How to Throw an Engagement Party
An engagement party may be the happy couple's last chance to indulge in the joy of being engaged before the chaos of wedding planning begins.
Steps:
1. Create unique party invitations with a fun or silly picture of the couple on the front.
2. Go overboard on decorations. Things that might be tacky or over-the-top at a wedding might be perfect for the engagement party. Think heart-shaped Mylar balloons and plastic silver champagne glasses.
3. Find a good picture of the couple. Either frame it or have it blown up to poster size at Kinko's and hang it in a prominent place.
4. Serve food that is fun, romantic and easy to eat and serve. Ask your caterer for tasty finger foods and appetizers and several decadent deserts. Also make sure you have plenty of champagne as well as some fun "themed" drinks, like a Love Cocktail for instance.
5. Set up a microphone in a prominent location so that, as the evening progresses, people can make toasts to the happy couple.
6. Buy two large white sheets of poster board. Write "Wedding Advice From the Women" across the top of one and "Wedding Advice From the Men" on the other in heavy, dark marker. Attach a pen to each and encourage guests to leave notes about things they learned while planning their own weddings.
7. Give these two sheets to the couple when the party ends.
Tips:
Throw the party in the evening when people are much more inclined to dance and be romantic.
Warnings:
An engagement party is probably not a good candidate for a surprise party. You don't want to risk having the couple stumble into the party in the middle of a "where to have the wedding" fight, or a hot passionate kiss, whichever is more embarrassing.
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Info for Stepney Limousine Service
The Stepney Town Green, originally called Birdsey's Plain, after Joseph Birdsey who settled in the area around 1780, is in the heart of Upper Stepney and is the only green in Monroe owned and maintained by the town today. Originally the site of militia drills, the green quickly grew in size and importance during the nineteenth century, and in 1817 it was set aside as a "place of parade" for "publik use." This "parade" ground officially became Monroe's "second" town green. (The town at that point already had one green at Monroe Center, which was established in 1784 with land donated by Captain Joseph Moss and Nehemiah DeForest. Today that green is owned and maintained by the two churches that face it: Monroe Congregational Church and St. Peter's Episcopal Church.)
In 1839 the Stepney Methodist Church was built on Pepper Street. A decade later local Baptists constructed the Stepney Baptist Church on Main Street, which was a near duplicate of the Methodist Church directly across the road. Because of their structural similarities, the two were referred to as "sister churches," or the "twin churches," by those in the community. In 1973 the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement acquired the former Stepney Methodist Church (which was relocated to Cutler's Farm Road) and transformed it into Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel, where the traditional Latin Mass is still celebrated today.
Presently the green is bordered by an antique store and other quaint retail shops, the two churches, and a cemetery where an apparition called the "White Lady" has often appeared. The Stepney Green is a piece of history nestled in Upper Stepney, which many residents feel should be preserved for generations to come.

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