Thursday's Wedding Tip #34

It's finally Thursday and almost Valentine's Day!! This weeks wedding tip is on:Engagement parties.

There are many events that lead up to your wedding and an engagement party is usually the first time you and your soon to be husband will make your grand entrance and get to see each others extended families in the same room. I know you all have many questions from who hosts, to how long after you get engaged, and who should be invited.

The only real rule in regards to engagement parties is that if you invite someone to your engagement party, then they also need to be invited to your wedding (unless you are having a VERY SMALL Wedding). If this person is important enough to celebrate your engagement, then they deserve to be invited to your wedding.

First you and your fiance need to decide if you actually want an engagement party. My husband and I had one and it was wonderful, I got to meet a lot of his family that I never met before( and we dated for 6 years), as well as his family got to meet all of mine. It also gave everyone a chance to get to know each other before the wedding.

You should make the engagement party a smaller scale of your wedding. We did a Sunday brunch and had about 70 people (we had more than double at our wedding). Once you start making your list of who to invite, it will grow very fast. Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents really add up, especially if one or both of you have parents are re-married. Of course you should invite your entire wedding party and any other close family and friends.

Depending on how long you are planning on waiting to get married should determine your time frame on when to have your party. If you are having your wedding in less than a year, plan a small engagement party within 1-2 months. If you are planning to wait longer than a year, you should still have your engagement party within the first 6 months of your engagement. The reasoning to have it sooner than later is because friends and family all want to congratulate you and after 6 months you will probably have spoken to all of them already and then a party is not really necessary.

Lately, the grooms family hosts the engagement party and the bride's side handles the wedding. The party can be anywhere- a house, renting out a country club, restaurant to even a BBQ at the park. The important thing to remember is all these people are there to congratulate you.

I would love to hear what you did for your engagement party or did you opt not to have one?

If you missed last week's wedding tip- check it out here...Enjoy!