As we’re still at the height of engagement season, it’s about time I shared all the details from our own engagement party!

Going through our home renovation, I realized the importance of choosing a theme whether it’s for a room or an event. It doesn’t have to be overly dramatic or cheesy, but something to tie everything together and give a sense of intention whether it’s to a space or a gathering, is the essence of a curated experience or place.

Pretty much as soon as we were engaged, I had this idea in my head for a toile inspired design as the pattern influenced a lot of our home details and is a favourite of mine. This was such a beautiful and special day to plan, and I hope it can give you some inspiration to make your own special day feel and look like YOU and nothing else.

Why an Engagement Party?

Maybe your friends or relatives want to surprise you with one or maybe you want to plan one for yourselves. Either way, an engagement party is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on this big moment in your lives and take it all in before the logistics of wedding planning start to take centre stage. We wanted to gather with our closest family and wedding party and celebrate in a way that we love best: brunch! Aesthetically, I liked the idea of exploring something different from how our wedding will be so the Distillery District was a perfect choice. Cluny Bistro is also one of our favourites in the city and just has this effortless French elegance to it, and mixed with the industrial modern vibe of the Distillery, et voilà.

A Pre-Party Stroll

Even though we knew we wanted our engagement photos to be at our new home later in the summer, we wanted to take some time before the brunch to take a stroll in the Distillery and took our photographer, Muguet Photography along. Engagement, pre-party, lifestyle, whatever-you-want photos, are always an amazing opportunity to work with photographers, get comfortable in front of the camera and get used to it for your wedding day. We’re not exactly camera shy but it was a wonderful experience to not only be in front of the camera, but also just to take those moments alone.

Whether it’s a party or the wedding, there is a lot of planning and prep involved, so any chance you get to schedule time for reflection to soak it all in, do it. It’s about 10 months since we’ve gotten engaged and to be honest, it feels like 2. Everything they say about it all going by too fast is true, so my advice is to slow down when you can, be together, and take it all in.

I love these photos so much. It was the Saturday of the May long weekend and of course the Distillery was buzzing and there was an artist showcase, people everywhere. You can see it in the photos, our joy to be walking around celebrating us and our engagement, not caring who was staring.

My advice: this time in your life is about you. Some people might make it harder than others, but don’t forget that you deserve this special time. Enjoy yourself. Take the photos. Do what makes both of you happy. You’ll look back in a few years and be so thankful you did.

The Details

You know I live in the details, and these were the most fun to put together. We had brunch, we had toile and we had romance. The room itself is stunning and didn’t need much, but I was in love with these toile inspired vases from Maison de Sienna and decided to put together some small arrangements myself. I picked them up from Unionville and endeavoured to get what I need for the mini-arrangements from one of my favourite local florists, Oleander Floral Design. However, it was the week after Mother’s Day and most shops were completely cleaned out of their roses. I picked up some pretty greenery from them, and eventually found the roses I was looking for at another local gem, Vanderfleet. The night before the party was filled with many “Office” episodes, processing the flowers and preparing the centrepieces. Since I was getting my hair and makeup done in the morning, my bridesmaids were helping me to set everything up early and I wanted to make it as easy as possible for them.

The custom newspapers are one of my favourite things I’ve ever made. To go with the brunch theme, I loved the idea of doing a “weekend crossword” type of section so my sister and I thought it would be neat to create this mini-newspaper to mark the occasion. There are templates and even printing shops you can find on Etsy, but to achieve our level of customization we decided to do it ourselves and print on an architectural printer we had access to. I ordered some newsprint from Staples and thought it would be a piece of cake to print - after all, if I knew how to print architectural drawings surely I could do this.

Well, I could, but it proved a lot more difficult than I thought. I had to pre-cut each sheet, and then to top it off, the printer would only let me feed one sheet at a time since they were so thin and kept getting chewed up in the printer. It took about 6 hours just to print but I think the result was really worth it. We included the story of how we proposed, an early “sneak peek” at wedding details since we had a few things booked, as well as a little game of “where in the world are they?” with some of our favourite travel photos. One of my favourite moments of the whole day was watching as our friends and family excitedly sat down and discovered the newspapers, and took take care to go through them and some even got really competitive with the crossword!

As for favours, we again continued the toile and French theme, and had mini honey jars customized with a “Merci!” sticker that matched our invitations, menus and place cards.

For the guestbook, I wanted something we’ll actually look at all the time and so I found a blue globe and our guests signed their wishes all over the globe that now sits in our living room.

And I can’t mention details without mentioning the art that Kassandra at Holden Grace designed for my manicure. I showed her photos of the pattern and of our stationery and she turned them into this hand painted creation. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: trust your team.

Finally, the cake. You can’t have brunch without waffles and man oh man did Cakelaine deliver. I gave her my rough ideas and she turned it into this masterpiece. Not only did she nail it, she coordinated the cake stand, and even set it all up for us just as brunch was starting. Fresh, delicious and a HUGE hit, this waffle cake is going to stay in my heart forever. And because we’re extra, instead of a cake cutting, Nick and I joined together to pour the syrup all over this waffle masterpiece and served our guests.

I’ll always cherish this special day, when we got to relax, enjoy our favourite meal and surround ourselves with so much love. My heart swells up just thinking about, don’t know what I’m going to do the closer we get to the wedding!

The gist: take your time. Take it all in. Remember that this time is about celebrating your love and however that looks like for you. Design from the heart and design for yourself. Your love, passion and details will flow and your guests will leave feeling the love that intentional design brings together.