Engagement Announcement

Engagement announcements and parties are all wholly optional! an engagement party is just people celebrating your engagement, it's a nice thing to do but it's also a pre wedding event a lot of people don't necessarily always do either.

Yeah for those exact reasons is why we skipped out on an engagement party. “What is it and what do you do?” We just went out for drinks with close friends and family and went dancing afterwards. Made it much more relaxing without having to think so hard. I found out from one of my co-workers that her biggest regret was wasting money and time on an engagement party. Now if someone else wants to host it for you then by all means go for it! It’s one of those things that you will have to decide as a couple if this is for you.

I got engaged over winter so what I’m planning to do is just have a small bbq with family and friends hopefully when all this is done nothing too big

A social media announcement is perfect. I also made sure to call my grandparents directly to tell them and sent an email to my family that doesn’t do social media.
I got engaged in November and have not had nor do I plan on doing an actual engagement party. You could do something low key and invite your close friends and family that live nearby. It’s just a party to celebrate that you got engaged but as PP said, you could do without one.

Engagement announcements are kind of old fashioned, and generally involved either newspapers or some kind of mailed announcements.

If it makes you feel any better, my father, who was born in the late '40s, thought we had to do a big, formal announcement, and started to list off people we needed to send it to...

...We posted on FB and told my dad to tell whomever he wanted.

The lists provided by WW and other wedding websites are mostly suggestions. The only things truly required at a wedding: a license, a couple, and the amount of witnesses/officiants the state deems necessary. Everything else is gravy/etiquette/tradition/fun.