- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
I'm curious how many people had engagement parties! It seems like they are becoming more and more common.
My dad wanted to throw us one, but it was too hectic and I started feeling bad about the state of the economy. Our engagement is less than a year and we got engaged right before Thanksgiving. Then it was Christmas, my new niece was born, and suddenly we were 9 months away from the wedding! I felt like people would feel like the would have to bring us gifts...then a shower gift...then a wedding gift...all under a year.
My friends threw us a little shindig though (lots of champagne and apps at someone's home). It was great!
What about you? Did you have an engagement party? If not, do you wish you had one?
Wedding_Bee_025.JPG (395.1 KB, 53 downloads) 1 year old Wedding_Bee_023.JPG (523.2 KB, 28 downloads) 1 year old 
Ha ha. I can't believe all thre votes so far were for "Sort of". Yet, that's what I chose. I ad a family type engagement party my parents threw to get to know my husband's family. I said "sort of" to that because the way I see some engagement parties these days, it more than a get to know the in'-laws party. So call my party what you will.
lilac_room.jpg (467.3 KB, 38 downloads) 1 year old 
I didn't think I would have one, my family just went out to dinner to celebrate a few days after I got engaged. But when the FI and I got back to Sydney, his parents wanted to throw us a huge bash. I'm not the most comfortable being the center of attention but how could I deny them a party?! It worked out well for us though because we were able to invite a lot of people we won't be inviting to our small destination wedding. So they got a chance to celebrate with us and also won't feel like they have to get us multiple gifts.
I also answered sort of 
While I wouldn't consider it a party, my FIL's hosted a dinner for our immediate families to get together and celebrate our engagement. It was perfect. My best friend was in the process of planning a surprise engagment party for us, but my FI found out and nixed that. We just wanted to spend time with those who have been in our lives from the beginning to commemorate the uniting of our two families. It was perfect and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way!
WEDDLIN2.jpg (3725.5 KB, 33 downloads) 1 year old 
I chose "sort of" as well!! But now I kind of wish I chose yes! Part of my engagement ... was a surprise engagement party!! My fiance threw the party for us! He proposed and told me that we couldnt call anyone until after we went to dinner just the two of us ... but when we got to the restaraunt 25 of our family and friends were there waiting!! He had an open bar and chose a menu for our guests ... then we went back to my parents beach house and the partied continued all night long -- 22 people spent the night ... so yes it was an engagement party but my fiance sort of threw it for us! :)
Our friends threw us a nice one. It was a very small group- but we had a lot of fun. Instead of presents, everyone brought a dish to share. Then the hostess got all the recipes and created a recipe book complete with pictures from the party! It was very sweet!
People have really good stories!
@Humarock - such a great proposal!
Bridal_Sash.jpg (52.9 KB, 321 downloads) 1 year old 
Nope, we didn't have one. It would have been fun, but it just wasn't in the cards for us.
We got engaged two years ago, but now that we're at the 1-year countdown, we're throwing a party! It's nothing big, just P and I making white chicken chili and providing Rock Band, but it'll be fun.
I would have loved one, since our families haven't really met, but no one was interested in throwing one 
Sort of: We got engaged during my fiance's 2 week R&R from Iraq, and we just bought a house, so it was an Engagement Party, Housewarming Party, and Welcome Home party all rolled into one. It was also the DAY i got my engagement ring back from the jeweler in its brand new setting that we had picked out earlier that week. We went to Sam's Club and made burgers for everyone and had sangria and beer. Our families met each other and a bunch of friends dropped by. It lasted until 11 or so in the evening! Low key and it was great! We got a few plants as gifts, but mostly my friends just brought cute cards! Nobody really bought us an engagement gift but we just sort of called people up and said "hey come over we're having a bbq". People DID bring cakes and desserts over, so that was awesome!
My parents threw us one (at my urging). It was an opportunity for my husband's parents to come up, congratulate us on the engagement and meet my extended family. It wasn't anything fancy- just cake and coffee at my parents' house.
