Ideas - Please!!!!!

[JuniorMinime]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if I could get some ideas of engagement parties and what I should do??

Anything would be great as I have no idea and hae never helped organised one before. What are the standard rules etc.....

Please help, I need all the help I can get. I would love to have a New Years Eve Engagement party, because we have been together for 3years and we wnat to bring in a New and good year and leave this crappy one behind. But costs are very expensive and most places are already booked out!!

I look forward to hearing from you all.

Becs

[Kizmet]

hey there

first of all congrats!!! i'd probably say go against nye as costs are high and ppl may have other plans too but then again everyone would go to celebrate nye too. its a toss up

Do you have a budget? How many people? what are you looking for something formal or casual finger food byo drinks bbq type thing?

[shed]

I will be watching this thread because I am about to start planning our engagement party.

It will probably be a couple of friends drinking beer round the barbie, but maybe something more extravagant if I get some good ideas.

LOVE the New Years Eve idea!!

We weren't going to have one, but after missing out on a baby shower and not getting bubby christened or anything I decided we deserved one.

[~rambox~]

Hi Becs

From one Bec to another, we had a very simple engagment party in my mum and dads back yard. We hired a Jukebox for the music which was about $120 and all the aunties made a plate of food each, we also put on a few cartons of beer and a few bottles of soft drink and wine. We included BYO spirits on the invites. All up our engagment party cost us about $600.

Cheers
Bec

[twolittlegirls]

Hi Becs

From one Bec to another, we had a very simple engagment party in my mum and dads back yard. We hired a Jukebox for the music which was about $120 and all the aunties made a plate of food each, we also put on a few cartons of beer and a few bottles of soft drink and wine. We included BYO spirits on the invites. All up our engagment party cost us about $600.

Cheers
Bec


This is what we did because we had a big wedding. I must admit though if I could have my wedding again i would have done a surprise at our engagment party! (And then had an awesome honeymoon!)

[*Chels*]

Compared to others,mine was soooo low-key.I was preg at the time so I couldnt even drink:gloomy: My DF on the other hand had enough booze for both of us,and more!!!LOL
So we just had it at our place,invited close friends only-none of my family came:shame: and we just brought some alcohol and I did the food.All up,we didnt spend more than $200 I think.
Our wedding will be awesome tho:thumbsup:

[missie_mack]

We asked for our guests not to buy us a engagement gift and instead pay for their own mains. So we had platters of hot and cold food going around wine on every table, engagement cake and a band. We had our engagement party at the place we had our first date and they gave us an entire floor of the place for our own use. We decorated the party ourselves with just balloons (but not crappy ones the clear and metallic ones) in a blue and purple theme and our balloon weights had music boxes in them which we gave to guests with children. It was great and everybody was catered for as they chose there own food- eg diabetics vegetarians etc so they were little complaints.

The only downer was that as we asked people to pay for their mains they assumed that RSVPing wasnt important. We have 90 RSVP and 140 turned up lol. We hadnt budgeted for that.......

The gifts werent so importnant to us as we had been living together and were getting married soon (We got engaged in the August and married in the April), Im also pretty particular on what I have in my house. You should see some of the weird gifts we got for our wedding but that is another story lol. :laughing:

[*~alegna~*]

Hey Bec,

We had similar sorta thing (BBQ). if I had my time over again though I wouldn't have had an engagement party at all & spent all the money on My Honeymoon (didn't happen til 1yr after our wedding :rolleyes: ).
DH ended up Paraletic & barfing in a wastepaper basket in my Ma's Bed....Veerrryyyy Romantic!

Maybe you could incorporate a theme?...Like have it on Valentines Day or The Date you got together? Or have it at Draculas or Dreamworld ?? Romantic Fancy Dress?

Depending on what sort of Budget your on ofcourse...

Sanctuary Cove is very nice also :) Just a few ideas

[~mia&ryan~]

Hi!:wave:
We had our engagement party November last year and I was 5months preg. Not being able to drink didn't bother me, not a drinker. We had it at my ma's partners house, they have a v.big ourdoor area. We covered the place with fairy lights, balloons. There were floating candles in the pool and candles on tables. Plus there were flowers everywhere from my ma's garden. My ma and my grandma made all the food. So much yummy stuff! The made mini sandwiches, mini quiches, mini vol-au-vents, meatballs, spring rolls, prawn cutlets... so much stuff I cant remember it all.. For desert we had mini mudcakes, mini sticky date puddings, mini pavlovas and fruit. We had around 50+ people and it was an awesome night, we had a ball! I wouldn't change a thing. All our friends said that it was the best engagement party they had been to, cos it was relaxed, didn't have to worry about noise (hinterland) plus it was outdoors on a summer night.:smiliedance: I loved it!:thumbsup:

[JuniorMinime]

Thanks so much for ideas everyone, you can keep them coming though!!!!!!

