Engagement Party Planning Ideas

Before you can celebrate your wedding with friends and family, you'll need some ideas for celebrating your engagement with a party. You and your sweetheart have some big news for your family and closest friends! Traditionally, the first opportunity to celebrate your upcoming vows with your loved ones is at your engagement party. The engagement party is usually a dinner hosted by the bride's parents, and the bride's family, the groom's family and the wedding party all get together to meet and celebrate the happy couple.

This dinner may be held at someone's home or at a nice restaurant. The setting is meant to be much more intimate than the wedding reception will be. For many modern couples who live far from their families and best friends, the engagement party serves as an opportunity for the bride's and groom's family to meet for the first time. These days, not every couple embraces tradition when it comes to planning a wedding or engagement party. Ideas and themes for engagement parties can run the gamut from elegant, sit-down dinners to casual barbecues to sporting events. The party you and your families plan will depend upon your own personalities, your budget and your guests. 

Traditional Engagement Party

A traditional engagement party is a dinner hosted by the bride's parents. It includes the bride's family, the groom's family and the wedding party. This party may be held at the bride's parents home or at a nice restaurant. The party should be held after the proposal and before the wedding, ideally closer to the time of the proposal than to the wedding. The original point of engagement parties was to give the father of the bride the opportunity to formally announce the engagement during a toast. All of the guests at the engagement party should also receive an invitation to the wedding. The parents of the bride should either plan a meal or make a reservation at the restaurant of their choosing for their entire party to ensure a table without a wait. They should also send out paper invitations four to six weeks in advance, possibly more if guests will need to travel to attend the party. Depending upon where you live and what your ethnic and cultural background is, the guests may or may not bring the couple engagement gifts. The gifts should not be opened at the party, but rather at home where you can easily keep track of who gave you what so that you can send thank you notes.

Engagement Brunch

Many modern couples forgo a stuffy dinner in favor of a more casual weekend brunch to announce their engagement. A brunch party can be held either in someone's home or in a restaurant. Although the engagement party is traditionally held by the parents of the bride, modern engagement parties might be held by either or both sets of parents or even by the couple themselves or close friends. To plan a brunch at home or in a restaurant, send out invitations to all of your guests a couple of weeks in advance. If you are dining in a restaurant, let the restaurant handle the planning from this point. If you are holding the brunch at home, consider serving your food buffet-style. This will be easier on you or the host and it will allow your guests to mingle freely and get to know each other. Doll up your home for this special occasion with fresh flowers, streamers and confetti. Play some upbeat music and mix up some champagne cocktails like mimosas or Bellinis for your guests to enjoy. A brunch is an especially good choice for couples on a tight budget. If need be, you can simply serve your guests coffee and pastries. 

Barbecue Engagement Party

If uptight, exclusive events are not really your thing and you want to share your good news with everyone you know, make your engagement party a backyard barbecue. With a backyard barbecue, you will not be limited to inviting the bride and groom's families and the bridal party. You can invite all of your friends. Decorate with streamers and balloons, play some fun, upbeat music and throw some burgers on the grill. Provide your party guests with a few coolers full of beer and soft drinks. If you happen to have a pool in your yard, you can even make your engagement party a pool party. Engagement parties are meant to be more intimate than wedding receptions, so remember to only invite people you know well to your backyard shindig. You do not want to end up inviting so many people to the party that the bride and groom's families do not ever actually get the chance to meet and chat together. If you want to make your barbecue a more special event, have it catered by a local restaurant with ribs, chicken, potato salad and all the fixings you can think of. Guests can serve themselves buffet-style. 

Engagement Event

If you and your loved ones, like some modern brides and grooms, live on excitement and adventure, plan some activity for your engagement party instead of a just a meal. If you are all Red Sox fans, for instance, splurge on tickets for you, your families and the bridal party to all attend a game together. If you love games, organize a laser tag outing for everyone. If money is no object for you or your loved ones, you can even organize an entire trip to somewhere like Las Vegas or a beach resort to celebrate your engagement. Make sure that if you are planning some activity that requires your guests to travel or buy their own tickets to something that you give them plenty of warning ahead of time. If you do plan an outing, either to an amusement park or a tropical locale, you will probably need to keep your guest list limited to your closest relatives. Planning activities involving more than a dozen people can turn into a logistical nightmare and distant relatives are probably not eager to embrace any extra expenses. Activity-oriented parties can be a great way for families to get to know one another and have some fun; on the other hand, if you're worried that your families will clash, an activity might be just the thing to keep them busy and prevent them from butting heads.