Your significant other just proposed to you amid pine trees or by the lapping waves of the salt-scented sea or at your favorite restaurant. However he did it, you are engaged! A few weeks after your engagement, you may want to start planning one notable, worthwhile occasion: the engagement party.
When do you have an engagement party? The engagement party typically happens two to three months after the proposal, which gives you time to organize your guest list, wedding venue, style of wedding and wedding party. When you have all that ready, you can choose to begin planning your engagement party. You can discuss the date, time, desired place and style — casual or formal — with your designated host, and from there, you can begin designing the engagement party invitations. Most wedding experts agree that it is proper engagement party etiquette to send out the invitations three to four weeks in advance, as it is not the official wedding, but it is still an event worth celebrating and organizing.
Here are five reasons to send out engagement party invitations:
1. It’s the First Big Event to Celebrate
The engagement party is the first significant event of the wedding season, so it is worth treating it as a special occasion, whether it is a casual backyard barbecue or an extravagant six-course-meal event. Therefore, it is essential to ensure all the attendees receive a proper invite.
Paper party invitations can help to draw guests into the engagement party because a handcrafted card showcases how much thought went into creating the invite. As a result, guests can safely assume you also put an enormous amount of effort into organizing the celebration, which makes the event more appealing. They can travel to the party with confidence that you organized and catered it to fit the theme or style you presented on the invite.
The engagement party is a time for the wedding guests and the couple to become more acquainted with each other. This interaction makes it a momentous occasion, something that a proper invitation can help to cement. Handcrafted invitations can also help enhance the excitement directed toward the engaged couple and the upcoming parties and events that often surround weddings.
2. It’s an Easy Way to Showcase Your Wedding Website
Nowadays, it is common for engaged couples to present all their information on a wedding website. A personalized wedding website allows you to present all the details about your wedding in one place. Your website can include RSVP information, the address of and directions to your venue and who is in your wedding party. You can also use your website to keep track of your guest list.
Instead of advertising a wedding website on social media for both invited and uninvited guests to see, you can include the site’s address in your engagement party invitation. This way, only people on your invite list can visit and enjoy your wedding website.
You can also ask engagement party guests to RSVP directly on your website, which helps to save time.
3. It Keeps Your Party from Being a Last-Minute Thought
Planning your wedding can be an extremely hectic experience. As a result, planning your engagement party might go unattended until the very last minute.
Sending out engagement party invitations helps to keep that event from becoming a last-minute afterthought by serving as a reminder of its imminent approach. The obligation of going out of your way to plan the guest list for the engagement party serves a similar purpose.
With the constant reminders that the date of your engagement party is fast approaching, you’re less likely to leave planning it to the last possible moment.
4. Not Everyone is Looking for a Digital Announcement
Even if your grandparents or older relatives have Facebook accounts, they might not know how to use all its features, or they might only log on every few weeks. Some childhood friends may have sworn off the entire social media scene altogether, which makes it difficult to send out a group message or create an event online. With a physical invitation, the couple can rest assured that all invites will reach their intended guests.
5. It Ensures That Only Invited People Show Up
Who do you invite to an engagement party? Ideally, whoever you invite to the engagement party is someone you will invite to the wedding. It can be awkward if someone shows up at the engagement party unannounced — perhaps the event page wasn’t set to private and they assumed everyone could attend. This situation puts you in an awkward position, and you may have to add an unwanted attendee to your wedding guest list. Using paper invitations reduces the chance that this might happen, but if it does, be gracious and make them feel welcome.
Physical paper engagement party invitations offer each guest a more personal experience. The extra effort involved in crafting them can subconsciously encourage your guests to take the time to attend and commemorate your engagement. They serve as a signal that your party will be a fun, organized and worthwhile experience.
