My Sister Is Engaged!!!!

There is so much to fill you all in on, I don't even know where to start. This is going to be out of order but oh well! Gotta start somewhere.

So as I mentioned a few weeks ago... my sister is engaged!!!! Her boyfriend of five years, JM, proposed to her on August 1st and we all showed up in NYC to surprise her :)

Before I share the story and pictures, let's have some real talk. As a lifelong lover of the spotlight and being the center of attention, it took me a GREAT DEAL OF TIME to warm up to the idea of my sister and me being engaged at the same time. Was not my favorite idea, I cannot tell a lie. But JM was insistent that this was when he wanted to do it and I knew how happy she would be, so I got on board. What, you didn't think I was going to MISS MY LITTLE SISTER'S ENGAGEMENT, did you?! 

(Sidebar: we were at a friend's wedding together last weekend and everyone kept coming up to congratulate Bailey. One lady said to me, "Are you SO excited?" Bailey and I started laughing - my response, somewhat hysterically, was "YES!!!! IT'S EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED, TO BE ENGAGED AT THE SAME TIME AS MY LITTLE SISTER!!!! ISNT IT AMAZING?!")

Haha. I kid, I kid.

So here's how he did it. Unlike us, JM and Bailey are private people... no proposing onstage at a comedy club for them! He popped the question just the two of them, alone in their apartment, in the middle of the afternoon with flowers and champagne. So sweet. Of course, as soon as it happened Bailey started calling our family to tell them - she first called my mom, who told her that I was on my plane home from Israel and she would have to wait to tell me... Little did Bailey know this was all a ruse and our entire family had flown to NYC to surprise her! We were all hiding in a hotel waiting for the big reveal - I had landed at 4am that morning from Israel and went directly to the hotel.

So JM told Bailey that they were going to be celebrating that night at her favorite restaurant, ABC Kitchen. She had NO IDEA that months beforehand, he had arranged for his entire side of the family and my entire side of the family to be there, in the private back room, for an AMAZING dinner celebrating them. 

Almost 25 members of our family and his family stood there and shouted "SURPRISE!" as she walked in! She of course burst into tears immediately... Rami got it all on video but I don't know where it is - so here's a picture of us hugging :)

He had arranged for an amazing family-style set menu and even got them to print up these adorable little menus with their names and date on them.

Everything was PHENOMENAL. My favorite was their famous dungeness crab toast!

Some cute family pics...

The newly engaged couple! So cute. She swore she didn't know we were all going to be there - as she puts it, "I wouldn't have worn a crop top if I knew we were going to be seeing Grandma." Haha.

The next day we had more family time - breakfast at their apartment and a little afternoon snack at Shake Shack with our cousins in the park:

Me and MY fiance put on a little photoshoot and it was pretty cute if I do say so myself :)

So how does it stand now? R and I are getting married in just over two months and until our wedding is over, Bailey is on a moratorium from even MENTIONING hers :) My mother says "I can only focus on one wedding at a time" but after November, I'm sure I'll be filling you in on all Bay's wedding details. All I can say is, it's gonna be the polar opposite of mine :)

MAZEL TOV B AND JM! I love you guys so much!!!!