Fiance surprised me with his visit and the engagement, since he lives so far away and comes out to visit so rarely, it would've been hard to plan.
But the weekend we got engaged he had called all of our friends out in Chicago and planned to meet for dinner the night after the engagement. It was sort of impromptu and was just dinner with about 8 friends...but I guess it counts as an engagement party!
We had a backyard BBQ with all of our friends and family. Very casual and fun. Perfect for us!
maggie2.jpg (29.4 KB, 78 downloads) 1 year old maggie1.jpg (29.1 KB, 64 downloads) 1 year old
We didn't have one :( I would have liked to, but we had just moved to a new city and didn't know a lot of people. Our families are separated by 300 miles (from each other and from us) and so having a party thrown by them wasn't an option either. I was sort of bummed about it, it would have been a nice opportunity for everyone to meet an all, but not the end of the world, right? It's a big enough deal to have everyone come to the wedding, so I'm focusing on that!
I had thought about doing it instead of a bridal shower... because I'm not that fond of bridal showers. But then we moved our date closer and the time length from the proposal to date of party grew farther apart (I believe they say you're supposed to have one 2-3 months after proposal). I don't really agree with having both an engagement party & bridal shower all within a year (plus the wedding). That is a lot on guests (unless you make the engagement party No Gifts*) .. especially in THIS economy!!
Yes, we had an engagement party but only the wedding party attended. We wanted to keep it small. It was a good time to introduce everyone as not everyone knew eachother.
We didnt have an engagement party because at the time I was living in Georgia, he was living in California, and both of our parents live in Asia. Oh and my brother lives in Canada... yeah.. so it made it kind of hard. @@
We haven't had one but we've only been engaged a month. And we are probably not going to have one since the wedding is only 6 months away. We are thinking of having a cookout/family get together/engagement party in a month or two when the weather warms up. Nothing fancy or formal and no gifts. Just good times with family and close friends.
My parents threw a party with our family friends (about 20-25 people) and it was great! It was just at our home, but my Mom went all out and it was pretty great. :)
We didn't have one. Our family lives in California, so it wasn't exactly convenient. My family is more old school, and I think they don't know about the trend of having engagement parties, and in his family, he's the first to get married... so again, they probably didn't know about it.
it's kind of nice to see that 2/3 of the people here didn't have one. I don't think they are as common as I had assumed based on the stories I've heard. We were both pretty shy about being the center of attention in the beginning anyway, though we are growing out of that as the engagement goes on ;)
My family threw us one, but it was more of an open house. My husband's family was able to come and meet some of my family before the wedding, so that was nice!
I wanted one but, time seemed to fly by and the time bracket was gone! Oh well saved us more money!
We were not going to plan an engagement party but my parents and the Mr parents (mom and Stapdad) insisted that we needed to have an engagement party.
It was great
We had a small engagement party, mostly so that our families and friends to get to know one another since they had really only met once before.
michael_s_sketch.jpeg (1688.6 KB, 40 downloads) 1 year old sample_sketch_6.jpeg (678.6 KB, 38 downloads) 1 year old 
We also had a backyard bbq. No one knew it was for our engagement until they got there. It was a nice surprise for them and a great way to share he news of our engagment with our friends and family.
Cwrap! I meant to vote "Yes" but acidentally pressed "No".
Yes, my mom and dad threw us and Engagement party :)
No, our engagement was 2 years long and it didn't seem correct to have a party for us so early before any other wedding events. We did have a house warming party which was similar with everyone hanging out with us. But if my parents insisted then we probably would have had one.
yup. we did. :)
it was an informal thing at a really nice park north of indy. we had food (my husband is a caterer) and a cake from a FABULOUS baker.
our families met and then afterwards all of our friends (no family) went to our best friends' house (my matron of honor's) and we partied there all night!
