The Engagement Party (Thanksgiving Weekend Continued!)

Part of the reason we planned to have the engagement party on Thanksgiving weekend was due to the fact it would be easier for my parents to come on an extended weekend with the holiday. Most people come out of their food coma and black friday shopping excursions by Saturday, so that night seemed like a perfect time to throw a little party.

Truth be told, we originally tossed around the idea of reserving a room at a restaurant, but we decided having it at Kristen's parents would give us more room to roam, socialize, (watch college football), drink beer and be more free.

Danielle [as usual] was a big help with the invites.  She put together an e-vite and we were able to gather most of the attendance via email, which is always easy (there's no way I could have functioned as an adult in the 70's - 80's before the internet existed).  Kristen's Mom took care of the food with Buck's catering.  They've used them several other times and the food is solid as well as the service being reliable. They also make a mean finger sandwich.  I generally end up eating somewhere in the range of 28 - 35 of them in one setting.

My parents were staying with Kristen and I, so I went ahead and drove them over to the party where Kristen was already getting ready in her sister's old room.  When I arrived, my parents mingled with Kristen's family and I went upstairs to check on her.  She was diligently pressing letters onto t-shirts for her soon-to-be bridesmaids that she planned on surprising at the party.  I wanted to help with this, but it takes me an hour to hang up a painting straight, so I think ironing letters onto a t-shirt without messing them up would have been a bit much to ask.  Plus, there was a cooler full of beer downstairs so I digressed.

The party turned out to have a nice attendance even though due to the holiday, we missed a lot of people who were understandably out of town. On the other hand, Thanksgiving weekend also meant a lot of people from out of the area were in town. For example, we were happy some of Kristen's good friends from high school could made it. Tiffany was able to be there from L.A, and Nicole and her boyfriend Chad were able to come up from Ft. Lauderdale (when typing these things, I get anxiety about forgetting our out-of-towners, but I think I covered everyone.  If you're reading this and I forgot you, make it known and embarass me in the comment section--I deserve it).

In addition to my immediate family coming into town, my Mother's Brother (Eric) and his family came down from Jacksonville which was awesome.  I have 2 little cousins Hailey and Kenneth who we don't get to see too often.  Kenneth especially made a big splash whenever he decided to run out of the bathroom with his pants around his ankles about 10 minutes after they arrived.  It definitely provided a good laugh!

One of the first things I noticed once I got settled in was our awesome cake.  Right out of an episode of "Cake Boss," our good friend Katie and one of her family friends Karen helped tailor a cake just for us based off of our engagement story!  Karen is a freelance cake decorator and she's got some serious talent.  From what I could tell, Katie also makes a pretty formidable fondont artist.   She helped make all the little decorations and also helped us select the flavor.  She recommended a cookies n' cream filling which turned out to be amazing.  The cake was definitely the hit of the party!

As you all know, I proposed on the beach using a fishing pole, so all of this is nicely tied into the cake.  Thanks Katie & Karen!

It wasn't long into the party that all the guys found the 60 inch big screen in Kristen's Dad's man cave to watch the Florida/Florida State football game.  My brother is a huge gators fan as well as our friends Mike and Chad.  On the other side my best friend Shawn is a huge FL State fan so there was some interesting banter taking place downstairs after a few drinks.

Away from that, most everyone else congregated in the kitchen and outside patio area.  As the shindig continued, we started to reach the point of a couple of official moments.  The first of my recollection was the cake cutting.  We removed the top portion of the cake and proceeded to cut and hand out.



This was also the weekend that I decided to bring back the "all american" look, as Katie likes to call it.
 

I realize this is something the couples do at the actual wedding, but I just had to smear some cake in her face.  She of course got me back seconds later. 



After the cake cutting, we also moved into a few speeches.  The first was where Kristen thanked everyone for coming out. Then she surprised everyone by giving the girls a surprise goodie bag. The bag was her way of asking the girls to be in her bridal party, and contained the aforementioned t-shirt's she was crafting upstairs before the party.

"Will you be my...." (on the paper heart) "Bridesmaid" and "Maid of Honor" (on the shirts).

There's "Krissy's Crew" minus one (Kristen Broda couldn't join us for the weekend, so Kristen mailed her the surprise package).  Kristen did a great job with these shirts and the presentation.  My presentation was slightly different.  I basically asked my guys one by one over the phone and in person while out drinking (spaced out weeks apart) kind of like this......"so, uh....you wanna be in my wedding?"  Not quite the presentation, but I think t-shirts like this might have resulted in a revoked man card.

Once the shirts were handed out, I did a quick speech of my own just thanking everyone for coming and expressing my excitement about our families joining and just looking forward to the future.

This moment also spawned one of the more memorable for me when my father decided to say a few words.  He told a quick story about his discontent with me not returning home to Pensacola after graduating from UCF and how he didn't really understand why.  He proceeded to tell everyone that after meeting Kristen for the first time years ago, he knows exactly why I stayed down here all this time and it was to eventually meet her.  Obviously, if I would have left, there's a chance that I wouldn't be writing this blog right now.  For me, this validates why I chose to stick around and work for defunct minor league sports teams making $25k a year.  This story kind of choked up everyone in the room and was very moving. 

The party was a definite success and turned out to be everything I expected and a little more.  If you're reading this, thank you to everyone that attended and was kind enough to bring gifts and celebrate with us!  And of course a special thanks to Kristen's Mom and Dad for graciously hosting the party. Here's a few more pictures from the evening...



My Parents with Kristen and I

Bonding Dads!

Left to Right:  Laura, Katie, Kristen (and her fancy Betsy Johnson dress), Nicole and Tiffany

 - Smitty