You Are The Lime to My Margarita
“When life gives you limes, make margaritas”
Jimmy Buffet
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure and honor of hosting an engagement party for my oldest daughter.
Brooke met her fiancé Bradley in 5th grade. Yep, that’s right; the 5th grade. It was Brooke’s first year at a new school where most of the kids had been classmates since kindergarten. Brooke has always been great at making friends, like the old saying goes, she has never met a stranger. This is probably why I wasn’t too concerned when I met Bradley’s mom at back to school night. I was introduced as “Brooke’s mom” to which Bradley’s mom replied, Oh, we have had a lot of conversations about Brooke in our home. To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure how to process that, but knowing that Brooke was outgoing and friendly with the propensity to be the class clown from time to time, I could only imagine she had left some kind of wild impression on her new classmate.
As it turns out Bradley had already identified Brooke as THE girl he was interested in getting to know. Legend has it that Bradley had wanted to ask Brooke to the school dance and when word got back to Brooke, while with her friends and Bradley at ski club; Brooke decided to hide in the bathroom all afternoon so Bradley could not ask her. They did not end up going to the dance that year, but Bradley, undeterred by Brooke’s rebuff was able to work up the courage to ask her for a single dance that night. It is heartwarming to hear them recount this night, outlining all of the anxiety that comes with elementary school dances.
Despite that rocky beginning a true friendship began to develop and flourish. By Jr. High, Bradley had begun praying that God would open Brooke’s heart and that Brooke would be his wife one day. Unfortunately Brooke did not return his affection. It wasn’t until she saw another girl show interest in Bradley, that her perception of him began to change and all of the sudden Bradley began looking like true boyfriend material. They finally began dating in their Jr. year of high school. By their Sr. Year there was already talk of marriage, coupled with college applications and a plan to go to the same University. Sure enough, they did go to the same University and even had the same major. They have been inseparable ever since.
A couple of months ago, in true Brooke fashion; while on a trip to Joshua Tree, Brooke proposed to Bradley. She presented him with a little blue box tied with a white ribbon. The picture below captured the look on Bradley’s face, which says it all. Thankfully he said yes!
Fast forward to the engagement party and party planning. Of course Pinterest did most of the heavy lifting for me. Apparently, according to Pinterest signature drinks are all the rage for just such occasions. Now, all I had to do was come up with a signature drink. That little blue box became the inspiration for our signature cocktail and it’s creation happened almost by accident. One of our puppy play date group members made a drink she had seen on TikTok. It’s ingredients were simply lemonade and blue koolaid. Wala, the drink turned the perfect “Tiffany Blue”; of course we added the alcohol. We tried vodka, which was good, but the drink was entirely too sweet for most of the taste testers on hand. Then we tried tequila which was better, and if it could be made into a margarita all the better, as it would go with the Mexican food we were serving. We just couldn’t kick the blue raspberry flavor of the Kool-Aid. We substituted the Kool-Aid for Blue Curacao which gave us the same color we were going for and helped the drink taste more like a margarita and less like adult punch.
Now, mind you we had to scale this to serve 60 guests at this little shindig, so while I would have loved to squeezed my own limes that was unrealistic. The recipe ended up being Kirkland Margarita Mix with lime ( that is just what we used, but I would imagine you could use any Margarita Mix, including your own fresh squeezed juice.) I added 1/2 cup blue curacao to the bottle and two cups of tequila ( I used Kirkland Blanco). The “Tiffany Blue” Margarita’s were a hit and they certainly helped us get through that lovely outdoor party, on what was, the hottest weekend of the year.
In the end, the party turned out to be a lovely opportunity for two families to come together and rally around this young couple as they begin this new and wonderful journey. We could not be more thrilled to be welcome Bradley to our family and to call him son.
I guess you could say that Brooke is the lime to Bradley’s Margarita.
