Many congratulations, you are engaged. Now it’s time to start planning the guest list, but who should you invite to the engagement party? Sometimes people wonder if there are any laid down rules for who to invite to engagement party. The truth is you can invite anyone you want. But, if you find yourself asking, who do you invite to an engagement party? Then our little guide can help you.
Deciding what an engagement party is to you, can help you determine who to invite to an engagement party. For most people, it’s where they officially announce to close friends and family and celebrate the fact that they are engaged. So, to plan an engagement party, you could keep those people foremost in your mind. Friends, family, and if you like, neighbors, colleagues and more. Furthermore, this guide could help you make the important decisions of who really needs to be attending your engagement do.
1. Close Family
Top on the list of who should be invited to an engagement party is close family. This would no doubt include the immediate family of the bride to be and groom to be. After immediate family you would continue to extended family such as uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents. Any member of your family who would be attending the wedding should be considered for the engagement party.
2. Close friends
You wouldn’t need any specific engagement party rules to include your close friends on the list of who to invite to an engagement party. These are the people who have been there for you over the years, and who will celebrate with you as you take this next significant step in your life. So, add these friends to the guest list if you’re going to have a real celebration.
3. Other Friends
Deciding who do you invite to a wedding can help you discover which other friends to add to the guest list for your engagement party. This is because naturally, anyone invited to the engagement would be expected to be invited to the wedding. So, other friends you would invite could include friends of your partner, friends of your parents or your partner’s parents. This could even give you a chance to introduce yourself and meet some of those friends you haven’t had the chance to meet before. The question of who hosts engagement party can sometimes also determine who gets invited. Traditionally the bride’s parents host this, so naturally it would be a faux pas for their friends not to be invited.
4. Dates or Plus Ones
When considering how many people would be invited to the engagement party, remember that single guests would be inclined to come with a date or a plus one. So, it would be good to make allowances for this for the engagement and for the wedding. These single guests could be family or friends. Some couples make allowances for plus ones only at the wedding and not at the engagement party, especially if it would be an intimate event. This would be a decision to make with your partner.
5. Who To Not Invite
Your budget, time of the year, or certain other circumstance could dictate that you have a limited guest list. In this case you would want to carefully consider who to invite and who not to invite to your engagement party. Keep in mind though that engagement party etiquette dictates that anyone invited to the engagement celebration would also be invited to the wedding. However, you do not have to invite everyone who would attend the wedding, to the engagement. Therefore, when limiting your guest list, it would be safe to go with close family, close friends and extended family on both sides who cannot possibly be left out.
6. Consider Having Two Parties
Sometimes a couple could decide to appease everyone by having more than one engagement party. You could have an engagement party for family, especially if you have large and close knit extended family. Then, after that you could have a surprise engagement party for your friends. One thing to keep in mind when organizing two parties is to try not to invite any of the same people to both parties. This could tip the balance and also be confusing for your guests.
7. Invite Everyone On The List
Sometimes when you are wondering about your engagement party and who to invite, the simple solution is to invite everyone. If you can afford to, and you would much rather celebrate with everyone, then invite all your potential wedding guests to the engagement party. Keep the tone of the engagement party and the theme different from the wedding, and it should suffice to differentiate the two. As the first pre-wedding party, the key is to have fun with the people you love.
Choosing who to invite to an engagement party can be tricky. And there are lots of factors that can help determine who makes it to the list. This simple guide can help you create the guest list that will work for you, and your family and friends. In the end, the most that matters is that you celebrate this new phase in your lives with the people that you love.
Author: Valeriya Istomina is a Wedding Forward expert on wedding budgets, etiquettes, ceremonies, and music. If you need tips for wedding planning, she will guide you all the way. She collects analytics and surveys, talks to experts; creates checklists, templates, and gives her take on wedding planning. Her other passions are yoga, photography, and reading.
That face you make when the engagement party is tomorrow
