My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Hi Ladies!
My engagement party was yesterday and it was so wonderful. I had the best time. I felt so happy being able to spend time with my and Brian’s friends and family. The party was at Café Baci yesterday in the afternoon. I thought I would do a mini review for all the new brides who are planning an engagement party. My wedding is not for a while so I thought this would be fun . I will try to be as detailed as possible. I know us brides love ALL the details!

Invitations – I wanted something fun and cute. I found a woman on ebay who made handmade invitations. The ebay store is Fluttering Heart Creations. I told her I wanted to do a blue theme for the party and she sent me some samples and this is the one I picked. They were $1.99 each. She was so easy to get in touch with and a great person to work with.


Fluttering Heart Creations Ebay Store

Here is the invite:


Favors – A while ago I had signed up to receive theknot.com deal of the day email. These little coffee packets were on sale one day for under $1 each and I knew they would be perfect. They say “The Perfect Blend” and have our names on the coffee cups. It makes a pot of 10-12 cups of Columbian coffee. They were a hit! Theknot.com was fast and I received the coffee in about a week after ordering.





Ribbon – was also purchased on ebay to wrap the favors with. The seller was efavormart and a spool of 150 feet of ribbon was $3.99. Great deal and great service! Received the item in 3 days from California!



Flowers – I wanted some fresh flowers on the table and wanted to try to make them myself. Another bride gave me a tip about a website called Online Wholesale Flowers and they sell flowers wholesale to the public. So I saw another thread where the flowers were blue hydrangea and white roses and thought that would be perfect. I ordered 100 white roses, 25 black magic roses, 10 stems of hydrangea and 2 bunches of bear grass. The shipping was free for an order over $150 and also no tax. So for $170 I was able to get beautiful fresh flowers. I bought the cobalt blue glass vases from a local florist for $5 each. Used the leftover ribbon to wrap the vase with. The flowers were shipped overnight from the grower on Thursday. Brian and I had to cut all the stems under water and take all the leaves off. Also had to take all the retaining petals off so they were able to open up and bloom beautifully. Thanks to SonicStef for all the tips on flower care and putting them in large buckets to allow the flowers to open up. I was nervous and it worked out perfectly. Used the rose petals we took off to spread on the tables. I am a flower addict so I took many pictures of flowers.

Here are the flowers after they were cut underwater and while they were opening up.













Bear Grass to give a funky touch:




Here is the arrangement I made with the Black Magic roses for the gift table and then to give to my Grandmother:




Here are the white rose/ blue hydrangea arrangements after we made them Saturday morning:












Can you tell I love taking pictures of flowers? haha

Ok now onto the best part…

Café Baci in Westbury – this place is so amazing. I have been going here for the past 6 years and knew I wanted to have the party here. They are so reasonably priced and the food is unbelievable. We had 5 tables of 10 and 2 waitresses. They were so on top of everything. The manager Charlie was so accommodating and kept asking if we needed anything. He was awesome! Also they print out menus for you to have on the table. My FH called to see if he could print blue menus and he went out and purchased blue paper special for us and it matched everything perfectly. The package price for a party is unreal for the amount of food you get. Here was the menu for $27.99 a person plus tax and gratuity:

First Appetizer – fresh mozzarella and tomatoes on garlic bread.

Second Pasta Appetizer – Choice of One.
Rigatoni Liquorosi – rigatoni with vodka sauce
Penne alla Caprese – penne sautéed with fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce, touch of cream
Cavatappi Toscani – pasta twists with Italian sausage, fresh broccoli rabe, diced tomato, garlic and oil
Ravioli Pomodoro – cheese filled ravioli in fresh tomato sauce

Choice on Entrée –
Pollo Baci – breast of chicken covered with melted Italian cheeses, cream sauce, zucchini, eggplant, and a touch of tomato sauce
Pollo Campagnola – boneless pieces of chicken with peppers, roasted potato and onions, sautéed in garlic and oil
Scaloppine Parma – veal scaloppini with prosciutto, grilled eggplant, homemade mozzarella cheese in a light tomato sauce
Brodetto Baci – shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams and calamari in a light tomato sauce, served over linguine

Dessert – a piece of fresh tiramisu for everyone

Price included coffee, tea, soft drinks, espresso and cappuccino.

