OUR ENGAGEMENT PARTY — KELSEY DIPRIMA

MY WEDDING SERIES— holy shit we’re getting married

I know a lot of you are brides to be or will be soon and to be honest I feel like all the options out there on Pinterest and the internet are so overwhelming and left me with no idea where to start, so I am hoping this series makes everything a bit easier for y’all!!

For anyone new here, Austin and I got engaged in Paris this past February (it was so damn magical) but upon our return the world shut down and we haven’t been able to celebrate this exciting time with our friends and family until now. But wow was this party worth the wait— it was truly a dream come true! So now I am here so share all the details with y’all!

HIRE A PLANNER

Since I had NO IDEA where to start, along with a full time job, I hired an event planner and, besides marrying Austin, it was the best decision I ever made. You guys— wedding planning/event planning etc is a full time job in itself, it takes SO MUCH TIME and I truly don’t understand how anyone does it while also working. If it overwhelms you like it did I, hire the planner, just do it! I truly believe that the amount of stress they take off your plate is worth every single penny! They are also there on the day of your event to make everything run smoothly so that you can truly just ENJOY THE DAY YOU SPENT SO MUCH MONEY ON.

I understand most of us have a budget to stay under, and if I planner doesn’t fall into that budget, at least hire one for the day of, it will be such a game changer!

I used Megan from Festive Event Planning and I truly could not have loved her more— I dont think I will ever throw a party or event without her again. She handled everything, and when I say everything, I mean there wasn’t a single detail astray. She is a perfectionist, completely saw my vision and ran with it and made it all so seamless. DID I MENTION SHE MADE THIS EVENT HAPPEN IN 12 DAYS!? Yeah i’m crazy and she embraced it and made it happen. I was always nervous of what id do when this time of my life came because my personality is extremely type A, I don’t know how to delegate responsibilities and I always feel like I am just better off doing everything myself. Megan changed all of that, she did everything 10x better than I ever could have!!

She handled all the logistics, booked and handled all party rentals, found a lighting company to hang string lights over the pool, was a candle queen which helped elevate my “romantic” request, had signage made, custom napkins and dessert bags for a minimal personal touch, made sure the food/alcohal was constantly flowing and never running low, put dessert out when it was time and came back the next day to clean up the mess/break everything down. (My hangover the next day was EXTREMELY thankful for that last little detail.)

DECOR

When it came decor I had a really hard time explaining to Megan and Tash what I wanted, so I created a Pinterest board that only they were included on. This is my trick for everything in life—

I want to change my hair? Pinterest board. Redecorating my house? Pinterest board. Wedding ring? Pinterest board. No but seriously, thats also how Austin chose my ring! I made sure my wedding board was public, sent him the link and made sure I only had rings in there that I would be happy with. I wanted him to also choose which one he liked best and safe to day he did good.

Anyways, I made a Pinterest board and shared it with the girls. From there Megan found the items to bring this dream to life and sent me this mood board to sign off on.

FLORALS

I wanted chic, romantic, minimal with lush greenery and got just that. Insert Wildflowers Floral Design— holy shit you guys, Tash is absolutely unreal. Her florals are out of this world. She specializes in dried florals and wildflowers. All I told her was “I want a lot of green, I have a thing for lily’s, want everything to look romantic and would love if the stairs were a huge focal point” — then when I showed up, I was on the brink of crying because her and Megan blew my vision out of the water (but she told me I was allowed to ruin my makeup) … this is the magic she created;

PARTY RENTALS

For party rentals, lounge area, bars, high tables and string lights over the pool, we used Party Pleasers— most on trend rentals in the game, and their price was also the most affordable! The lounge area was an absolute dream, the green velvet couch just got me.

PERSONAL TOUCHES

CUSTOM PARTY GOODS

I am sucker for good details and that’s where Megan came in with For Your Party— they create custom goodies for any event— from napkins, cups, face masks, parry favors and more. For this party I of course, again, wanted minimal and chic so they did monochrome customs for us! They created perfect white on white guest napkins for the restrooms, embossed green on green cocktail napkins, goodie bags for the guests to take to-go desserts and “perfect match” matchbooks to take as well.

CUSTOM SIGNAGE

Signage was another way to add in a stunning personal touch, Brown Code Designs created a custom green on green welcome sign along with bar menus—

ALCOHOL

Open bar is a MUST for me, but I also wanted the party to go for a while so I decided to stick to wine, beer and seltzer. (the tequila came out at the end of the night lol)

I decided to do Winc Wines because y’all know I love them a lot. I do their monthly wine delivery service as well where they send you 4 bottles to try a month. If you love wine, its a must— you can sign up here and get $20 off your first box!

We did my favorites;

4 easy drinking reds—Supercluster Red, Far + Wide Frappato, Déclassé and Lost Poet

Then 2 nice and dry whites— Alma Libre Sauv Blanc and L'Atelier du Sud Chard

We also did both packs of Ashland which is our favorite seltzer in the game!! Most Bevmo’s sell it but you can who sells it near you, here.

PHOTOGRAPHY

As many of y’all know, photos are super important to me! I went with Danielle Determan and y’all, I couldn’t have loved her more!! Finding a photographer that understands your vision and who’s style you like is so so important. Danielle is all of that and more. We took our engagement photos beforehand and she blew them out of the water as well. She sent over teasers for me to share on IG the next day and then sent all the images about a week after the event! I shared an entire album of the images here because the world just needed to see them. If you have engagement photos, maternity photos, a wedding, YOU NAME IT, you need her! She made Austin feel SO comfortable in front of the camera and you’d never know he hates getting his photos taken. He looked like a god damn model. Love her so much and know every one of you will too!!

FOOD

For apps, we had the most stunning table sized charcuterie spread from Sophisticated Spreads—it was the biggest hit and I couldn’t recommend this more! It’s stunning, its delicious and who doesn’t love a good cheese situation— the girls who made it were actual angels too!

For dinner, we catered in finger foods from a local restaurants our family friends own, Pearl District and hired a couple guys that work there to walk around and do passed Hors d'oeuvres— It was amazing! I didnt want anything formal, I wanted food that the guests could eat while standing up and not have to sit down to enjoy! We did fried artichoke bites, sun dried tomato risotto cakes and filet mignon/chicken skewers.

For dessert, my mother in law (who is the best baker ever) did assorted cookies and desserts for the guests to take to go

EVENT SPACE

Because of the current state of the world, I didn't know where to throw a party and I know a lot of you are struggling with this as well! Thankfully our best family friends own this home and let us throw the party there, BUT they are in the process of figuring out logistics to start renting it out to have events like this there!! Ill be sure to share it right when that happens!

In the meantime, Peerspace is a great place to start! You can rent out homes/event spaces for parties such as these, even places to host your wedding!! I wanted to keep it small, we had only our closest friends and family there, wanted free rain of decor, food eat so this was what worked best for us!

dress is from the Galia Lahav Pret-a-Porter collection, leather jacket is Nastygal