Just a quick question girls - As you all know I got engaged in July and we've now set the date (yay!!) for our wedding which will be the 10th of October, 2010. So still over 2 years away. Just wondering when you think we should have our engagement party? My Mum asked me the weekend we got engaged whether we wanted to have one straight away but I said not until it gets a bit closer. I guess I was thinking about a year out? I'm just interested to hear when everybody else held theirs?

Also, because we're only having a fairly intimate wedding (only close family and friends), I was thinking that perhaps we should invite the extended family and other friends that we aren't going to invite to our wedding, to the engagement party? How have you girls gotten around family politics with aunts/uncles that you are close to and those that you aren't? I don't think I could just invite the two that I am close to to the wedding and not the others... that's why I was thinking that if everybody was invited to the engagement party I could get around this problem?

Sorry I'm waffling a bit! Just sorting through things out loud and I'd really appreciate all your input. Thanks!

Kerry.

P.S. Sorry it wasn't a quick question after all! Lol

We had ours after we'd been engaged about 7 months. It ended up being 16 months before the wedding (our wedding was planned for Oct this year so really would have been 19 months after)

We invited everyone (extended family, parents friends etc) that was going to be invited to our wedding but then decided to get married in July in an intimate ceremony (12 of us, only my immediate family & our closest friends that were to be our bridal party) and only told my extended family afterwards im seeing them for the first time since we've been married at a family party this weekend so that should be interesting.

I think whenever you have it will be fine whether you have it closer to the wedding or not and who you invite is up to you and H2B, i cant really comment because i usually end up inviting everyone to keep the peace (with the exception of our wedding ceremony but that was only organised and decided on a few weeks before we did it)

Hope you get it worked out

I've often wondered this myself. From the perspectives of FH's family and my own, it seems that the general consensus is have it early in the engagement while it's all still exciting. We got engaged about 2 weeks ago and FH's parents have already booked us a venue for the 14th November. We're not having a really long engagement though - looking at October next year, so I guess it makes sense for us to do it sooner rather than later. If we were going to have a really long engagement I might have considered doing it a bit later on, just to break up the time a bit and have something to look forward to! Though honestly, if I'd planned the engagement party myself it probably wouldn't have been until early next year - I'm still getting over the proposal shock

We had ours two weeks from the wedding - late I know.

I really wanted my brother to be here from London, so we timed it and he came out a little early for it.

Then again, everyone has known for absolutely ages we were getting married (after 8 years they gave up asking when and just waited), so it wasn't that big a deal.

I think it's a good idea to invite the extended family if you can since they're not coming to the wedding. But only if you want to.

Best of luck.

Hi,

We had our engagement party about 1 and 1/2 months after we got engaged, so we have been engaged for quite a while now. I think it depends on what you want.

In regards to who to invite, not sure what you can do. I am sure that people would understand that you cant invite everyone but be careful if you are inviting some and not others if they will talk and make things harder for you. I am sure they would love to know you have thought of them in inviting them to the engagement party. I hope you can sort something out.

We held ours 5 months after the engagement. Main reason being that FPIL were o/s when we got engaged so we had to wait until they got back to start any planning at all! (we had to make sure our wedding date wouldn't clash with them going o/s - they're retired so they are seeing the world!).

we had ours 3 months after getting engaged and it suited me as now i can fully concentrate on planning the wedding as you tend to get side tracked from the engagement planning...i have alway thought you had them nearer to being engaged rather than married but it is a personal choice to what suits you guys

Okay so just an update, we will be waiting until next year to have our engagement party but no set date at the moment. Most likely around October next year, so around 12 months out from our wedding Thanks for all your help!

Hey Kezz I agree in having you E-party next year so it's spread out a bit. Maybe have your e-party close to the dat you got engaged next year or the date you got together?

H2B and I were in a similar situation. He proposed October last year when I was pregnant with our first bubby. So we planned the e-party to be October this year on the same weekend as the proposal (mainly as I was hoping to be weaning off from breaast feeding by this point). Then it will only be 1 year and 4 months until the wedding

Hey, just an update.. I was looking on the the calendar in my phone last week and saw that October 10 next year (exactly one year out from our wedding date) is on a Saturday, which I thought would be the perfect date for our engagement party! I could still get on with all the planning for the wedding, but at the same time have a really nice party to look forward to, to break up all the stress Let me know what you think

Oh and a question I just thought of, if we do decide to go with this date for our e-party, at what point do you think we send out our invites? A month out, longer, shorter? I'm completely clueless with all this stuff! Lol.

Exactly one year out from your wedding day sounds great!

We sent our invites out around 4 weeks out, but ours was pretty small...

can make it 6 weeks to be sure that everyone has the date free...