So the food was so good and almost everyone had take home meals there was so much food. They even wrapped up the leftover tiramisu and gave to me to hand out to guests.

Alcohol was not included so I put carafes of wine on the table and ran a tab at the bar for anyone wanting hard liquor. I got my 2 cosmos in!

Baci definitely lived up to their hype and I was so pleased and so were all of our guests. Now onto the pictures.

Here are the way the tables looked all set up with the flowers, favors and menus.










The Menu:




So it was an awesome party. I loved every minute of it. Hope you enjoyed my review!

Message edited 8/25/2004 7:20:44 PM.

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

What a great review
I can't see pics though

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

The only pic I can see is the ribbon

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

I am able to. Can everyone else see them?

Kim

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Kim i see nothing

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

What a fantastic & thorough review! (sorry I couldn't see the pics ).
Glad you had a good time!

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Can you try again? I had to make the photo album public.

Kim

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Still cannot see the pics, sounds like you had a blast!!! Congrats.

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

I can only see the invites, ribbon and coffee
But Im glad you had such a great time!

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Ok all fixed

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Wow- great centerpices- good job!

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

It's fixed!

What a great review & great pictures! I really love how you personalized your party with all the little touches...the flowers were gorgeous and the favors and menus went perfectly with your blue theme. It looks like you had so much fun planning this party!

I have eaten at Baci twice--once my co-workers took me there after a promotion and again after future BIL graduated from Dowling. I absolutely love Baci, I think it is some of the best Italian food around.

Your pics are great & your grandmother looks so young!!!

Thanks for sharing!

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

The flowers were beautiful and you looked great. Congratulations! We had our engagement party last Oct. I had a great time.

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

I'm glad you had such a great day!

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Great review. Your flowers looked fantastic!!!

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

The place looked great! Those little coffee packets were a great idea.

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Beautiful Kim
I can't wait to see your wedding pics

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

What great pics! Congratulations! Looks like a fantastic party. I love the flowers you and your mom have pinned on, and the one in your sister's hair - so pretty! And your Grandma is too cute!

I also am jealous of your tiffany-blue paper!!! It is a had color to find, and my wedding things morphed into a smoky blue when I couldn't find tiffany blue things. Love the flowers too!

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Hello silly! I know you. This is Elana Coscetta. My sister is Melissa and my brother is Michael. That is too funny. Such a small world. Tell your sister I said hello. How is your planning going. Your flowers were gorgeous. You did all that for the e-party-wow that is great. I cant tell who Jaime is in the picture. Tell her I said hello also. I just had my e-party on friday. We had a great time. So let me know whats new.
Elana

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

wow! Congrats, Kim SO happy your engagement party was so wonderful !

You gave such a great review, so much detail .. so many brides-2-be will be grateful for that!

It looks like an amazing day and I'm so very impressed with everything and all the attention to detail. The flowers look exquisite, I can only imagine how amazing your wedding will be

most of all you are just so happy and glowing in your pics, you will be a lovely bride

Good Luck!

Message edited 8/16/2004 10:13:54 AM.

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Everything sounds wonderful!! The flowers came out GREAT -- good job!!

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Very nice! Everything looked lovely! And now you have practice planning and preparing everything! Love the Tiffany blue paper!

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Everything looked wonderful!!!!! Congrats!!!

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

Adorable! Great job with the flowers. Your grandmother looks like Bette Midler!

Re: My Engagement Party was so wonderful! Review and Pictures!

EVERYTHING was soooo well done...It was like a mini-wedding..I wish I hired you as my wedding planner..and can't wait to see your wedding pics..