Wedding Wednesdays - Part 4 | Our Engagement Party!

Last Saturday, Blake and I threw a double birthday/engagement party with our family and friends. It was basically amazing. Our birthdays are super special to me since they are they day after each other and I think that's just the best thing ever (remember the post about my engagement ring and how it's our March birthstone because it means so much to me? So yeah.)

I spent more time on this party than on all other parties I've ever had combined (which isn't saying much because I don't usually do parties!) and I'm super happy with the way it turned out. Even though Blake knew about the party, I still wanted there to be some element of surprise for him since it was his BIG THREE-OH! So, I kept the retro movie theme of the party and all the decorations a secret.

I'll start with the invitation, which I made myself but will admit I did not come up with the design. I found a design I liked on Shutterfly and then recreated it in InDesign, making the necessary adjustments as they applied to our party. At the time I made the invites, I wasn't positive that I wanted to do a movie theme but thought it was a possibility, so I kept the design somewhat neutral but made the colors adaptable to the retro movie theme if I decided to go with it. Plus, I didn't want the design to really give anything away to Blake.

And no, I was NOT turning 31... I was turning 29 (+2) which will be the way it is written from now on, thank-you-very-much.

The way I came up with the theme of the party was mostly because Blake is so crazy about movies and we really LOVE going to the movies together. I'd say it's probably our favorite thing to do on a night out (or watching movies in at home, too!). But also, when we decided to delay the wedding a year and have it next summer instead of this summer - since all the good venues were booked already - I couldn't help but think about the movie Five-Year Engagement. It's rapidly becoming my favorite wedding themed movie. So, that naturally led in to me Photoshopping our faces into the official movie poster! Then one thing led to another, and the movie theme was officially born. Because our wedding will have a very vintage feel, I didn't want the party looking too modern, so I added in a bunch of retro touches. Here are some photos of the decorations and the movie posters:

Since we booked our wedding venue the day before the party, we did a guess the wedding date game and were able to announce the date at the party! I made this big calendar of summer 2015 and had our party guests sign their name on the date of their guess. The person who landed on the right date was my grandma, so it couldn't have worked out better!

Mr. & Mrs. Dorman (Originally Mr. & Mrs. Smith) movie poster with both our faces Photoshopped in. I also named us "Blake Pitt" and "Angelina Jamie" haha

Groominator 2 - Wedding Day (Terminator 2 - Judgement Day) movie poster with Blake's face Photoshopped into it.

 Because it was my 31st birthday, I just HAD to have a Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors ice cream stand. 

You can also see the rest of the posters in this shot, these two included everyone in our wedding party. 

 I left Melissa McCarthy in there since I only have four bridesmaids haha

This table was set up like a concession stand with all the movie goodies including popcorn, candy, and redvines.

 We used retro popcorn containers to hold the forks, spoons and knives.

Before I show the pictures of the bar outside, here are full versions of the Photoshopped movie posters that I made. I went to my mom's office and printed them out on her oversized printer and spray mounted them on to foam core board. She also was able to get easels to use for poster stands from her work. Oh the perks of having a mom who works at a college! So many resources...

 This one is my favorite, probably because I love this movie so much and it was the first one that I did. Also, I think our faces turned out the best. I spent a lot of time on this one. My mom kept saying how hot Blake looks! 

 If only our bodies looked like this...

This one is Blake's favorite. I imagine we'll have this one in our apartment for quite a long time. haha 

So, outside I made a "Classic Movie Bar" using recipes based on famous old movies and actors. I think this was my favorite part of the party. It turned out perfect!

In addition to the "Guess the Wedding Date" game, we also had two other games at the party. We did a version of "The Newlywed Game" where my matron of honor, Natalie, created questions for Blake and I to answer on whiteboards and try to match our answers. It was really fun and we did way worse than I thought we would, which made it super funny. Before the game we passed out little admission tickets (seen in the pictures above) to everyone so they could write down how many they thought we would get right. The person who guessed closest won. We ended up matching 5 out of 12, but one of them I cheated and one of them wasn't "technically" a match since we both wrote down the word "me" which meant that we didn't actually mean the same person haha... Here are the questions we had as well as our answers:

1. If Blake could be any superhero, who would he be?
I screwed this one up by guessing The Terminator (just because I couldn't think of an answer at all and I had just made that movie poster.) Clearly, Batman was the right answer! haha

2. What was the first movie you saw together?
We got this one right only because Blake turned his board around before I had written down my answer and one of his groomsmen, Brandon, read Blake's answer out loud. Hunger Games was definitely not the first movie we saw together, since it came out about six months after we started dating, but neither of us can remember what it was!

