What do you do at an Engagement party?

It’s an time to announce the nuptials in person and for families to meet if they haven’t. Basically you just get loved on and lots of congratulations. There aren’t set rules for an engagement party. So we didn’t have one. We just said meet us for drinks and announced and it was way less awkward.

View Quoted Comment That’s really great!! Thank you!!!

View Quoted Comment No problem! My fiancé made a toast to me which was sweet. Both of our immediate families are in different states so they didn’t meet until a couple of months later. We had 30 guest friends, coworkers and cousins attend. Super casual and chic at a rooftop bar.

I've only ever been to 2 engagement parties (we didn't have 1), and they were both labeled as such. Everyone going knew that the couple was engaged on both occasions. No games. They were both just parties at someone's home (sister of groom hosted for the 1st couple and then parents of bride hosted the 2nd I've been to).

They aren't required. If you don't want to have one, or you would feel awkward as the center of attention, don't have one.

As above, it's for families and friends to meet, but if that's not really feasible for you (for instance, my parents live 2000 miles away), than it's not necessary.

In terms of what to do? Games are more of a shower thing, this would be more of a drinks/food affair.

View Quoted Comment Thanks Rebecca

View Quoted Comment I’m thinking of cutting it altogether then. That’s smart.

View Quoted Comment That’s exactly what I was going for. His folks are a little older less likely to drive 9hrs to Texas just for a party. But idk it’s still up in the air. We planned a thing for the Dallas folks really.

View Quoted Comment Yeah, no one offered to throw us one and we didn't really care. Both were fun, as we just celebrated the joy of the engaged couple. I would kind of compare them to someone celebrating a milestone birthday or something.

View Quoted Comment Riiiight. Hmmm I got it

We went to an engagement party in January. There were no games. There was food & drinks and desserts. There was a photo booth. The couple had a banda (mexican band) so we listened to music while we ate and then people danced. There were a few speeches then the couple cut the cake & there was more music & dancing.

View Quoted Comment Sounds good thanks Monica. I think we will do the same minus the Banda lol

We were having a long engagement followed by a Hawaiian elopement so we wanted a swanky party with all our friends/ family as our engagement party. We hosted a dinner in a restaurant event room and it was a mingle/mix. We recognized all the long marriages in our group. Then I shared our engagement story. Afterwards we asked our guests to share their engagement stories! People really liked it. It really celebrated the love! Ahead of time we asked a few people if they’d plan on sharing so we’d have people to kick it off. A lot of folks volunteered though. It was “something” to do besides drink and mingle.

View Quoted Comment That’s a cute idea