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A Celebration of LOVE {Engagement Party}

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Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Alexandra Rembac of Sterling Engagements is not just a planner, but a bride-to-be too! And from the looks of this fun engagement party celebration with friends and family, it definitely looks like she’s feeling the L-O-V-E! The party was held near Valentine’s Day this year, so of course the love-inspired theme tied in perfectly with the holiday – but when it comes to engagement parties & bridal showers, LOVE is always an appropriate theme, which means there’s lots of great inspiration here for celebrations year-round!

For example, one of my favorite details is from the beautiful dessert display – where darling “cookie toppers” were used to spell out “The Best Is Yet To Be. A♥J” across 4 different cakes. Cute + clever! And then of course there are the fabulous lace-adorned table runners, chic stationery details (I just adore their invite!), gorgeous black & white anemones, and an overall vibe that’s charming and homespun.

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Read on for LOTS more fun party images + all the details from Alexandra – including the super cute ways that she and Jonathan “officially” invited their bridal party to be in the wedding {during the party}!

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

Love & Valentine's Day Themed Engagement Party

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Alexandra…

***

Inspiration & Theme

I wanted something very playful, kitschy and really just FUN! I love to love and am a hopeless romantic so the theme of love really began with just that. We got engaged right before the holiday season, so we selected the weekend before Valentine’s Day purposely – as it seemed fitting to share our love close to one of the most love filled holidays of the year!

The color scheme of various reds & pinks + hints of black & white developed naturally in staying with the theme of love.  From the invite to the decor – to even our sweets and candy station – all of the party’s elements  shared the common bond of LOVE.

DECOR

With such a vibrant color scheme and being so close to Valentine’s Day, it was really easy for me to create a fun environment for our guests using the décor.  And since our party was in our home, I really wanted everything to have a homemade factor to it.

Linens

All of our linens were hot pink, red and black.  Designer Specialty Linens really helped me take my vision to the next level by creating custom runners using the matching red or pink with a black lace overlay.

Flowers

Because I went so bright with my linens, I decided it would be best to keep the floral design simple – using all whites with a hint of black.  I selected texture-rich flowers like ranunculus, white fringed tulips, hydrangea and anemones and used simple black glasses vases as vessels for the flowers.

Branded Details

I went out of my way to make sure that every last detail from the bags at the candy station, to the personalized napkins at the dessert buffet were all branded with our theme.  All of my signage from the wood signs to the description cards to even the banners were in our color scheme but not super matchy matchy.  Even our dogs had heart bandanas to fit in with the festivities.

Menu & Drinks

Tapas: We love Mexican food so we know we brought in El Tapatio to provide a taco cart and make tacos on site, helping the event feel less formal.  Additionally, we had a woman make tortillas on site and added in enchiladas, taquitos and Mexican Caesar salad.   We also served finger foods – a cheese display with antipasto items and various spreads.

Dessert: Our dessert setup was one of my favorite elements from the party! I worked with Leslie Maynor of Fantasy Frostings, and since she’ll also be doing my wedding cake & several other sweet at our reception, it was important that I also did not have her design anything that could resemble what we’d be doing for my big day.  I knew I wanted to do mini satellite cakes, and we created custom flavors so there would be no overlap.  This also gave me the advantage to name the cakes using various “love inspired” descriptions.

Beverages:
We served our favorite wines and beers along with various non-alcohol options, like watermelon and horchata agua frescas.

Bridal Party

It was really important to me that during our party we asked our bridal party to officially be in our wedding. Using various vendors on Etsy, I ordered special items to give them when we asked. For my Bridesmaids & Maid of Honor I found cute personalized tote bags. I also fell in love with Definition Cards and ordered these for all of the girls, as well as the flower girls and ring bearers. The kids each were gifted a book explaining their role in our wedding too and the girls received a mini flower girl tote.  The men were all given a personalized shot glass – which seemed appropriate – and when my fiancé asked them, they all toasted to the occasion!  This was very special to us and one of our favorite moments from the night!”

