Tuesday, July 21, 2009

to engagement party or not?

My sisters approached me a couple weeks ago about an "engagement party."

Did I want one?
Who did I want to invite?
What activities did I want to include?
What kind of food did I have in mind?
They needed addresses...
They needed invitation design ideas...

Whoa.

Ummmm...I don't know. I've never even been to an engagement party. Do I need one? Who would even come? What city should it be in? Sounds as detailed as the wedding itself! My gut reaction was, "no thanks, we don't really need an engagement party."

I would, however, be up for a "farewell" shin dig prior to my departure to the east coast in a month. Nothing fancy. Perhaps a pup crawl? Perhaps a joint engagement/farewell par-tay? Yea....that sounds better.

*What was your engagement party like?

14 comments:

  1. We decided not to have an engagement party. Since the wedding was going to be small anyways, it didn't make sense to have two celebrations. We just decided it was also a way to save money and put it towards the wedding instead.

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  2. yes farewell/engagement sounds good. i'm all for parties, but it doesn't need to be as formal as the wedding with mailed & designed invitations and all that... where on the east coast will you be??

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  3. I am all about parties too, ours was pretty relaxed, we had one at our friends house and it was a sort of potluck event so everyone brought something to share. It was super informal and very casual...people had a great time though :)

    I've thrown engagement parties which were the same sort of set up. Everyone brought a dish or drink to share with everyone else. It turned out being pretty affordable and a great way to see friends!

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  4. My mother really wanted to throw me a bridal shower, but most of my girls have recently moved out of town. They took me out to celebrate a bachlorette party already, so it didn't feel right to bring them back for yet another formal party in my honor where gifts are presented.
    Instead, I convinced her to have a super fun party for girls AND boys [that's right, this is no longer middle school!] with simple catering from our favorite local taco place. She hasn't decided whether to call it a Shower Party or an Engagement Party, since our wedding will be a bit less than two months from then. But either way, win-win!

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  5. We had our engagement parties during the holidays- so it sort of doubled as a xmas get together. It was nice. Lots of wine & italian food :) Mostly just family & our closet friends.

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  7. Some friends from work threw us an engagement party last weekend. One month post engagement, and 9 months before the wedding. They used our home as the venue and kicked us out for a couple of hours prior to prepare. We had about 25 friends, dogs, kids. Grilled out burgers and hot dogs, veggie k'bobs, and some fruit. Had good cheap wines, beer, and some cocktails and just hung out on the back porch. Attire was extremely casual, invitation were free evites. No gifts, just their presence was required. It was a fantastic excuse to get together and have a great time!

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  8. We did a farewell/birthday/engagement party at a bar. We got table service (i.e. bought a lot of drinks for people). It was fun, but mostly a birthday party.

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  9. We never really thought about an engagement party, and now I secretly wish we had had one! It would have been a great chance for all our friends to get together, relaxed, and kind of kick off our engagement. Also for us it would have been a great chance for the rents to meet each other!

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  10. We didn't have an engagement party (and I don't many people who have had one), but if you like parties and it sounds fun to you - I say "go for it!"

    Where are you moving?

    - Stephanie

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  11. We recently had our engagement party (4th July) since it's pretty customary to have one in Australia since we don't do bridal showers. It was great to have all our friends and family since we'll probably be waiting another year or two to get married and it could be in another part of the state.

    We're planning on doing engagement photos later on too, which I hadn't heard about till I started browsing blogs.

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  12. You only get engaged once!

    Think of it as a celebration with friends and family. It can be as relaxed as you want it to be.

    We had a mini-engagement party. Cameron proposed to me at a big family barbecue (they all knew it would happen) and we celebrated afterward. It was so nice to be with the people who we love and who love us.

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  13. I just just came back from my engagement party... well, engagement weekend actually. It was a great excuse to get 30 of our closest friends together at a cottage for the weekend. Everyone brought some food and drinks and just camped out and hung out. We saw some friends who we have been missing and it was probably the best weekend of our lives. Noone ever needs to have a party but I say why waste a good opportunity to have fun.

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