O Chickadee: Lindy Loves Javi Engagement Party: Part III

I think that some of the most fun details of Lindy and Javi's party were the result of necessity and serendipity. Starting with the use of paper bags. At the last minute, I threw a handful of lunch bags in my suitcase, thinking that since they matched the invitations, they might come in handy. It turns out that they did. mostly as signs. Because the party started at 8:00 pm, we didn't need to host a full meal, so we focused on snacks that broadly fell under the categories of "sweet" (assorted cookies) and "salty" (pretzels, potato chips, and popcorn). On the day of, as we were trying to figure out how to indicate what was what, we decided to hang "sweet" and "salty" signs above the appropriate sides of the tables.

We also incorporated newspaper in a few ways. First was by making about 70 hand-folded, origami boxes. These boxes were our containers for our salty snacks. Necessity being the mother of invention, they came about because we wouldn't have access to appetizer plates. I think they looked great (and many thanks to Eat Drink Chic for the inspiration, who had similar boxes filled with potato chips at her surprise wedding!).

Another interesting way we used newspaper came about due to necessity as well. On the morning of, we pushed all the tables together to serve the food on, and realized that they mismatched (we used three small tables instead of one large one). We ended up wrapping the tables in newspaper to the floor, and this immediately made them match (and also totally set off the ceiling installation, in my opinion). Also, the genius of my friend and co-host Shannon was to use half English and half Spanish newspapers, since Javi is Mexican.

The next creative element came about due to serendipity. We had decided not to have fresh flowers due to cost, but as luck would have it, Lindy's good friend and neighbor Elly offered us three bouquets. Believe it or not, they just perfectly matched the ceiling installation color spectrum. When we realized that due to the different height of tables and vases, some needed to be higher than others, we used stacks of Lindy's books, in the appropriate colors, to act as little stages. It brought just the pop of color we needed to the tables.

The last few things were just special touches. Labeling all the food with hand-typed labels. Ordering a special sparkling wine that's name matched the last name of the groom and making sure we had the groom-to-be's favorite beer on hand. Baking cookies that matched the feel of the event.