An Engagement!

Two weeks ago our oldest Lindsey got engaged to her boyfriend Morgan.

He took her to a little winery that has become “their place” and proposed to her in the vineyards. The super sweet owner of the winery helped him with a lot of the details, and then Morgan had parents, grandparents, siblings, and a few other special people come out a bit later to celebrate with them.

The happy couple were introduced by this sweet girl, Lindsey’s best friend from high school, who also happened to be Morgan’s law school classmate. Despite the fact that Lindsey and Morgan are the same age, went to the same college, and ran in some of the same circles, their paths never crossed. Maggie to the rescue!

Lindsey’s sister-in-law-to-be gave her this book, which is perfect for our girl.

We hosted an engagement party back at our house later that afternoon and had the most perfect springtime day to celebrate.

It was one of the very few days of the year – not too hot, not too cold, too early in the season for uninvited mosquitos – where we could throw open the dining room doors that lead to the patio and just let people wander in and out.

I love this photo of Morgan with his law school group. I’m imagining him filling them in on how the engagement went down.

Ditto for Lindsey and her sorority sisters.

I took advantage of the girls all gathered together to snap this photo, which I love.

But I think I love this photo that my sister-in-law took of me taking their picture more. How cute are they?

Morgan’s sister (Lindsey’s sister-in-law-to-be) showed up to the party with another gift: this inflatable engagement ring. That girl has a knack for fun gifts!

Obviously forgetting that I’m a blogger, I took no pictures of the party details. I can tell you that I wanted some little nods to a winery theme, so here’s what we did:

• We bought all the bottles of wine for the party from the winery where the proposal took place.
• I asked the winery if they had any extra corks with their name on them (boy did they!) and they gave me a bunch that I sprinkled on the various tables.
• I made sure one of the items on the buffet was a big wooden board with grapes and cheese.
• I ordered these personalized napkins with Lindsey and Morgan’s initials and a little wine glass on them.

• I also ordered glittered cupcake toppers in both diamond ring and wine glass shapes and put them on white cupcakes that I ordered.

I can also tell you that parties take on a life of their own. We thought this might be a low-key affair since it was the day before Easter, but everyone was able to make it and a bunch of people stayed late into the evening. I even ran out and got pizzas later that night as the party showed no signs of letting up and most the food from earlier in the day was gone.

I told Tom later that you could throw that party 100 times – same date, same people, same event – and it would only turn out that way once. Do you know what I mean? Maybe the fact that there was a full moon had something to do with it?

None of those are complaints, though…just the opposite! It was a once-in-a-lifetime day and evening that we’ll remember with joy for a long, long time.