One ring = endless surprises.

It was not a party for Annie's birthday.

But, until August 20th, everyone thought it was. And that was only a small fraction of an intricate plan Annie and I crafted in order to throw an epic surprise engagement party for our best friends, Jason and Jenny.

Rewind - it was a month before the proposal when the idea of a surprise engagement party even popped into our minds. From that moment on, we spent every spare moment we could find planning away. I, along with Annie's boyfriend Mike (who was really just Annie using his Facebook), told Jason and Jenny (and all of our friends) that it was a surprise party for Annie's birthday - and being the kind souls they are, they were so excited to celebrate Annie and agreed to take her out to dinner. What they didn't know was that when they thought they were walking into a birthday party, they were actually walking into an engagement party. Needless to say, the reaction was nothing short of surprise:

We also told all of our friends that it was a surprise for Annie, to ensure that we didn't blow Jason's first surprise: the proposal! So when he finally proposed (3 days before the party) and they announced it to the world, we quickly messaged all our friends to tell them the truth. Everyone was SUCH good sport and so willing to help make the party a huge success! We definitely couldn't have done it without every single person there. And, as you can see, we were all SO excited:

We had such a fun night planned - and it all started with some awesome decor. THANK YOU so much to everyone who came early and helped set up, and a special thanks to my mom and sister for really pulling everything together. So awesome.

Nikki assembling the champagne tower! She was a champ! (pun intended)

Annie and I had prepared a toast, complete with a dramatic reading of a poem we wrote especially for the lovebirds:

 As a second surprise, we prepared a game in which the future bride and groom had to answer questions about their relationship, without looking at each other. We made Jason and Jenny "heads" that they used - the would hold up the head of whomever they believed was the answer to the question. For example - "Who is a better cook?" (Jenny ;) )There were certainly some fun questions where the answers didn't match. ;)

Annie and I testing out the heads!

We ended the night with a video we prepared for them, full of well wishes and great memories. It was great to have all our friends in one place, to celebrate two people we love. We would do it again and again for these two, but we won't put them through any more shock for awhile. :)

Jason & Jenny, we love you. And that's the bottom line. Cheers to you guys, you deserve all that is good in the world. Thanks for letting us all come along. :)

Until our next surprise party (which won't be for AWHILE),
C+T.

My fellow party planner. LOVE her. #PP