, I found this Marc Jacobs dress while working at Crossroads.  It seemed perfect with the little velvet hearts on them.

Mad Libs Printable

I promised a printable and here it is!!! It can be used for an engagement or wedding.  I'm putting them in a scrap book next to their photo strip from the photo booth. It was so muh fun reading them the next morning with John. 

Speaking of scrapbook I need to finish it.... 

download here

J & K Engagement Party Photos

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.  

We had a dessert bar filled with Mexican candy and Mexican chocolate cake that Christina made.  

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! 

J & K Engagement Party Set-Up

On Saturday, December 15, 2012, John and I got engaged.   This month we will celebrate our 9 year anniversary together and next year, we will celebrate our 10 year anniversary with our friends and family on our wedding day. 

 I will be cataloging our adventure to the wedding date here on DIT&O with Christina because she is my Maid of Honor! 

Because we opted for a long engagement, and we wanted to celebrate, my parent's hosted an engagement party this past April.  It was a team effort with help from my parent's, John's parent's, my amazing, future sisters-in-law, their husbands, and the bridesmaids.  

In this post I share some photos of the set up, captured by Mike, my future brother-in-law who is married to John's sister Arlana.  

There is so much more to share and I'm looking forward to it.  

–Karissa 

A view of the guest book, with Mad Lib sheets

The marquee letters I made

My parents' backyard 

Christina made that Mexican chocolate cake with a "KJ" made with hot tamales. 

Shannon working on the appetizers. 

A candid of my mom and I. 

The Brothers-in-law, Mike and Robert 

I kept asking John to shower & get ready, I got this look