The Road To Roberts: Engagement Party

The Engagement Party

Exodus 23:14 - "Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me."
This is a verse that has stuck with me for a couple weeks now because it proves that He created the seven festivals for the people to observe each year to celebrate. He loves celebrations! "It was His idea from the very beginning, and when we come together to celebrate what God is doing in our lives, it brings him joy"- Leah DiPascal, Proverbs 31 Ministries

02.13.16

This weekend we were blessed to have been thrown an engagement party by some of my wonderful work family. About a month ago I was asked if it would be something that Zack or I would want to do, and my first reaction was that I did not think it was necessary and that Zack would not want to have something "all about him". After some talking we both agreed to accept the very nice offer! At the beginning of January Rosalyn, who spear headed the whole thing, asked for a list of our friends and family that we would like to celebrate our engagement with; of course I wanted it to be EVERYONE but knew that was not possible and the hard part of "who was put on the list" would start. In the end Zack and I decided that we wanted to invite the people who would not be attending the actual wedding, so that we got to celebrate with all of the people that we love.

The start of the list included family and friends that we have grown up with, and from there we started adding friends that we have acquired over the years. After we decided "who", we knew that there would no way that everyone could come but we still wanted them to know that we loved them and wanted them to be a part of the celebration. This is one of the things that I would also CAUTION all future brides on because, I am not certain that I handled this correctly... Make sure that your hostesses and you have the same number of invitees in mind**** so that there are no surprises for your hostesses or down the line with the location (more to come on the latter in a bit).

I have been blessed with some amazing work friends, actually family, and would like to brag on them for just a minute. All three of these gals are older than me and married but have always been some of the biggest supporters of our engagement and new life together at what some consider a young age. Each offer words of advise about the wedding, the honeymoon, the first year of marriage, the good and the bad- they never lie and are always available for a freak out/ vent session/ or sappy talk! I love these girls and am so very grateful for them in my life!

Our Hostesses
Mika, Rosalyn, and Katie

After the invites went out the RSVPs really started to surprise me! We had invited people from states away and college friends that no longer lived in the same city that said that they were so excited to come, soooo going back to the **** earlier of making sure that you and your hostesses are all on the same page. The reason for this part of the story is because I seriously had no idea that there would be so many "yes's". The party was set for February 13th, 3 months after Zack and I got engaged, at Punch Bowl Social for 25 people.

Last Sunday the final count was 40, so we all had to quickly relocate. I am so very grateful for my hostesses that made sure that I did not do something silly like cancel the whole thing- don't worry it only crossed my mind a few times ;) These girls swooped into action and made everything so much better than I ever expected! Luckily we were able to find a restaurant that would let us make a reservation for a very large group, the Saturday of Valentines Day weekend. Thank you so much to The Brick House Tavern in Austin for allowing us to take over with our group!

The night was perfect! Great friends, great food, great drinks, and so much love! Zack and I both know now how hard it is going to be to talk to everyone on our wedding night haha. Thank you to everyone who offered us sweet tidbits of lessons learned over their past 30 years of marriage to those who only had 30 days of marriage, each of you gave us so much to take to heart! I am not one for Valentines Day but I can honestly say that it was probably my favorite way that I have ever spent the weekend leading up the the holiday!

Thank you for everyone who came to celebrate with us! I wish I had a picture to capture you all!