3. What sport could Jamie definitely beat Blake at?
I was this close to writing down "none" because at first I was thinking of all team sports (Hockey or ice skating, just no. Football, obviously not. Baseball/softball, yeah right...). Blake is better than me at all the team sports. But I think I could kick his butt at swimming for sure, even though I haven't really done it in 15 years. He'd kill me at tennis; he was obviously being generous. After these two pathetic answers, but mom said "skiing!" which, duh, of course is the only sport I'm better than him at (although I bet if I take him up the mountain about three more times, he'll be skiing circles around me.) I just hope our kids get his athletic abilities!!

4. How long did you date before getting engaged?
Finally an easy question! I was worried Blake wouldn't be able to do the math, but he pulled it off ;) I was clearly super excited that we got one right haha

 5. If you went out for drinks, what drink would Jamie order?
We didn't get a picture of this one, but Blake guessed Dr. Pepper, and I said wine. Clearly, if we were going out for drinks, that implies alcohol. Although if we were going out to dinner I'd usually get a Dr. Pepper.

6. If you could go anywhere for your honeymoon, where would your dream destination be?
I messed this one up. Italy is really high on the list for a vacation, but Tahiti is much better for a honeymoon. We looked at pictures of places in Tahiti before, too, so I must have just blanked.

7. How many children do you want to have?
I thought for sure we'd get this one right because we've talked about it so many times! Three boys, Blake! Not four! Look at the expression on my face LOL

8. Where is your favorite place to go out to eat together?
This one was tough, mostly because we don't go out to eat that often. We were both thinking restaurants, but the truth is, we go to In-N-Out more than anywhere else!

9. What percentage of housework does Blake do?
I was using this opportunity to make a point. But I guess he does do the dishes, so 10% is probably about right haha

10. Who wears the pants in the relationship?
To save face amongst our families, he had to say he wears the pants. But it's clearly me. They gave us this answer as being a match, since technically we wrote down the same word haha

11. Who is the most organized?
This was the best question for us by far. Took two seconds to come up with this answer and Blake even managed to draw a fancy arrow.

12. In one word, describe how you felt at the moment you got engaged.
Blake kept saying, keep it simple, keep it simple, but I couldn't. Happy wasn't big enough of a word to describe how I felt. But they gave it to us as a match anyway haha

I thought this game was so much fun. Natalie did a great job with the questions! Although we didn't do great, at least people knew that we didn't cheat or know the answers ahead of time!

Our other game was a movie quote trivia game. I printed out 15 romantic movie quotes and scattered them around the house as decorations and then we collected them all and read them out loud. Everyone had an answer sheet and had to write down the name of the movie. It was pretty hard, too, which was good because then everyone could know how we felt in our hard game!

I made Blake read most of them, which he hated, but he did anyway because he loves me and I put so much work into this party! What a good fiance.

Out of 15 quotes, my cousin Kat and friend Ben tied with 8 correct answers, so I did a tiebreaker asking for certain names of characters from the movies. The final victor ended up being Ben, and he definitely got a little grief from my dad about being the master of "chick-flicks"! haha Also, I gave movie gift cards to the winners of all these games, just to keep up with the theme.

Lastly, we revealed the date of the wedding, and like I said earlier, my grandma Betty had the winning guess. She was one of the first people to guess, too! Since our date is July 11, 2015 (or 7-11!) I printed out the 7-11 logo as the way of announcing it. It took people a minute to get it, which I thought was pretty funny.

After this we did cake and just partied it up! Lots of delicious food, drinking, swimming and jacuzzi time, which made for a great party.

I especially want to thank my mom who slaved over the food and my aunt Kathy who provided the house and helped with cleaning, decorations, alcohol, etc. My cousins helped me decorate and get balloons. Overall it was a great family effort and Blake and I feel very loved! What a wonderful day. Now that we've set the date and venue, let the countdown begin!! Next week's post will be a detailed post about our AMAZING venue.

[ j. ]