engagement party

Last night we had our engagement party and I must say that it was LOVELY. The day we announced our engagement David's family through us a lovely impromptu party, complete with champagne, and I loved it but that was just family and we hadn't had a chance to celebrate with our friends. I had put off the party until my brother's visit, and a few hours before everyone arrived David asked him to be one of his groomsmen and I thought it was a very touching guy moment, because they were both gruff and awkward. Melted my heart a little.

Anyway, the party was great--small and informal, just what I wanted, but I was extra touched that everyone dressed up in lovely party frocks (well, not the guys, but they all looked respectable). We'd spent the day cleaning and baking and I was pleased with how well our suite looked with all the spring cleaning done, and with how well all the desserts we made turned out (lemon squares, brownies, and Mennonite obtskuchen).

It was just sitting around and telling stories and eating food and being happy and laughing--exactly what I wanted. Kind of a miniature version of what I hope our wedding is! I was particularly touched that one of my friends proposed a toast to us when we opened a bottle of wine. I may have gotten a little teary eyed. Anyway, it was great. And Madeleine remembered to snap a few pics for me which is more than I remembered to do for myself. With everyone sitting in a circle and chatting there wasn't really anything that screamed PHOTO, but I'm very glad she snapped some because I'll want something for the scrapbook.

So that is that and I am so happy. It was exactly what I wanted and I just had this wonderful happy glow all night from having a good time with friends celebrating our engagement. My brother snapped some photos of us before everyone came:

engagement things

I’m finally getting around to doing the engagement things that one is supposed to do—namely photos and a party. So I wandered over to Sears and priced our engagement photos. As I think I’ve said before, I wanted to go the traditional, portrait style look for those photos. I’m excited to see what they do, and hopefully they come up with something beautiful. If not I just won’t order anything...but I do like a lot of the available backgrounds and hope we can get something elegant and timeless. I also want to get a cd of our photo prints, so I’m hoping they don’t charge too much for that.

I’m really excited about getting the pictures done. I’m going to wear one of my gowns, and the only one I have in Toronto—it’s a floor length black gown with an empire waist, and it falls in pleats from the waist to the ground. For Christmas I got a silver shawl, so I’m going to tie that into a bolero style covering, and wear the silver jewellery that I also got at Christmas. David’s going to wear his charcoal suit with the burgundy shirt and burgundy & silver tie, so we’ll match with black and silver. And to further pick up his shirt colours I’ll probably wear my red-gem hair clips. I’m just waiting for my GST cheque to come in so that I have the money to pay for our pics!

Also, now that school is out and things are somewhat settled I can finally get around to throwing our engagement party! It’ll be almost 7 months by the time we have it, although I always find the time from January-September moves incredibly fast for me. One reason that I’ve waited to have it is because I want my brother to be here when we do, so we’re going to throw it during his visit.

I’m just doing something simple. I’ve only been to one other engagement party before—it was a lot of fun, and it was at a pub so that people could just come and go and order food or drinks as they liked. We talked about doing that, but as our friends had already done that a little while ago and as we’d done something similar for my birthday we thought we’d hold it at home. So we’re just going to have a relaxed evening of friends, dessert, coffee & tea. I think I’ll probably make Mennonite plum cake (obtskuchen. So good!), lemon squares, and brownies. I’m not too worried about leftovers as between John & David they will probably go super quickly.

The downside to this plan is that now I have to really clean the house in two weeks. I would’ve needed to clean anyway because we’re having people over before then, and John is coming to visit, but it is one thing to let a few close friends/family see the cluttered disaster area that is your office space and another thing to have up to 13 people in your place... alas. On that note I should go sweep the floors. Damn.