Engagement Party Planning

The time has come my Knotties to celebrate the engagement of my best friend Anna, and her fiancé Michael. The guests have been invited via SMS. Well, most of the guests. I was only verbally invited; clearly I’m not worth the 25c! I’ve received a few other engagement party invitation via SMS so I’m beginning to question, are the days of paper invites gone? 
  

Well, no I don’t think so; I think for the most part, the type of invitation you send out defines the formality and tone of your engagement party. However there are exceptions to my theory, one of the engagement parties I attended which sent out invites via SMS was quite formal, they had speeches, group photos, cutting of a mini cake… however it was in a backyard. Anna and Michael wanted something casual and small so the engagement party was held at Opera Bar in Sydney. After the festivities our lovely partners took us to dinner so we could continue celebrating!

So what did I get the lovely couple? I wanted to give them something different rather than just money, appliances or Vera Wang toasting glasses (which are lovely, by the way). Before I had joined Anna and Michael in New York (pre-engagement), as a going away dinner my partner Dean took me to the Summit Tapas Lounge. We had such a romantic night there, the food was great and the view was amazing. I thought it would great if Anna and Michael could experience that too, so Dean and I got them a voucher to the Tapas Lounge. 
 
There’s actually a funny little story about when I picked up the voucher. The girl at reception misheard me and wrote “To: Anna and Dean, Happy Engagement! Love Anda and Michael.” I couldn’t help but laugh that she’d reversed our names and now my partner Dean and I were engaged! Obviously I had to names switched back into the correct order.

Anyway, one lovely Sunday, when the sun was shining and the winds were very fierce, we all gathered at Opera Bar to join in celebrating the newly engaged couple. First things first, what did we wear? Being sisters from another mister, Anna and I managed to each own a pair of shoes with identical black diamante studded heels, mine purchased in Japan and hers in Los Angeles. It was only fitting that we wear those on the day to signify she was the bride and I was the maid of honor. No one noticed really, except when we simultaneously would scream “how cute are our matching heels?! LOOK!” I appointed Dean to take a few photos of just our heels.

On the day the wine was plentiful, and so were the laughs. No speeches were made from what I can remember, although considering I had a bottle of wine to myself I wouldn’t be surprised if I made an impromptu one through many tears! Actually, my memory is coming back as I type and there was an impromptu moment – a song sung by the lovely bride over dinner after the drinks at Opera Bar. LUCKY we can’t upload videos to this blog… well we can, but I might be booted off the bridal party if I did! Ha.
 
We all had a lovely day, even though the wind was incredibly strong and almost ruined all our photos. 
 
Come on Knotties, share your engagement stories! Did you have a formal party or something more low key? Have you thrown out the idea of paper invitations? Did you go a little bit more techy and invite your guest via Facebook?”

Thanks!
Anda