Surprise Engagement Party

The morning after our engagement I was on complete cloud nine. I got to sleep in and when I woke up I had the whole house to myself. Which naturally called for a Queen dance party in the living room. Other than staring down at my hand every five minutes it was a pretty normal day.

We had already planned on having dinner with our good friends Makenzie + Clark & Adrienne + Kirkland to celebrate, so I knew I wanted to dress up and wear something special. And thus my first surprise of the night had been set into motion. The dress I had originally earmarked for the occasion’s zipper, decided to literally come apart and get stuck up at the collar. At once point my mom suggested we cut it off to which I shouted “No! It’s brand new!” I finally managed to wrangle it off along with half of my foundation. I was decidedly flustered. I had a back up dress from Adelyn Rae, but it was significantly fancier than my original choice. And to my knowledge we were just having dinner the six of us at Honor Bar which is nice, but not velvet cocktail dress nice haha. But then I thought to myself, “I’ve been overdressed the majority of my life, why should tonight be any different?” We we’re celebrating our engagement after all. And not one of my five dinner companions would be remotely surprised if I turned up with a little more dazzle than the occasion called for. I threw on a my favorite moto jacket to dress the look down a tad, and hustled out the door fashionably late.

Christian pointed out after that it was an actual fashion emergency.

When we arrived to Highland Park Village, Christian announces that there is a long wait at Honor Bar and we are meant to meet everyone at Bistro 31 for a drink. Perfect! I love Bistro 31.

I’m not going to lie at this point my antenna was definitely up.

The idea that Christian would possibly throw me a surprise engagement party was definitely possibility in the back of my mind even before he proposed. I like to think I’m a pretty with it broad, and can read people pretty well. So when we had a sudden venue change that happens to be one of my favorite restaurants with a super cute private party room, my suspicions we peaked. Despite all of that I didn’t want to get my hopes up and risk being disappointed so I tried to not let it be more than a fleeting thought in my head. So when I walked up stairs and into said back room there was part of me that still was genuinely surprised. I never really thought through that a surprise party meant I would get to see all of my friends and loved ones all at the same time.

The night couldn’t have been better if I planned it myself. From the framed photos of Christian and I around the room, to the “adult” grilled cheese I was in heaven. I owe a big thank you to my fiancé Christian (still so crazy to call him that) and my sweet MOH Adrienne. The poor thing ended up with the stomach flu and still managed to help plan the perfect evening. Y’all she even took a “blogger style” video of the room set up before anyone got there so that I would have content to post on Instagram. She’s pretty awesome.

I used to not consider myself an overly sentimental person, but this past week has really proved me wrong. It meant the world to me that so many people wanted to celebrate us and I will cherish the memory of that night for a very long time. Even going through the photos and videos for this post had me tearing up on more than one occasion! Thank you again to everyone who helped make this night so special for us 🙂

PS. I am low key thrilled that my other dress’s zipper broke. I think that this one turned out perfect for the occasion 🙂

c/o ADELYN RAE dress (also love this version and this) | c/o WALLIS moto jacket (old. similar) | MANOLO BLAHNIK bb patent pumps (last seen here) | CHANEL wallet on a chain