DH and I got engaged on Christmas morning and (sort of) got to celebrate with my entire extended family that afternoon - then drove 2 hours and celebrated Christmas (and our engagement) with his family. It was really nice to see everyone that day - we were so excited!
We didn't have an engagement party. Never crossed my mind. I think it's a good idea for people who have longer engagements or want to have a lot of friends meet in their honor. I love parties!
our engagement is a long one because my fiance is in the military so we wanted to play up our engagement as much as possible so we just had one engagement party and are about to have another one.
even if we werent having a long engagement, we still wouldve planned a party because getting engaged is a big deal and we love celebrating! we're having 2 because our families and friends are huge and hes from chattanooga and im from atlanta so we decided to split it.
our first one was last weekend and it was a bbq at the lake and what a blast! we told everyone NOT to bring gifts for the same reasons you mentioned about future showers and wedding gifts and if people absolutely insisted, we said a bottle of wine or dessert.
engagement parties dont have to be elaborate, its just a way to get the family and close friends together to celebrate a coming together of 2 families, i definitely think its a great idea!
I'm having one in about a month, which will be 10 months til our wedding. And, well, it's an "event." Our wedding is going to be a barbecue--big, but very casual, with people invited to wear jeans--so I told my mom she could do whatever she wanted for the engagement party. She's an event planner--I'm guessing it's going to be pretty big (I think the guest list is now over 60--eek!). :)
Plus, we wanted to have an event to invite all of my family's friends from the area to, since the wedding will be elsewhere (I'm from Atlanta, but now live in DC--wedding will be in DC). And my parents just moved into a new condo that many of their friends haven't seen yet, so it will serve as a housewarming party, too. No presents--just fabulous food and friends!
I must admit, I'm very excited. It's gotten my mom off my back about my wedding plans, since she has this other party to worry about. Worked out very well!
I'm a Yes... because my mother is throwing one... it's next month and it has 60 people in it... at a resturant... yikes! that's about 1/3rd of the people we are inviting...
I kind of didn't want it because it adds cost... but my mother is paying for it and really wants it... with that many people I'm sort of thinking why have a wedding ^_^
DSC00756.JPG (388.6 KB, 21 downloads) 1 year old 100_0674.JPG (376.5 KB, 19 downloads) 1 year old 
We had one thrown by my SIL. We didn't ask for it so it was a nice surprise.
vase.jpg (275.5 KB, 23 downloads) 1 year old 
We don't want to have an engagement party, because the engagement is really just an evolution of out relationship (in our opinion) and the wedding is the big deal ... plus we have both been engaged before so it would be weird to play it up this time around (even though this time is for keeps).
If someone insisted we would probably cave, but when my mom asked about it I said no and she is being very respectful.
No, we didn't. Our parents celebrated with us with champagne right after he popped the question, but that's about as close as we got to an engagement party. That's perfectly fine by me.
Sort of. We had a big party at a friend's place that celebrated a number of things. We got engaged late April. There were several birthdays between April and May, college graduations, our engagement, some farewells to people moving or leave the state/country for summer internships, so we did everything at one big time.
As for with our families, we haven't done anything yet since we were all still focused on my fiance's sister's wedding and didn't want to steal any thunder. But now that her wedding has happened, back from honeymoon, etc. etc. his parents are asking me if I can help to organize a small dinner between his family and mine. We all know each other already, but I think a quiet dinner at a restaurant might be nice to officially acknowledge/celebrate it.
We didn't have an engagement party. No one in our families has, as far as I know.
We had a mini bbq given by my FSIL with family and a few friends. Nothing big but we really appreciated it!
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| simpleandchic | 4 |
| j_jaye | 3 |
| aussiebee | 3 |
| janetsnakehole | 3 |
| MabelleBliss | 2 |
| MrsMSmith | 2 |
| mariaseychelles | 2 |
| MrsOliveBird | 1 |
| ticatica | 1 |
| Kewii | 1 |
Sorry, there are no users yet.
