It all started off so civilised and then a ping pong ball changed everything!

Since we got engaged, we have been trying our hardest to save, save, save. Numerous pots around the flat are being filled with spare change, new savings accounts are being opened and we are generally trying our hardest to be "good"..... every penny counts! However, I'm not going to lie, I'm struggling- I've NEVER been good at saving- there's always SOMETHING I need to get. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to clothes and things for the house, I can literally talk myself into "needing" anything!! However, with the wedding only 9 months away I have made it my mission to save and have vowed to do anything in my power to scrape every penny together and give up all those indulgences that - quite frankly- I . do . not . need! (must keep repeating).

With that in mind, we wanted to have an engagement party that didn't cost all our hard earned savings (thus far) and would bring everyone together in one place. So, we decided to decorate the flat and garden, open the whole place out, pray for nice weather, send Tilly off to the baby sitter for the night and have an engagement party at home!
As with any party, there are always going to be cancellations and no shows. Therefore we thought instead of potentially having a venue where no one turned up and then having a rather large cover charge to pay, that we would have it at home so that in the event of no one turning up we could just be two little pigs and have our own party.

The weather had been utterly horrific all week, rain after more rain after even more rain and then as Saturday drew upon us the BBC suddenly gave us a glimmer of hope with one whole yellow sunshine.

I'd spent the weeks running up to the party collating bits and pieces, lanterns, candle bags, balloons, bunting and other party paraphernalia as to spread out the cost and make sure I wasn't too red in the face and stressed by the actual day!
We spent Saturday morning decorating. The flat was an array of lanterns hanging from everything I could possibly hang things on! I bought these beautiful coloured paper lanterns from ebay and some LED candles- as not to burn the flat down- and they worked just beautifully. As the sun went down and night swept over us the lanterns came alive, ablaze of colours. Outside we put down rugs and cushions for people to sit on, more lanterns, candle bags and tea lights a plenty. The trees are decorated in fairy lights all year round anyway which added to atmosphere.

    One of our favourite wedding savers. . . this one was a gorgeous gift from a great friend, Ami 

    Home made vodka drink, cucumber, lime, lemonade and a LOT of vodka, refreshing and delicious!

Party food:
I LOVE baking and making - as you can probably tell from the numerous sweet treat posts. So, on this occasion I put my baking cap on and set to making cake pops- or cake balls on a stick in more obvious terms. These were such fun to make. I bought the cake pop moulds and sticks off a cake making kit website and made up the spongy balls about a week prior to the party and froze them- ready to be decorated on the day.

Decorating the cake pops was messy, sticky but such fun. 3 bowls were set out, one with melted white chocolate, one dark and one milk, then I set out sprinkles and dessicated coconut. It was a dip and stick operation but oh so much fun. I felt about 8 yrs old again as I decorated these sticky chocolate balls on sticks, one sprinkle of chocolate for you, two for me.....

Somewhat stupidly and slightly caught up in the "party" moment I didn't get any other close up pictures other than what I have here!

Surprise cakes:
Since Christmas we have had a tin of Quality streets that just weren't going down (all the ones we didn't really like left- shh)... so I decided to use them, I made a cupcake base and poured half in to a case and then dropped in a chocolate (mostly the chocolate fudge ones)- then over the top I poured more cake mixture. Others I used apple and walnut and then in the remainder I used a dollop of nutella and a hazelnut. No one knew what they were going to find (made sure there were no nut allergy sufferers- don't worry)- and people's excitement was rife as they bit in to the cakey surprise...all decorated with thick pink cream cheese icing and a blueberry! One friend couldn't stop eating them as she got so over excited by what she might find!

Homemade heart chocolates with sprinkles and raspberry.
With 85% cocoa chocolate and a tsp of sugar (to take off the bitterness) I melted about 3 lindt bars down, sprinkled in to the heart moulds pink glitter sprinkles and then poured the chocolate half way. I then dropped in half a raspberry (generous, I know) and filled the rest of the mould with chocolate. When they were set (in the fridge for about 2 hrs) they came out glistening and against a white plate looked just divine.

Amy (left) wears a French Connection dress from this season.  I (right) am wearing a Virgos Lounge embellished jacket, Zara vest top, Miss Selfridge skinny jeans and Dune wedges.

Bunting from Accesorize and paper doves from Tiger. 

Kate and Lottie loved the pop cakes!

Beautiful home-made cakes from my amazingly talented friend Lara! 

As the light faded and night drew in, the candles were lit and the colours came alive.

Things started to go from civilised to slightly mad. Kate wears a beautiful dress from Zara.

As the sun went down and the temperature rapidly dropped everyone came inside, most congregating around the kitchen table to watch a very fun and somewhat competitive game of Beer Pong. If you don't know about beer pong here's a good link describing the rules.

    Elation! I had just won beer pong for my team so the other team had to decide who was going to drink "the drink" in the middle of the table...


     After a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, it was poor old Will who had to drink.

The Dream Team... or so they thought! 

What started as one game ended up going on and on . . .

and on. . .  


