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getting engaged during a pandemic is interesting, to say the least. any “pandemic bride” will tell you, nothing about it is the experience you thought you’d have. obviously there are postponements, minimonies, so many restrictions, and a sense of uncertainty in every aspect of planning aside from who you’re marrying that day.

one thing we knew we’d sacrifice was a big, traditional engagement party. we opted to have our college friends over for a weekend celebration, and one in which we’d ask them all to be in the wedding party.

we knew that since it was just a small group of us (and even less than anticipated due to some unforeseen circumstances), we could relax and take it easy in terms of dress, decor, etc. we still made it fun and memorable, but kept it fairly low-key!

decor-wise, we made balloon garland to go down the bannister, and rented “M & D” marquee lights from Alpha Lit. we opted for a ‘90s theme in terms of decor, dress, and favor bags.

we had two cocktails on hand for the night - strawberry lemonade rum punch (1 bottle strawberry malibu rum and 2 bottles of simply strawberry lemonade), which we poured into our “adult capri sun” pouches; and fishbowls (here’s the recipe I used). the punch was kept in a chilled beverage dispenser for easy access.

I didn’t manage to take a full outfit shot, but I opted for a denim mini skirt, with a lettuce edge baby tea, and rubber slides. I pulled my braids into a half-up half-down look, complete with a velvet scrunchie. I also wore a smiley face choker necklace, smiley face ring, and chunky beaded bracelet reminiscent of what I actually wore in the late 90s/early 2000s.

the favor bags included a snap bracelet, 2 sanitizers (including the scent every ‘90s kid will remember: cucumber melon), ring pops, dunkaroos, gushers, a drink pouch emblazoned with “zig a zag ah,” and a slim can koozie.

for food, we ordered wings, onion rings, and nachos from buffalo wild wings (cauliflower wings for me), and had a confetti bundt cake and with various flavors of “bundtinis” from nothing bundt cakes, and had a few of my favorite cookies from erin mckenna’s bakery. after dessert, we video called two of our friends who couldn’t make it, had a champagne toast to our engagement, and formally asked them to be in the wedding party! don gave the guys a custom whiskey glass gift box, complete with their surnames etched on the outside, and “will you be my groomsman?” and our wedding date on the inside. I’ll go into details about my bridesmaid boxes on the blog tomorrow!

post wedding party proposals, we reverted to our most natural states by throwing on sweats, and settling in for a night of drinks, games, and finally soaking up each other’s company in real life for the first time since last year.

the following morning, we headed into the city to meet up with another friend who couldn’t join us for the previous night’s festivities, and grabbed brunch at green eggs cafe. there, Don asked him to join the wedding, and we once again toasted to our engagement, as well as our wonderful group of friends. we ate way too much, but somehow manage to roll ourselves out of the restaurant and over to get a quick look at our venue. after that, we just spent time together in the city, grabbing a vegan shake for me, and bubble tea for everyone else. as it was set to storm, we left the city, went home, and once again became our comfiest selves in sweatpants, and ordered in ramen and poké bowls for dinner.

since sunday was father’s day, we decided to wrap up the weekend around noon, so we could spend time with our families. we finally went to trader joe’s as a group (something we’ve been talking about doing for literally over a year), grabbed some coffee, and headed back to say our see you laters.

It certainly was not the extravagant engagement party I once saw for us, but it was so much better. truly a weekend focused on spending time with the people who’ve known us and have been there for us literally since we became a couple, and being able to celebrate and share that love with them in this casual, intimate way, meant more to me, and to us, than I think a more formal celebration could have.