Ain’t No Party Like a Wedding Party!

Long before Dillon and I were engaged, I often pointed out that when the time came we were going to have the coolest wedding party EVER. Both of us are lucky enough to have tight-knit groups of friends that have been together for years and they all definitely know how to have a good time. We feel so grateful to be surrounded by the best people, and because of this I was obsessing over ways we could “propose” that showed just how much we appreciate them in our lives. Friday and Sunday we focused on asking the mini-members of the group, and on Saturday night we came up with excuses that gathered our best man, maid of honor, bridesmaids, groomsmen, and ushers (minus a few from out of town) to our apartment completely unaware of what was to come. In true 347 fashion there were tassels, balloons, glitter, pizza, cocktails, and lots of love. It was the best weekend and really set the stage for all of the fun that will come before and during our big day!

First things first, check out my Junior Bridesmaid! For anyone that’s like “who’s this cutie?!”… meet Kiara. The coolest, funniest, most thoughtful 10-year-old girl around. We were matched through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program 3 years ago and since then she has become such a huge part of my life. She truly is my mini-me and it was really important to me that Kiara was a part of our day. I picked her up to grab some dinner on Friday night, but first made a detour to our apartment. I had to help her read what the lid of the box said because they don’t teach cursive in elementary school anymore (can you believe that?), but once she understood the question she was all in! I asked if she knew what a junior bridesmaid was and she replied “Thats where you, like, wear a pretty dress and walk down the aisle with someone, right?” I said “Yep you got it! But you may end up walking alone because we don’t have a junior groomsman.” Her answer, “Oh, okay. Maybe I could just dance down the aisle then.” The girl totally gets our wedding vibe already! We spent the rest of the night browsing Pinterest and Etsy while watching Say Yes to the Dress. She’s just the best.

You can see below that her box included a miniature version of the bridesmaid robes for the morning of the wedding, some nail polish (which she’s very into right now), and box with a ring pop inside. The lid and tag were made with my new Cricut. I’ve been having so much fun with it! Definitely a must for DIY brides.

Still on a high from my fun girls night with Kiara, Saturday morning I jumped out of bed and started decorating our place for the surprise party! I scattered some Bridesmaids quotes around, added number balloons that spelled out our wedding date and put the proposal boxes in plain sight for when they walked through the door. My girlfriends thought they were coming over for our monthly girls-only wine night and Dillon’s dudes thought they were coming for a low-key guys thing. They all showed up one after the other and were like “what’s going on?!”.

Once everyone got settled we passed the gifts out and watched excitedly as they opened them and said YES! The guys commented on how the flasks would be put to good use on our wedding day and the girls whipped out their phones right away to post pics on Instagram, just the responses I would have expected.

This was my first official “Wedding DIY” and I had so much fun making it all! The tags, champagne flutes, cards, and lids were all customized using my Cricut. I’m hesitant to do Cricut tutorials on 347 because it’s not super helpful unless you buy the machine, but I totally recommend that you do. With how much it would have cost to custom order all of these pieces from Etsy, I probably already made back what was spent on it. And I haven’t even started the wedding decor yet!

For the girls: a custom card, a robe for the morning of, personalized champagne flutes, glittered-mini-champagne bottles, a fun coaster and a flower that coordinates with our wedding palette.

For the guys: a custom flask (I didn’t make these, we ordered from here), mini bottle of Knob Creek, and a cigar. #ManThings

Once the pizza was eaten and balloons were popped, Dillon and I headed to our family Easter celebrations the next morning to continue the fun. We asked Dillon’s adorable little cousin, Annabel, to be our flower girl and as you can tell by the photo she was very excited. And I am very excited that I was able to get a coordinating bridal party robe made to be as tiny as she is. Can you handle how freakin cute that is?! Annabel’s box included the robe, a ring pop, and some flower seed packets.

Next up was my nephew and favorite dude, Collin James. We asked him with a ton of ring pops and a custom T-Shirt. The shirt was also made with my Cricut, are you catching the pattern here?! You need one! As expected, he tossed the shirt over his shoulder and went straight for the candy without even realizing what he was being asked. He has been a ring bearer once before and I’m pretty sure still has no clue what it means, but we’ll work on it!

PHEW! It feels good to get another thing checked off the list. One Maid of Honor, One Best Man, 5 Bridesmaids, 5 Groomsmen, 2 Ushers, a Junior Bridesmaid, a Ring Bearer, a Flower Girl… and with my wedding-crazed brain I’m not sure they realize just what they agreed to 😉 Good thing we bribed them with all of that sweet stuff! Just kidding, kind of. Really though, I just love each and every one of these people so much. Lillian said it best with “This is such a stone-cold pack of weirdos, and I am so proud!”

If you’re inspired by any of these ideas, post your own wedding party proposal pics with #347GetsHitched, my new hashtag for all things wedding related! Thanks for following along on my road to becoming Mrs. Martinez (finally!).