Your journey has now begun and you are both on your way to being Mr & Mrs. but before you walk down the aisle or have that romantic first dance, you need to have the ever so popular engagement party! The engagement party is the time to get all your friends and family together to celebrate the brilliant news. Many questions surround engagement parties such as who organises the party, how close after the engagement should the party be, who should we invite etc. Well, here are some ideas…

Set the date- This is the most popular question… When is the right time for an engagement party? Well firstly, when you are engaged is a good start, but I figure you already know that! So the most popular time frame for an engagement party is within the first 4 months of your engagement. This is because there will still be such excitement and this is the calm before the storm of wedding planning. Go show off that new engagement ring, dance together as an engaged couple and enjoy the planning of the engagement party.

The Guest List- Firstly, do not invite guests to the engagement party who will not be invited to your wedding. This has happened before and can be quite rude. So make sure that the guests at your party will also be partying with you on your wedding day. The guest list can be as small or big as you like. Many future brides and grooms prefer for the engagement party just to be close family and the full bridal party. Others want all their loved ones there, which can be very fun as you can then decide who is going to be that crazy friend at the wedding, which uncle will do the embarrassing dance first and which mum will cry first… yes these are some of the things to look forward to.
Invites- State clearly that is an engagement party, and not your wedding! You would be surprised at how often this happens. Also tell your guests the venue, time and dress code if applicable. Your engagement invites should represent what you and your fiancé are like as a couple so if you are having a formal engagement party, your invites should portray this. But if it is non-formal and more of a knees up then your invites do not have to be as formal. I know I know, but it is the small detail which makes all the difference!
Decorations- This is the part you can have loads of fun with. You could go and buy some engagement banners and balloons and have the balloons filled with helium for table centre pieces. These can be found very easily from any party store. You could also print out loads of photos of you and your fiancé from the day you met to the present day and place them around the room, your guests will love looking at these and it will bring back some beautiful memories. You could choose a theme for your engagement party and play on this. Even get your guests to dress up so your party really will be unique.
Entertainment- Your engagement party is overall the first steps towards your wedding and therefore it is a reflection of your wedding day. Your entertainment can be kept simple with a DJ and a few fun family games or you could go all out and hire a live band. Live bands are a great source of entertainment at an engagement party as they can talk to the crowd and really get them involved. You could also find some unique entertainment ideas such as a fun casino, caricature artist, a magician and even hire out a photo booth. The world is your oyster when it comes to your engagement party entertainment.
Overall just enjoy it all. This is you and your fiancés first official party as an engaged couple and that is all that matters. It is all about celebrating this massive milestone in each other’s lives and also spending it with your friends and family.