This week we threw an engagement party with ritual, experience, live music, and food.

Tools I used:

• Partiful - to invite guests

• Pens and paper

• The Shredder

• Candles

• Flowers

• Cacao

• Authentic relating games

• Live electronic music + improvised shakers

• Tacos de canasta (basket tacos)

Context

P and I are engaged! We threw a small party to celebrate with old and new friends, and we of course added in lots of silly rituals and games.

Process

We asked each guest to bring a flower, which ended up forming the center of a ritual circle.

The flowers also served as the jumping off point for a few connection games. I asked each person to find the person with the flower most similar to theirs, and paired them up for a game of Emotional Volume Knob.

Then that pair had to find another pair with flowers most similar to theirs. This group of 4 sat down and took turns completing a set of classic Sentence Stems that I’ve used many times at social events. It’s a great way to get people comfortable and connected with new friends.

We then formed a circle. At the start of the event I had everyone write down on paper a few things they wanted to let go of. Instead of burning the paper indoors, we deployed my new favorite toy: a paper shredder (an upgrade prompted by my scissor woes in Week 21 - Worm Farm). I had planned to decorate the shredder into some kind of otherworldly demon or wormhole, but I ran out of time, so it was simply The Shredder.

After each person communed with The Shredder, they made their way to the bar to receive a magical elixir of cacao and other secret ingredients. When the group was ready, we shared a few special memories of how P and I met and when ‘we knew’, then intoned a few collective ‘yummmmmmmmm’s. (Like an ‘ohm’ but tastier - inspired by our former housemate Chris).

The relentless evening programming continued: we all drank the ritual elixir and then lay down. P played a 20 minute live dark ambient electronic set (using Ableton + a Push + an Electron drum machine) while I frolicked among the crowd shaking jars of pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and oats for rhythmic ambience.

earlier in the day (thanks Mo and Jenn for the help!) and they were a big hit with the crowd.

Learnings

• Silly experiences go down well in Mexico too

• Hosting in Spanish is a great challenge, but Spanglish lets me show more of myself, and translating instructions on the fly is also a good way to learn

Next steps

• Organize our wedding