           

. . .re match after rematch, until at 3am we had literally drunk the bar dry (Simon's shocked face at hearing this above).

As the last party goers left (after finding a secret bottle, apparently) at 4am, we clambered in to bed buzzing with happiness at the successful evening.

The kindness of strangers. . .

Having visited Paris once before with two girlfriends on a lovely but rushed trip desperately trying to find vintage shops- with none of us speaking a word of French, I had always wished to go back with my boyfriend!

Then, on Feb 14th this year P produced two Eurostar tickets as a surprise! Since then I hadn't thought much about it- swept up in the excitement of holiday and then getting engaged!

Suddenly, before we knew it the date for Paris was upon us and we were packing our suitcases! Leaving work for a half day (always very exciting) we headed first to meet amazing jewellery designer - Patrick Wyatt to collect my engagement ring! I can't describe the feeling when I first saw it, glistening in Patrick's hands as he ran it up to us straight from the polishers wheel and put it in it's beautiful box! I couldn't believe how this piece of unique treasure was designed for me. . . and what an incredible piece of perfection Patrick had created. 

       

Lots of thankful kisses and hugging of Patrick "the genius" Wyatt later and with time ticking and our train time looming we sprinted out of the building bobbing through Hatton Garden onto the tube to St Pancras. . . Making it by literally the skin of our teeth we swooped through security and boarded the train.

Now for a very rare story portraying the kindness of strangers:

We sat opposite each other on a table seat, two men sitting next to us. We exchanged hello's and pleasant chit chat, I obviously- all this while couldn't stop staring at my ring. No sooner had we taken off, one of the men- Dennis - asked whether congratulations were in order- I explained that we'd been engaged for 4 weeks but had just got the ring! Anyway- the journey commenced and Dennis popped off. When he came back he produced us with a bottle of champagne and two glasses and said we couldn't take the Eurostar to Paris without a bottle of Champagne to celebrate! They wouldn't let us share it with them saying it was just for us to enjoy.  We just could not believe it- the kindest of total stranger.  Popping the champagne and enjoying every gulp, the rest of the journey we sat chatting to the Dennis and his lovely friend all the way to Gare du Nord. Already surprised by their kind gesture of champagne they then would not take no for an answer by giving us two metro tickets on arrival. The kindest men who literally walked in to and out of our lives in less than 2 hrs. So weird how that happens isn't it

Paris itself was just perfect, we stayed with friends for the first night which incorporated lots and lots of wine, amazing home cooked food, more ring staring and a unanimous 12am decision to walk to the Eiffel Tower, watching it glitter as the clock struck 1 am and then hopping on to Paris's version of Boris Bikes and cycling around the deserted streets of Paris, giddy and laughing- especially when P's pedal fell off....  only then realising that we all had flat tyres. Promptly putting the bikes back we headed home for bed!

                  

                 

Waking up on Saturday morning to paper bags full of oozing pan au chocolat, warm French stick and gooey pan au raisin- my ultimate favourite! Laure made hot chocolate - which was just divine, apparently her secret weapon was to cook it for a while in a pan and adding some sugar...naughty- but just unreal! Full up we set off, camera around neck for a full days exploring of sunny and romantic Paris.

Firstly hitting the deliciously colourful market next to Dave and Laure's house.

Some of the market men were just as delicious looking as the food ;o)

  

  

Saturday night we headed to our hotel in St Germain de Pris to get ready for a night out. We headed out to Monmartre with Dave and Laure for the evening, such a beautiful place! Buzzing little street cafes, all centralised on a hill looking over Paris, a true romantics dream.

                           

Dave and Laure took us to their favourite place to eat, Cafe Au Reve a little neighbourhood restaurant, typically French and boy was the food just divine! Bread, snails, goats cheese, salmon and avocado salads, burgers (not French but homemade and delicious), cheese boards, red wine, white wine, vodka and then puddings... Well you know my love of anything sweet!
I went for a taster selection of puddings and it was incredible! I could not pick a favourite as they were all so delicious and more-ish, lots of cream, chocolate and flavour!
We finished the evening off with a much needed walk around Monmartre (Note: Heels are NOT appropriate footwear!!!), taking in the incredibly lit skyline and the Eiffel Tower and then wondered down to the Pigalle strip - ie. Paris's version of Soho. Lots of strip bars, naughty shops, stag parties and then at the end.... the famous Moulin Rougue.

           

Sunday morning and the sun was shining. We had a leisurly breakfast and then checked out ready for another days exploration. In Paris, every thing's shut on a Sunday - but to be honest this really saved my bank card and just allowed us to do more exploring, covering some more markets, all the major sites and more and of course stopping for numerous treat breaks! Paris deserves no less.

The beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg - you cannot go to Paris without visiting this stunning place!

Flower and bird market near to Notre Dame

We caught the last Eurostar back from Paris to London with a very large dose of love, a pang of nostalgia and some amazing memories. . . desperate to book another trip in the very near future! Needless to say, our trip back on the Eurostar wasn't quite as delightful, sitting next to a couple who argued the whole way back. Typical.

Emi x