Last June, my mom threw us an engagement party back home in Ohio. I took basically every party idea ever posted on Pinterest and used it to create our party. So many friends and family members pitched in to help bring my vision to life. I couldn’t have done it without all of them.
the details
Jenn made the cutest banner that hung on the entry wall. She used burlap squares and acrylic paint to create the letters. Then she took a large needle to sew the letters on a long piece of twine.
The largest wall in the venue was lined with windows. I wanted to add a little snazz to break up all the wood in the room. What better way to spice up a space than balloons? I blew up balloons in three different colors then created a valance. I took fishing line and a needle to sew together a valance. I used the tied end piece of the balloons to sew them together.
Since it was a summer party, I went with a fun, bright color palette. Each table had a handmade runner made by my Aunt Cookie. We alternated colors of the runners and napkins. As a centerpiece, we used mason jars with our photos back to back tied up with a pretty little bow. We painted our initials and added them to each table as well.
For our menus, I found $1.00 chalkboards at Joann’s. We painted the frames to match our palette. Once dried, we used sandpaper to give them a distressed look.
I also had paper napkins made in our three colors with different quotes written on them saying:
She said yes!
And they lived happily ever after
He put a ring on it!
For cups, we used mason jars. We painted hearts on with chalkboard spray paint.
The chalkboard paint wasn’t as user friendly as we had hoped. I originally planned to have chalk so everyone could write their own name on their mason jars but the paint wouldn’t allow chalk. Instead, we chose to use white paint pens and write our own initials on the jars.
Instead of having a cake at the party, my mom created a cupcake tower. The top layer was Matt’s favorite, a coconut cake.
My Aunt Cookie made the tutu skirt for the cupcake stand as well as for the cake table and candy bar table. These skirts were some of my favorite party details.
I surprised Matt with custom cookies for our dessert table. They turned out perfect.
My mom made the cutest cupcake bouquets. She used flower pots and put a styrofoam ball inside. Using toothpicks, she stuck the cupcakes into the styrofoam. She inserted pieces of tulle fabric in between the cupcakes, but tissue paper would look cute as well.
Now comes my favorite part.. The candy bar. The picture was so easy. We used sticker letters and cut out the shape of a mustache. We framed the mustache then glued it to hot pink scrapbook paper.
The candy bouquets are Dollar Store vases filled with gumballs with a styrofoam ball on top. We shaved the bottom of the styrofoam balls off to have them sit evenly on the top of the vase. I used Dumdums as my “flowers” and stuck them directly into the styrofoam ball.
This isn’t a great photo, but you can see here that we used all shapes and sizes of apothecary jars for our candy table. We filled the jars with different candies in our colors. To finish the look, we tied matching bows on each jar.
We had chocolates melted into shapes in our colors for party favors. We wrapped them individually and secured them with matching bows.
The pompoms are made from tissue paper and floral wire. When all else fails, add a pompom!
I handmade the candy bags. I bought plain white bags at Walmart then used pink ink and stamped the Eiffel Tower on them.
My inspiration came from party favor bags I saw on Etsy.
Now onto the pompoms.. These were SO much work. We had a pompom alternating in color attached to the back of every chair in the room. We also had them hanging from the ceiling with fishing line over the buffet and drink area.
Here’s a behind the scenes photo of the day before the party where you can see the pompoms hanging from the ceiling. There were a ton of pompoms hanging from the ceiling when we were finished decorating.
I had requested my aunt to cut the watermelon slices like slices of pie and put them on a popsicle stick. I loved the idea of serving watermelon like popsicles. The initials were such an awesome touch!
Another table skirt created by my Aunt Cookie. She should sell these on Etsy, they’re so cute.
Finally, behind the buffet table was these glass windows that were so boring. I strung up some fishing line and hung personal photos of us with clothespins and made it look like a clothesline of photos hanging every which way. Turned out so cute.
For a party favor, we made paper holders for sparklers that read, “Sparks flew when we met!” The bucket holding the sparklers was also painted with chalkboard paint and Sparklers written on it. We used Mason jars to hold our matches and made a sign with scrapbook paper and sticker letters to “find your perfect match”.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look into our engagement party decorations and hopefully found a little “pinspiration” from them! 🙂
Well! First I want to say that I believe in your blog only I am writing comments))))) Second, I just have no words, I saw these beautiful pictures. Your idea for the design of this party was just magic))) It looks amazing))) Seriously. Reading this post, I realized that you are very creative went to all the things that you like to see at this party. And I came up with an interesting and at the same time very adventurous idea. What do you say if I asked you to help organize my anniversary birthday in July?
P.S. I think it would be crazy on the one hand and at the same time very exciting))))))