Vendor Credit

25 Comments

  1. HiLLjO April 6, 2011 at 8:51 am

    TOO cute! So elegant and luxe looking!

  2. Holly S April 6, 2011 at 9:42 am

    SO Adorable!!! Congrats to the bride to be!!

  3. Mujka April 6, 2011 at 9:53 am

    OMG ALEX . Your party looks amazing.Every detail is perfect, I love how the invitation turned out. Lovely decorations…. GORGEOUS!

  4. Kimber Wade w/Shabby McFabby April 6, 2011 at 10:08 am

    …WoW!!! I just ‘LuV’ seeing it all…the way you put everything together was just beyond amazing!!! Thanx so very much Alexandra for featuring one of my Tres~Chic Vintage Up~Cycled Framed Chalkboard and Mirror Combo’s…I just adore how you used it!

    Congrats!!!

  5. Melody April 6, 2011 at 10:19 am

    What are the bridal party definitions cards? (link didn’t work)

  6. Steve April 6, 2011 at 10:45 am

    That’s a lot of love! A beautiful party for beautiful people! Best wishes!

  7. Jean Colton April 6, 2011 at 11:10 am

    This was a fantastic, fun, beautiful, creative engagement party. We were so happy to be there and share in your happiness.
    Wishing you both Love, Joy, Peace, Happieness Always and All ways.
    Love
    Aunt Jean & Uncle Fred

  8. Mr Frostings April 6, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    It was a fantastic party, and we were happy to be there, and play our small part

  9. ELEN FERREIRA SILVA CORTEZZI April 6, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    amei ,muito lindo tudo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!que Deus o abeçoe

  10. lil April 6, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    This is yummy beautiful stuff!! Lovely!

  11. ashleigh April 6, 2011 at 3:03 pm

    thank you jenn for the lovely feature! it was a great party! alex is the best!!!

  12. Agenzie hostess torino April 8, 2011 at 3:03 am

    good post, Lovely photos collection

  13. Kris April 8, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    This is so adorable! OMG I love it all!

  14. Linda April 8, 2011 at 8:27 pm

    What a wonderful party! It’s so beautiful!

    @Melody: I think if you search for Gabrielle Kearney on Etsy you can find the cards

  15. bridalbar April 14, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    Looks SO beautiful Jenn!! Thank you so much for the love-ly post :) You make amazing events look even more out of this world! Love it all! xoxo

  16. Talia Essman May 11, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    I love that chalkboard with the large invitation. I see where you got hte chalkboard, but what about the invite on the inside with the “jonathan and alexandra” print? Thanks in advance.

  17. Bella Bride May 27, 2011 at 12:27 pm

    Absolutely Beautiful

  18. dorothy Latortue June 22, 2011 at 8:14 am

    I love this page.

  19. Alexandra Rembac | Sterling Engagements December 20, 2011 at 2:50 pm

    HI Talia,

    The invite was designed by my graphic designer Burcu Arat Sup of Mujka Chic http://www.mujka.ca Hope that helps =)

  20. Christina March 5, 2012 at 10:18 pm

    Who did the sign above the cakes ” Truly madly deeply in love”? Must know love the lay out and shape

  21. Hi Christina,
    I believe that’s part of the blog post so HWTM did that =)

    Hope this helps… sorry for the delay =)

  22. Priscilla Corona June 19, 2012 at 9:33 pm

    What was your total cost if I may ask.

  23. viennawaights January 3, 2013 at 1:15 pm

    I absolutely love this party, who did your napkins?
    xXx

  24. Robin Fox April 25, 2014 at 11:34 pm

    Such a beautiful blog!! WIll pass this on to my clients. WOW!!

  25. Robin Fox April 26, 2014 at 6:59 am

    Another great trend it having a comedian perform at the Bridal Shower… I have to say nothing makes the beautiful party that has been so well planned come Alive than Laughter! Great Blog!!

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