Engagement Party!

Last night, my dear friends, Jess and Ken threw Carl and me an engagement party!

I had such a blast (maybe a little too much fun) and woke up so grateful to have such great friends in Austin (and with a headache too).

Jess was my first friend in Austin and we've seen each other through a lot over the past 8 years. She's such a good friend I wouldn't know where to start to describe how much her friendship means to me. Last night was one example of how much energy and effort she puts into those she loves.

To start, we pulled up to their house and saw the illuminating heart! Not only was it lovely (and hopefully something we'll use at the wedding) but it was helpful in locating their house in the dark (as many others noted throughout the night - and I'm a big fan of practical gifts). There were fun activities, which included a box to leave words of wisdom or advice in for Carl and me and there was a Scrabble type board, where you had to come up with words that used letters from mine and Carl's first names (things like 'rascal', 'slime' and 'massacre' were big hits).

Additionally, one of their friends, made little paper hearts that were then hung from the ceiling via rope and paperclips and each had an individual fortune inside them. There were so many special touches and some of our favorite foods (chocolate chip cookies, cheese) and a specialty cocktail punch.

About 30 of our closest friends came and I think it was a huge success! It was a great opportunity for our friends to intermingle and to get to spend more time with each others groups of friends.

While in many ways I feel like we've been engaged for a long time already (it hasn't even been 2 months), I'm so glad we had an official way to celebrate and so lucky to have Jess and Ken in our lives. I know it's one of many celebrations to occur this year but the next ones have a lot to live up to.....