mr. ramen and i have entered the twilight zone in life when all of our friends and families are getting married/engaged... last year, i attended a whopping 8 weddings... this year, we've collectively been invited to 7 weddings, not including ours..... WHEW! (4 were in the month of august alone!)
in my extended family, one of my cousins has gotten married each year since '06! (ours will be the 2nd wedding in 09). on top of that, sister/MOH ramen got engaged 4 months after me and will be getting married in the summer of 2010! (so that's 2 weddings in my immediate family - in 6 months! yes, my parents are excited, haha)
i had the extreme privilege of swapping places with my sister (remember, she hid and took pictures of my engagement from afar) and helping surprise her at her engagement back in April - and plan a surprise dessert celebration engagement party later that evening for her and her fiance. and because we all love a good engagement story:
since they met while attending the same church during their undergrad days at UCSD, FBIL Ramen decided to plan to revisit some of their "spots" in La Jolla/SD that were significant to their relationship before his proposal.... so he made a little schedule for the day....
his plan was to take her on an "evening stroll" around coronado island before dinner... where they would sit down on the grass, enjoy the afternoon, and he would propose..... little did he know that there was a wedding that was going on in the exact place he wanted to propose!!!!!
this beautiful wedding was actually being photographed by Melissa Jill, a Phoenix area photographer (who has actually photographed a few of my friends' weddings)! Craaaaazy. I actually took this picture for inspiration for myself (black dresses, awesome flowers). Is that creepy? Uhhhhhh.... anyways!
so FBIL Ramen led Sister Ramen to the opposite side to hang out; she wanted to watch the wedding, and he wanted to have a long meaningful chat... hahah. most of their relationship has been long distance and they've been very committed to writing each other LETTERS. on PAPER. too cute! so as part of his proposal, FBIL Ramen actually wrote a long letter to Sister Ramen. At the end he pulled her to her feet, got down on one knee and proposed! I actually don't have a picture of this moment, because I was busy taking a video to show my parents.
Sister Ramen was sooooo shocked that she didnt' realize they had their own private paparazzi!!!! FBIL Ramen had arranged for his good friend, Jeremy to take pictures of the engagement.... Because Mr. Ramen and I had gotten engaged so recently, and because FBIL Ramen had said he wasn't quite ready, Sister Ramen was not expecting a proposal so soon - and her shock and joy were quite apparent....
It was soooo crazy to be a part of this ultimate surprise! And of course the ring - FBIL Ramen picked out a beautiful round cut center stone, surrounded by 2 pears (he might have had a little bit of help from yours truly; because that's what sisters are for!)
They went to dinner to bask in their love and newly-engaged status, while the rest of us scurried off to set up a surprise dessert party for them! I got to pull out my party-planning hat, and came up with some quick and easy decorations....
Such as the ever-easy brown paper bag luminarias. I used a bunch of different shaped hole-punches and 2 different sized bags. Punch holes in a random pattern, drop in a tealight and voila! Instant pretty!
Another simple decoration - paper chandeliers! You essentially punch/cut out a bunch of different sized circles, and then you can tape or glue them to a piece of string. These look good when they're a bit random, and look the best if you use different kinds of paper. The flowers they are holding are actually some ranunculus that I found at Costco!!! That place rocks.
The plethora of desserts we supplied (Sister Ramen is NOTORIOUS for her sweet tooth!) - Kahlua Cheesecake, Tiramisu, Ice Cream Cake, Miss Ramen's famous cookies, and Ice Cream - and a little Martinellis to toast!
One of Sister Ramen's friends let us use his house - and even painted a congrats sign for them -so sweet (and YES, he knew there was typo...)... I'm soooo happy for my sister, and am looking forward to getting to focus on her wedding - it's also made it easier to justify buying certain things since we can share them! Did you get to share the timing of your engagement/wedding planning with someone close to you?
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