To invite or not to invite to Engagement Party??

You CANNOT invite anyone who won't be invited to the wedding. It's nice to invite your parents even though they may not make it.

You are correct, you shouldn't invite them if they aren't invited to the wedding. Also I wouldn't send you parents an invite, to me it just seems like a waste of paper and postage. I know you haven't finalized the guest list but you also want to consider maybe including those ppl into the final guest list since the wedding is in your home state. For us its opposite. My family has to travel 8-9 hours while FH's family is right in the wedding city. People willing to travel that distance for you I feel deserve to be there. If they aren't those kind of friends (if they were getting married FH would not travel to be there) then don't invite them to the wedding.

ETA: n't

Invite your parents even though they probably won't make it. And do not invite people who are not invited to the wedding.

Hey, small world! DH and I live in St. Louis but his parents and my extended family are both in Columbia. If you have some time while you're there be sure to walk around downtown and see all the little shops. There are a bunch of cute places.

As for the engagement party, etiquette states people should not be invited to any prewedding events that won't be invited to the wedding. If these people are your FHs friends could you not invite them to the wedding even though you know they likely can't make the trip? It could be nice just to show you want them there. If not them perhaps try to fit a time into your stay to get together with friends and maybe go out to dinner or go over to someones house.

My family is here in the Chicago area with my FH and I but his family is back in the Detroit area. My grandparents threw us a party last weekend and his mom is planning one with their extended family in early summer. Is that the way most people do it? Idk. That's just what everyone decided would be easiest and we were okay with it. We even had a little get together with friends in the city that we planned right after we got engaged bc we were just so excited and wanted to celebrate! Its just what worked out best for our families for a variety of reasons and since the party planners were okay with it so were we

Edit: Although there's more than one engagement party they weren't formal affairs. The parties with family were very similar to holiday parties and with our friends we just went out to our favorite bar. This might not work out if there's a more formal, traditional engagement party and you are worried about people feeling excluded. I would invite your parents but you could also let them know that you understand if its too hard for them to make it so close to the wedding? I didn't have anyone invited to any of the parties - even the super casual drinking night that I wasn't planning to invite to my wedding. I didn't want any hurt feelings.

Do not invite anyone to ANY wedding festivity if they are not being invited to the wedding. Only exception is if work throws you a shower.

My MIL was invited to our engagement party that was in WV. She made the flight from FL, which we didn't expect her to do, but she wanted to meet my family. It's nice to invite people, even if you don't necessarily think they will make the trip, as it is a union of your families. That said, don't be "gift grabby" and invite long lost cousins that live a bazillion miles away that you know will only be able to come to the wedding. Hope that makes some sense...

You absolutely CANNOT invite anyone to the engagement party who isn't invited to the wedding!!! So if you have any doubts about if someone will make the guest list, they definitely should NOT be invited to the e-party. It is SUPER rude.

Invite your parents - even if they don't come, they may want to keep the invitation as a momento plus its a good gesture of goodwill between your FH's parents and your's.