Last week, I told you all about flying to California and the proposal. After finding an apartment in California, we boarded a plane and flew home to see friends and family. This post is going to be very picture heavy!

One of the things I wanted to accomplish in Charleston was getting a picture in front of the Blind Tiger Pub, where we first met. It was one of the first things we did while we were in Charleston (after celebrating the engagement with my sister and crashing from jet lag).


While I loved our trip down memory lane to where we first began, it wasn’t my favorite part of the trip. My absolute favorite part was the going away/engagement party that my family threw me.

Did I mention that they all knew that he would be proposing before I did? My sister used that time to start planning the party, complete with a nautical theme. Since our wedding was going to be in Arkansas with just family, I was super excited to celebrate with family and friends. 

Remember when I said that this post was going to be picture heavy? Well, here’s a lot of pictures from the party for you to enjoy! My family (largely my sister on the planning) did a fantastic job of making it perfect for us!

Crab Sandwiches

Blue & Yellow 
I think someone visited my Pinterest page!
Cake
Going Away Signs
 Bouquet Toss for the Men
I love the smile on my dad’s face in this picture!
 Cutting the cake together
My nephew was very helpful during the gift opening!
Posing with my best friend and her husband
Guests wrote advice on slips and put them into a bottle to be “Message in a Bottle”.  Then, they added sand from Charleston to the bottle.
My sister found our favorite wine and had the guests sign it. We’ll be opening this bottle on our first anniversary instead of eating our wedding cake. (Cake doesn’t travel very well!)
My sister also had coasters for people to decorate to celebrate us moving from “Coast to Coast.”
The saying for the evening. I still have this frame in my apartment.
Love the backyard decorations!
Posing for a picture with my sister. Yes, those are glow necklaces on our head. We were playing ring toss with them after everyone left.
Finally posing for a picture together.

 Trying to get an artistic picture of my ring.



I am so glad that I got to spend one of my last days in Charleston celebrating with my closest friends and family. It was hard to say goodbye, but we did. Our next adventure was driving a uHaul across the country with all of my belongings packed inside and my car behind it.


Tune in next week to find out about our adventures on the road!