I've Acquired a Fiance!!! - My Engagement Ceremony

!!!

With a fiance comes a lot of planning. When I set out to plan my traditional Vietnamese engagement ceremony, I got a lot more planning than I bargained for. To start, how was I supposed to fit my HUGE family in my tiny house? I had to fit around 60 guests, so using the backyard was a must. Luckily, I have a decent sized yard with a lot of open space. I measured the space and then played around with it to see what table configuration would be best to fit everyone. I even set up a few tables and chairs to measure how much space is needed between the tables or the table and the wall in order for everyone to feel comfortable.

It looked like I needed an 18' x 20' area to be covered, because my engagement ceremony is in July, and the heat was promising to be tremendous. Renting or buying a tent of that size was not an option due to cost reasons, so we decided to construct our own tent, circus style. We bought a giant tarp with UV protectant to cover the whole 18' x 20' area. How it was constructed is a whole post in itself, so stay posted. I must warn you, I will get pretty technical. =P

It turned out so awesome I wanted it up forever! What helped was that my super awesome bridesmaids showed up to help me decorate it! Fellow blogger: SanJose. Love (check out her blog! It's listed on the left) jokingly suggested we could do a maypole to decorate the center pole. Which I took seriously, to everyone's cautiously intrigued dismay. 1.5 hours later, et voila!! See below:

The twists got a little flat overnight due to the dew... (and not of the Mountain variety, either) Not sure how to fight that though.

Like my lanterns from Vietnam? I KNEW they would be useful one day. Unfortunately, I found out they are kinda one time use...

Another thing I haven't bargained for was testing out my seamstress abilities. We had to set up a fancy altar, which we don't have. So, we made our own out of my fireplace, a makeshift shelf and some satin fabric. My mom and I cut and finished the edges of the fabric. The store where we rented all the altar stuff didn't have the right wording on any sign, so we had to buy the paper words and I had sew them to the fabric so that it would hang above the Moon Goddess.

My mom was in charge of picking out the food, and she chose so many dishes from so many different locations, it was crazy. We had to pick up a lot of it the morning of and be back at my house by 10.

So how were we able to do that? Again, I'm so lucky to have such helpful bridesmaids. I paired them and my brothers up into teams. I then divided 2-3 locations for each team by location. I thought it would be fun to make it sound like a mission, so I wrote out mission letters to each team with the directions, order of the pick ups, and what they are picking up. Also, I included the cash plus $20 needed for each location, in case we got the price wrong, or whatnot. The morning of, as each team arrives, I handed them each an envelope containing the letter an the cash. I must say, it went pretty smoothly and I was able to not worry about the food and focus on beautifying myself.

The most important thing is to give yourself a lot of time and relax. Don't be afraid of taking a day off the day before to do things at your own pace or delegate things that need to be done. Looking back at the pictures, I realized that everyone, including myself had fun, and that's what's important.