Planning an engagement party can be just as exciting as planning your wedding, and is a popular way of celebrating your engagement before getting down to the nitty-gritty of wedding planning.
It provides time for couples to simply enjoy being engaged before their lives become somewhat consumed with venues, flowers, dresses, guest lists and table plan dilemmas.
If your families haven’t yet met, or your bridal party is yet to meet the groomsmen, having an engagement party can get everybody celebrating together and getting to know each other to collectively support you as you tie the knot.
Your Pinterest boards will, we’re sure, already be full of exciting ideas for your wedding day and whilst you might want to save your favourites for then, don’t be afraid to think creatively when it comes to celebrating your engagement. At eve, we’ve been to a few (read: a lot) of engagement parties in our time as event planners and we’ve put together a list of our favourite game-changing (or name-changing, if you will) ideas for a memorable and magical engagement party.
Engagement party decoration ideas
Elegant flower wall
Flower walls present excellent photo opportunities and can add an elegant touch to blank canvas venues. The beauty of this is that you can choose your favourite flowers or colours, which is particularly useful if you’re going with a theme or specific colour scheme.
Not-so-traditional theming
If you want to keep your wedding quite traditional, a themed engagement party can be an opportunity to get creative. Choosing a theme can make your engagement celebrations more specific to you as a couple: both love fancy dress but wouldn’t have it at your wedding? Try it at your engagement party. You could have guests dress up as their favourite famous couple or choose a topic such as the first film you saw together, your favourite binge-worthy boxset that you absolutely must not watch without your partner, or musicians that you like.
If you’re looking for something different, you could even try incorporating an activity within your engagement party like wine-tasting, murder mystery or a games night.
Minimalism
Sometimes, less is more. During our time as event planners we’ve seen (and planned!) some pretty ‘out there’ events at eve and we love the magic of a grand event, but sometimes you don’t need anything massive for your private event to be magical.
Think simple décor with candles or small lights, jars of one or two flowers can be simple yet effective, and some balloons to enhance your colour scheme. If you choose a blank canvas venue it really will be minimal, but some of London’s best party venues are pretty beautiful without the bells and whistles.
Engagement party food and drink ideas
(S)he-popped-the-question popcorn
Whether you’ve decided to have canapes, buffet or a sit-down meal, there’s always time for popcorn. These sweet snacks can be grabbed by guests and can be customised with your colour scheme, style or theming. You can even make them yourself with this useful guide.
Marry me mocktails
Our team of event planners at eve are huge advocates of the trusty mocktail. As we become increasingly conscious of wellbeing, fruity and refreshing mocktails provide a tasty alcohol alternative to guests that won’t see them relying on lemonades.
It’s so easy to create your own Insta-worthy mocktails now with tonnes of alcohol alternatives available on the market and it’s not difficult to find delicious recipes on Pinterest. You could even create your own recipes or add your own twist on a classic to add a more personal touch to your drinks – how about ‘his’ and ‘hers’ drinks to combine your favourite flavours? No arguing about whose creation is most popular on the day, though…
An “I do” BBQ
If you’re celebrating your engagement in the summer months (or even if you’re not) a BBQ can be a great way of bringing everybody together in a relaxed environment or as part of a garden party. If you’re looking for a chilled celebration with little fuss but a chance to raise a glass of bubbly, a BBQ could be the perfect unique and informal engagement party idea.
Engagement party entertainment ideas
Mr & Mrs
A fun game for guests and hosts alike: how well do you really know each other? This hilarious game challenges couples to put their knowledge of each other to the test – and despite the title, it’s a lot of fun for friends and family members, too. Does your sister know you as well as you thought? Would the bride prefer a traditional wedding cake or a doughnut stack? Who is most likely to be last on the dancefloor?
The game is available to buy ready-to-go or you can have a lot of fun creating your own for an additional personal touch.
If I could tell you just one thing…
This is a nice opportunity to include loved ones in the celebrations as they provide the newly engaged couple with their best advice for wedded bliss. The idea is that each guest to your engagement party writes down the one thing they’d like you to know about marriage or relationships and you store each little nugget of advice in a box or jar for safe keeping. It’s up to you whether you read through them prior to the wedding for some last-minute advice or afterwards when it’s all over – either way it makes a lovely date night activity!
Pick the playlist
Another opportunity for friends and family to have an input into your wedding is to have them recommend or choose songs to be added to the wedding playlist. You don’t have to go with all of them – you don’t want a song that you really hate – but you might find that you end up with some real crackers to get people on the dancefloor.
Need a hand finding the perfect engagement party venue in London? Get in touch to speak to our team of party planning experts.