Happy #WeddingWednesday, y’all! Today I wanted to share a little bit about our engagement party from last weekend, which was just the most magical night. I also love getting the chance to share personal moments and some (refreshingly low quality) iPhone snapshots with you guys for a more real look at my life! If you came for a link to my $42 dress, scroll to the bottom of the post ♥
We decided about a month before that it might be nice to have the party when our best friends would be home from Denver for the weekend, so we literally planned it around that date (I think we like them too much). We invited mostly just friends since we had already celebrated with our families the day Will proposed, which is all chronicled here ICYMI! We also didn’t want to spread the word to too many out-of-towners because our friends are way too amazing and we knew some would inevitably decide to travel to us as a surprise. Which still actually happened, but more on that later!
We thought about having the party at a bar or restaurant in DC, but eventually settled on the rooftop of our apartment building that overlooks the city and a couple monuments. After we set up the date and location, my best friends really took the party and ran with it, decorating the space with banners (including one with our wedding hashtag!), LOVE and champagne balloons, a beautiful cake & cake topper, photos of us, and even handmade Mr. & Mrs. PUMPKINS. They seriously went above and beyond, and I was in awe!
When we showed up on the roof, one of Will’s best friends from high school who now lives in New York had taken the train in to surprise him. He was so excited – it was adorable. Then later, I’m taking advantage of the cheese board (duh) and I see my sister and brother in law walk in the door! I had been telling them all week that they absolutely did not need to come all the way up here because she’s very pregnant, they have a four year old son, and they live over two hours away. True to form, I immediately burst into tears when they walked in. Did I mention that our people are too good to us?? These surprise guests truly made our night and it wouldn’t have been the same without them there.
When it started to get chilly, we all huddled around the rooftop fire pit with blankets and bottles of cider from our wedding venue. It’s so cheesy, but looking around at some of our favorite humans coming from near and far to celebrate us, I felt incredibly lucky. I’m currently adding some Instagram stories of this moment and some other highlights from the night – follow along here!
At the end of the night, we all walked over to our favorite neighborhood bar, where we ordered a bunch of pizza from my go-to (obviously our bar allows food delivery, haha). The night was so very *us*, and I could not have been happier. Thank you so much to our wonderful people for helping us organize, setting up and decorating to perfection, bringing in more sips & snacks than we knew what to do with, traveling from afar to surprise us, and simply, just showing up to celebrate this exciting time with us!
To shop my affordable engagement party look, click the links below! For my unintentionally bridal maxi – no seriously, I was looking for merlot but ended up with white! #brideprobz – I ordered my normal 4 as well as a 6 since ASOS can run a little small. The 4 was rather ~bodycon~ for my liking (and you know ya girl wanted to take advantage of the goat cheese and champagne), so I opted for the 6 which was flowy and perfect. Since it was a tad dressy for our local dive bar, I threw on a leather jacket which honestly brought it to a level I didn’t know it needed. Such a sucker for floral and leather. Needless to say, I would highly recommend this $42 gem to any brides for their pre-wedding festivities!
Thanks for reading and celebrating with us from afar!
