5: parties, invitations and babies! oh my!

Throwing an Engagement Party is like having a mini wedding. We’ve invited almost all of the same people who are on our guest list, we have spent quite a bit of money on invitations, I’ve had three meetings with my mother about color schemes, fabrics and décor and we are checking out caterers. Suddenly I am feeling more well equipped to continue planning The Main Event.

We chose very cute Engagement Party Invitations. They feature a cartoon man hoisting up a diamond ring the size of the invitation. They are very DIY invites and came with a feature that allows us to print our own text on them so that they are extra personalized.

So here’s The Scene: Ryan and I determining what to write on our Engagement Party Invitations
The Setting: My home office, 10:00PM at night

Ryan and I have just spent two hours rearranging the furniture in my home office so that it is “perfect” for me to work from home and make us millions of dollars for this wedding. We are sweaty and I have just completed a mini-spaz about the wires on the back of my computer being “a mess”. Ryan has helped me rectify this situation with twist ties.

Rhian: OK, so lets do these invitations
Ryan: right

He sits in Patrick, our chair from Ikea that came with its own name, and I sit on my rolling office chair across from him.

Rhian: Write something clever…
Ryan: (writing) Please join us as we celebrate the engagement of Rhian White and Ryan Lockard…
Rhian: (reading from upside down) That isn’t clever? You’re copying that directly from the samples!
Ryan: This is my method. This is how I brainstorm. This is how I do it.
Rhian: OK, OK, I just didn’t want you to think that that was I meant by clever.
Ryan: Thank you, I know.

A few minutes pass. I have spent those minutes looking up love and romance quotes.

The phone rings and it is one of my sisters. She is nine months pregnant so I answer the phone by asking her if she’s going into labor. She laughs and says she isn’t. She then proceeds to inform me that she will not be in attendance at my engagement party because she “already knows” that The Baby will be needing her every moment between the hours of 6:00 and 10:00 PM on September 15th, 2007.

I am then enlightened with a detailed conversation about breast feeding and pumping and for another time I reconsider this marriage route (I’m totally kidding). I laugh it off and tell her I understand but I know there is a twinge of unrest in my voice because I can feel it in my chest. I just would’ve liked for my sister to be there, but it’s ok. I’ll be engaged for a year, so I’m sure we can celebrate more another time.

After I hang up the phone, Ryan triumphantly announces that he has come up with a clever beginning. I ask him to share it with me and he reads proudly:

“Rhian and Ryan: it could only be better if our names were spelled the same.”

And that, my friends is how we ended up going with a romantic quote on our invitations.

(although in Ryans defense, it WAS really clever)

Love and I have another Dress Shopping appointment tonight,

Rhian