Engagement Party Do's and Don'ts?

I really think it might come off rude to invite people to the engagement if you don't plan on inviting them to the wedding.. People will automatically assume that they are invited so I wouldn't create that confusion because it may cause you to have to explain and hurt some feelings. I say only invite the ones you plan on inviting to the wedding, plus some engagement parties people bring gifts to and that'll come off "gift grabby" like you just want the gifts! Congrats btw!

Since you aren't getting married for awhile, I would keep the guest list small for the engagement party. Very close friends and family.

You definitely shouldn't invite anyone you wouldn't expect to invite to the wedding. You might end up regretting it later, not wishing any bad on your friendships, but as you might see on WW, things do happen.

Haha gift grabby that is clever. Thanks, it's so confusing. I am the first in my family to get married so this is all new to me. What I am most confused about is work friends. I am a nurse so we are all very close at work, there are a handful of ladies I speak to on a daily basis but may not see as often, are they invited? Then I feel like you can't invite one without the other.. ok EVERYONE is invited lol. And now I've heard conflicting things about registry for engagement parties... half the people say it is tacky to include the registry to the engagement party because gifts are not really expected, but the other half says if you don't provide a registry you will get crazy ridiculous gifts.... I am not looking for gifts, I am just a girl that loves a good party and that is all I really want with my friends and family.

We didn't have an engagement party registry because it was so early in the planning and no one brought gifts. Some asked and we said we didn't have a registry and not to worry about it! It's more for formal introduction of family members and bridal party if you have chosen one already! Its all very confusing at first but slowly things come together! Where are you located?

I am on Long Island, NY. We started a registry with Bed Bath and Beyond because my fiance's sister warned us but I feel it is inappropriate to add it to the invitation so I think I'll let it be a word of mouth kind of thing.. And the thing is we live together and have lived together for the last 2 years so I don't even know what to register for... I am such a newb at this entire thing.

If you are having an engagement party, someone else should host it. They have traditionally been held for the two families to meet. You really can't invite someone to the party who isn't invited to the wedding. FMIL hosted our engagement party and invited 20 people that we weren't planning on inviting to the wedding, well, our guest list got bigger as a result. I couldn't imagine being that rude, especially since everyone brought a gift.

We specifically asked for no gifts at ours, and everyone brought one lol. That being said, we didn't get one thing we didn't like. A few gave cash or checks or gift cards, and the ones that brought boxed gifts gave some pretty awesome things. Monogrammed wine glasses, a beautiful cake knife and server, etc.

Hey Stacey! I'm on LI too and you're wedding date is my birthday!

I am having a party the end of June for just immediate family and bridal party and asking for no gifts. Like you, I just like a good party. I really just want it to be a time for the entire bridal party to get together since not everyone knows each other and also allow it to be kind of an official kick-off to wedding planning for everyone since we're having an 18 month engagement.

Hey there! That date isn't even our real date.. I think it is so funny all these websites make you chose a wedding date, when half the time I've gone to the forums to HELP ME PLAN! So similar to you we will be having a very long engagement. It took us 9 years to get engaged who knows how long we will take to get married haha! That is the reason I am so excited for the engagement party because I feel like it is going to be the only planning I get to do for a long time lol

Gotcha! Well, good luck!

If you're not inviting them to the wedding you do not invite them to the engagement party.

You do not have to invite people you work with; in your case I wouldn't invite them to the engagement party since you're so far out and you're unsure. Just invite those to the engagement party that you KNOW you will be inviting to the wedding.

You can register for your engagement party, my FH and I are registering for ours; you will find a lot of conflict about this, gifts at engagement parties seem to be a regional thing, some people never heard of receiving gifts at an Eparty and then there are people who wouldn't dream of showing up without a gift.

I always thought that someone else was supposed to host your engagement party - it seems weird to host a party for yourself. If you do host though, you should only invite people to the engagement party that you plan on inviting to the wedding. If you don't know when your actual date is, maybe hold off on having the engagement party. I do like the idea how having something laid back though that won't cost too much - save the big money and big party for your actual wedding!

You shouldn't be hosting your own party. Someone else should be throwing it for you. I wouldn't expect gifts at an alengagement party, they aren't required. Also. If you aren't inviting someone to the wedding you can't invite them to the party, it's rude. If you don't have a guest list yet, just keep it small and intimate with the people you know will be there. We had about 40 people at ours and it was a brunch and we barely had enough time to visit with everyone. Not everyone that's gonna be invited to the wedding needs to be invited to the party but you can't have them at the party and not the wedding

My mother is hosting the party for us at her home, but she asked me who to invite. It may seem like a lot for an engagement party but since we don't have a date set and don't know when we are going to start planning, we are all focusing our energy to give the engagement party a little extra something. Tricky stuff this is!

My mom and FSIL are hosting our engagement party (my mom is paying for it but it's at FSIL house). We only invited immediate family and bridal party with their families. We will have about 35-40 people. I had the same questions but came to the conclusion that smaller was better and its a way to introduce the families and bridal party to one another.

We invited people to our engagement party that aren't invited to the wedding. It was mostly friends of my parents. My mom fretted about it initially, but we didn't have enough room at the venue to invite all of her friends. I told her if she was comfortable letting them know this, then she should definitely invite them. They were good enough friends that they understood and were excited to just be included in the engagement party. It helped that one gal had a daughter get married last year and didn't have room to invite my mom. Just be honest with people, tell them that you have no idea what the wedding will be like, but that you really want to celebrate your engagement with them.

DON'T not have fun, DO have a blast!!!!