Just got engaged - should we have a party?

Hi Hun,

My OH did me a surprise party!!!! He was going to propose at the party but luckily my best mate who was in on it told him that wouldnt go down well with me and she's right because I would have hated it...

So he planned a party in a nice bar in town, if he didnt then I definately would have done...

I guess it also depends on when you are planning to get married, if its soon then maybe not?? x

We got engaged dec 2011, we had bought an house in 2010 and had a lot if work done to it so this year in July we did a close family and friend BBQ as house warming / engagement party is was lovely,

Why not, everyone loves a party! We got engaged this time last year and didn't really feel like there was much time to fit in a party with Christmas coming up, I was going away in early Jan and he was recovering from an accident. But I'm glad we did, everyone was so excited and pleased for us and it's nice to see that, otherwise we probably wouldn't have seen most of those friends until months afterwards, and the moment would have gone.

We did it quite informally though, we had a big meal out with both families, then a party at our favourite pub for all our friends.

We hired out an area in a bar, and put some money behind the bar.

It wasn't an all out party, but it was great, so many people made the effort to come.

If you can afford it, I'd definitely do one

We just never got around to it and life got in the way of any organising but i wish we had of had one now as neither families have really met each other in the 6 years weve been together

Congratulations and welcome to hitched!

We didn't have one, and so far don't regret not having one. We had a meal out with my family just after we got engaged, and stopped at his family's on the way home from getting engaged, so didn't feel the need to have one. Also, budget would have been limited for us.

Congratulations and welcome ? Up to you whether you have a party - we didn't have one with all our friends as I didn't want loads of fuss. We did however have a nice meal with my parents and we had dinner with two of our best friends to celebrate as well. Lots of fizz both times ?

Congratulations! We got engaged then had our party about 6 weeks later. Was family n friends with buffet n bar etc. so glad we did, was nice for all the different families to come together x

We had one but I must admit it was more at my mums insistence than ours! We got engaged in August and had the party in September. It was actually nice as the two families don't live near each other so it was a nice chance to all get together. Also we got lots of nice presents for our new house - not that that should be the sole reason for having your party!!!

Hi, congratulations welcome to hitched. We got engaged on valentines day but didn't have our party until the end of march. We hired a local function room and did our own buffet with a Dj. I agree its a good way of getting the 2 family's and friends to meet. It's strange what a small world it can be, OHs aunty went to school with my aunty, and his work mates knew my parents! One bit of advice though which I'm remembering for my wedding day, make sure you take the time to enjoy it. I spent alot of the evening making sure I spoke to everyone and sorting out people's requests for songs and cutting cake, now were definitely paying someone else to do the food! Hope you have a fantastic night whatever you do you should definitely celebrate!

Be nice for the families to meet.

Hello, welcome and huge congratulations x

Congratulations and welcome!

We had two engagement parties, only because we didn't want to spend a huge amount of money so we had the parties at home and our house isn't big enough to fit everyone in. We had a party for family then one for our friends. We did the food and guests brought what they wanted to drink so didn't cost the earth. OH proposed two weeks before we were due to go on holiday to Greece, he was gonna do it there but he was so worried about losing the ring on the way he changed his mind. So we had one party before we went and one the week we got back. I'm glad we did it but its not essential, if you want one go for it but if not thats fine too ?

Happy planning

Gem x

Hi,

We got engaged in October too.

We are just buying a house at the moment so plan on having a joint house warming and engagement party sometime in January ?

I would say yes! If you can afford it that is. We found a function room above a bar that was free if the bar takings were over a certain amount, so we just had to find food money. We got engaged on Christmas day and had our party in the Feb, none of our friends and family had really met so it was nice for them to do so. Although there wasn't as much mingling as I hoped for, at least people can put faces to names.

Thanks for all of your replies. I'm thinking about having an engagement party at our house on New Year's Eve. I would have liked to have one at the house in the summer because we could have a BBQ too but that might be leaving it a bit late. We haven't set a date for the wedding yet so it could be a fairly long engagement.

Hi, we got engaged last weekend and are planning on having an engagement party in Feb due to Xmas and my brothers 30th in January. I was a bit worried it would be too far away but after reading some replies on here it seems pretty normal

Yeah I don't think there is any particular etiquette- just do what works for you. We got married in May and had an engagement party in July. It was just friends really (although my parents came too) as our family is all over the place, and OHs are 6 hrs drive away so wasn't really feasible. We just hired an area of a local bar for the evening. Was nice to celebrate! We also went out for a meal with OHs parents to celebrate when we went to visit them