Welcome my newly engaged friends, and congrats! You’re engaged! One of the very first things that I did after I got engaged (even before setting up our engagement photoshoot) was figure out what the heck we were going to do about an engagement party.

If you’ve been following along with my life up until this point, you know that I found out that I was pregnant 9 weeks after I got engaged. Figuring out our engagement party happened well before I knew about my bun in the oven. At this point, we were still planning on having a June wedding (which eventually got bumped up to March). Still, a June wedding only gave us about 7 months to plan, so I knew I had to figure out an engagement party FAST. To make your life a little easier, I’m going to walk you through the steps of planning an engagement party. 

The first thing you need to do is figure out who will be throwing the party. Often, friends or family members of the parents will step in and offer to throw one. Luckily, I had family members almost immediately ask if they could throw one for me. If you don’t find yourself in the situation, don’t worry. You can easily throw one yourself.

You must the figure out where the engagement party will be. It’s common for engagement parties to be held at someone’s house, but that isn’t always the case. Say you want yours at a venue. You need to then decide what kind of ~party vibes~ you want. Is it going to be a night time party? A dinner? A brunch? This will guide you to selecting the perfect location.

Then you need to figure out a guest list. Remember: this is not the wedding. You do not need to invite 75 of your closest friends and their dates. Of course, if you want to, go you! I would recommend that this guest list includes family members and close friends (maybe even just friends in the wedding party). 

Now is time to figure out the invitations. Like I said before, my engagement party needed to be planned quickly, because I was only giving myself 7 months to plan the wedding. Our engagement party was held almost exactly a month after our engagement. For us, evites made perfect sense. We would not have been able to order custom invitations, send them out, and then wait for people’s RSVPs. However, if you have time and want to do paper, I think that’s awesome, too.

Everyone’s favorite part (okay maybe it’s just my favorite part) of a party is… say it with me…FOOD! This is one of the most important details to figure out. If you’ve decided on a restaurant as your venue, you’re already a step ahead. Still, you’re going to have to work with them to establish a menu. If you are having the party somewhere else, you might want to look into hiring a caterer, which is what we did. If you’re ballin’ on a budget, Pinterest has the CUTEST ideas for engagement party finger foods. Just make sure you have someone willing to help out with making them.

Last but not least, no party is complete without music. We just had a playlist on an iPhone, which eventually turned into drunken karaoke (shout out to my fun and crazy aunts and uncles). However, if you’re having a super fancy, night-time country club engagement party, you need to book a band or a DJ. I personally say band over DJ, but to each his own!

As I’ve said in previous posts, lists make me feel sane and organized. I hope this one helps all of you soon-to-be-Mrs.’s plan a special party, while keeping your heads together. Enjoy the beginning of lots of celebrations!