Mini Wedding?? No thanks!!

So after the proposal, comes the engagement party plans and before I continue there is something I feel I should say- weddings and engagements are personal events, everyone should have what THEY want, everyone is different and it is very much an each to their own kind of thing, BUT this is my blog...so these are my opinions :)

My opinion on engagement parties is simply this- IT IS NOT A MINI WEDDING!!! I cringe at the idea of having an elaborate, expensive, formal event, with set seating, a 3 course meal, ball gown, up do and speeches from every member of the family! If our engagement has all of that, what is left for the wedding except the church and exchanging of rings? I don't want anything to take away from our big day.

In saying that, A and I love love love a good celebration (friends reading this will be nodding right now), in the words of one friend, we will use any excuse to have a party-  so we have opted for a cocktail party.We are having our engagement in a function room of a club in a beach side suburb in Sydney. We have decided there will be lots of dancing, food (casual buffet), drinks, family friends and all round merriness! Other decisions which have been made...

Our DJ has been booked(this is me pretending to DJ- don't be alarmed I will be nowhere near there at our engagement party I just didn't have one of the actual DJ)

We are going to fill Martini glasses with blue, purple and clear baubles like this (minus the candles) for fun cocktail centrepieces

Ad libs like these will be on a table for guests to fill in (thanks to a voguette who shared the idea on a forum)

My dress and a few other surprises have also been decided on, but they can't be revealed on my blog until after the party ;) My dress will actually even be a surprise to me as I purchased it online (eeeeksss- I know!!).

We are making our invites this week and the only other thing to decide on is the cake... again going against the whole mini wedding concept, I do not want a white cake, I want something fun and bubbly.. I was thinking maybe something like this, what do you think??