Guests from Philadelphia, New York and Washington are on their way to celebrate Stephanie's engagement to Russell Carter of Mount Airy, who proposed while they were packing for an island getaway to the West Indies.
"I came over to her and said, 'Why don't you put this in your bag?' " recalled Carter, 36, who had bought the ring two days earlier and tucked the small box into a larger one so as not to spoil the surprise.
Sleepy and distracted, Stephanie told Russell to put whatever it was in his bag, because she didn't have room.
"Then open it," Russell said.
"At first I said, 'No, I'm just really tired right now. My birthday's not till next week,' " said Stephanie, who is 36.
She woke up fast when she took the wrapping off and found the smaller box inside. The big question was asked and answered with a yes, and the ring went on immediately.
"It fit perfectly," Russell said.
One hour before the call time for cocktails, nearly everything is done. A sweet potato-pecan pie, made by Stephanie a day earlier, is displayed on the kitchen counter. A plain sweet potato pie - for Russell, who doesn't care for pecans - is tucked away. Appetizer-size crabcakes, made earlier in the day and refrigerated, need only a final flash in the oven to finish. Two roast chickens, weighing six pounds each and brimming with cornbread-vegetable stuffing, will be garnished with frilly green kale and colorful Thai hot peppers just before serving. The potatoes to be mashed are still boiling, and a heap of julienned red cabbage is about to go into a big soup pot.
"This is my mother's pot," Stephanie says, pushing the cabbage down so that it combines with the collards and hot sauce already in the pot.
