We're engaged! To check one of the first things off the wedding planning checklist, and to do one of my favorite things, event planning/hosting, here is our engagement party.

We were out of the country for the new year, and I so desperately wanted to host a NYE Party, so while thinking of a theme for our engagement party, emerged our champagne, new year's eve, popping the cork party!

Having multiple Bars was apparently my motive for this event, including a bubbly bar, popcorn bar, taco bar, dessert table, photo station and of course a beer selection.

bubbly bar

The Bubbly bar included a variety of champagnes, proseccos and the like, with pineapple, mango and orange juices and fruit as well as some fun champagne napkins that were all used to mop up a spillage later in the evening!

The bar was also set with a popcorn station and selection of beers.

let's drink champagne and dance on the table

Obviously had to include a beer station with koozies and bottle openers.

The food station featured a return of the pretzel station, charcuterie and crudités boards along with individual shrimp cocktails, and a taco bar!

I of course made my infamous fruity sangria and had water bottles with custom labels available as well.

Champagne flutes with diamond emblazoned skewers were provided for guests to spear their fruit.

mike popped the question popcorn bar

Equipped with custom labeled brown bags, a variety of popcorn flavors, candy toppings and seasonings.

The welcome sign mirrored the invitation - Mike Popped the question, now it’s time to POP THE CORK. Which I traced not acrylic using paint pens.

Dessert station featuring champagne infused cupcakes, diamond donuts and fruit. I made custom cupcake topppers saying “She said yes,” “he put a ring on it” and diamond die cuts.

The favor sign included photos from our engagement and tic-tacs dressed up as “engage-mints.”

Custom water bottle labels with the party logo were also used along with the engage-mint favors.

Some of my sweet friends who came out to celebrate with us, featuring our doggo, Kite!

The theme was House warm, beer cold, conceptualized from our love of craft beer and wanting to host a beer tasting party along with the the apt timing of us settling into our new home.  

I used galvanized metal, mixed with gold frames and kraft paper in the design elements which I think came together nicely.  

I'm a fan of puns and decided that there was no need to to use them sparingly.  I mostly used them in the invitation design and framed them throughout the event.

Beer Tasting Station

Here is our beer tasting station where we kept all of the beer cool in galvanized buckets loaded with ice and had baby red solo cups available for guests to sample beers. We even purchased a personalized “Mike & Chelsea” galvanized bucket for some of the beers.

We also had tasting cards available for guests to fill out so they could rate their beers from “I’d rather drink my own pee” to “liquid gold"

I designed our libation celebration Invitation and filled it with every beer pun I could find, Ale Yeah! I then used those puns in signage throughout the event.

Pretzel Station

home made beer infused pretzels with beer cheese dip and dipping mustards. I made the hanging contraption out of PVC pipes and spray painted it with galvanized looking spray paint. I then used S-Hooks to hang the pretzels.

Friends with beer are welcome here!

a very true sentiment for our house, probably something that I need to make in to a door mat!

all of this beer must be making you hungry

Hors'd oeuvres station featuring candied bacon, charcuterie board, beer infused cupcakes, cake pops, prosciutto wrapped pears, apple coleslaw, mango salsa, guac and of course a delicious chocolate cake with a personalized cake topper! I decided to be a hero and make everything myself from scratch, fun, stressful and so not necessary, lol.

I even outfit the fireplace with a House Warm, Beer Cold banner, bunting and tassels, because I didn’t want it to feel left out of the festivities.

Backdrop with our party logo, which I printed as a blown up engineer print at Office Depot and backed it on poster board and cut out with a craft knife, then layered streamers on a clothing rack and hung the logo with fishing wire.

I made my infamous sangria in case there were any non beer drinkers among us or if anyone wanted a change of pace.

the setup of our outdoor area

later I put some popcorn our in 6-pack containers.

Take a glass, claim it as your own , use it today, then take it home

Our favors were customized beer glasses for guests to use that day.

Beer tasting cards were available where guests could take notes on their beers, rate it on a 1-5 scale of “I’d rather drink my own pee” to “Liquid gold” and declare if it was a beer to remember or one to forget.

No beer tasting party would be complete without beer bottle centerpieces! I saved up beer bottles which took an embarrassingly small amount of time to collect, I then tied them together with twine and added some fake flowers in the top.

that's some big head - mad hops

Some of my besties were in attendance!

the only photo we took together that night which is also an incredibly awful photo of us. Silver lining - the frame prop was actually photographed.