Still have no idea what we are going to do, mum and dad have offered their house so I think we might take them up on the offer to try and cut back costs of hiring a hall etc.

Will let you all know when I know.

Becs

[LadyLauren]

Heya,


I recently am engaged also and a friend directed me to this site www.easyweddings.com.au

It has everything from planning your engagement to planning your wedding! Its a great site!

All the best

Lauren

[Hokey Pokey]

My inlaws hosted one for us at their house. We had drinks all night (beer and wine) And nibbly/platters. All their friends brought along a plate to share too.
Music all night, good food and drinks and lots of chatting and dancing :thumbsup:
We had a cake from cheesecake shop with our names and engagement date on it and we cut it up to share!

[Caithi]

I didnt have one!:eek:

We were engaged overseas and by the time we got back, went back to work etc etc I just couldnt be bothered organising one lol.:laughing:

They are not mandatory and you can always spend ( or if your parents are paying for it ask them to spend the engagement party money on your honeymoon maybe? ) it on somethng else.

:hugs:

[ButterflyMama]

Hey Becs,

CJ and I had our engagement party in the beergarden of my aunty's pub. It was lovely, we had the whole outdoor area and our own private bar. We put on a bartab of $400.00 as there were 60 guests and we arranged to have fingerfood brought around about 1 hr after everyone arrived. It went from 2-6pm and worked out beautifully - not too long, or short. Just enough time. There was a jukebox playing with a screen playing video-clips, too.. and 2 pooltables. We opened the gifts as we got them so we had a chance to go around after and thank each person individually. It worked out perfectly and everyone had a wonderful time.

Jessie

[JuniorMinime]

Well I have had a talk to my parents and they have asked us if we wanted to have it in their yard, they have a pool etc so that would be cool. We are looking at having it in Jan and then people can go for a swim etc.

I have also found out that my parents are offering to help pay for the wedding and get this the honeymoon as well as the engagemant party!!!!!!! Am I spoiled or what!!!! Can't believe it.

[bouschka]

Our engagement party is this sunday :yelclap:. We're having it on a sunday so it's not a big 'party' type thing - we're leaving that for the wedding next year.

We've been together 9 years this past september, so we didn't see it requiring a big celebration. We've asked for no presents also, hope everyone listened, & have threatened resale on eBay for those that do. We certainly don't need anything, having lived together all this time.

Our BBQ at the in-laws place starts at midday. We're having:

Grazing food
anti-pasto platters, gourmet cheese platters, those yummo aldi gourmet dips with toasted turkish bread fingers, tropical fruit platters, chicken, salmon & tofu/vego rice paper rolls

BBQ
chili & garlic prawns, chicken skewers, mini turkey, beef or veggie burgers, potato salad, pasta salad, green salad

Might get some cheesecakes/muffins for dessert (no-one ever has room though!)

I've bought green & blue lanterns to string up in the yard & we've got marquees to put up for some shade. The ipod will get a work out for the musak too.

As for traditions - we'll just do what we want to do. We will thank everyone for coming etc etc, my mum & dad will possibly get sauced & embarrass me... :fingerscrossed: they save that for the wedding too.:o

I'll try to remember to take some pics ;)

Good luck to everyone for their day!

[~mia&ryan~]

Well I have had a talk to my parents and they have asked us if we wanted to have it in their yard, they have a pool etc so that would be cool. We are looking at having it in Jan and then people can go for a swim etc.

I have also found out that my parents are offering to help pay for the wedding and get this the honeymoon as well as the engagemant party!!!!!!! Am I spoiled or what!!!! Can't believe it.
Yey! That's great!:yelclap: I am really happy for you:D :yes:

[bella rose]

Hi Darling!!

How exciting! Here's another website I found fab while planning my engagement/wedding www.i-do.com.au (http://www.i-do.com.au)

We had our engagement party at my sisters house and it seemed to go down really well, plus the money you save with having something at a home is a bonus & can go towards the wedding!! :smiliedance:

[shorty_851]

Even though veryone knows DP and i are engaged we are waiting till next year to have the party.

I like the idea of a champange brunch

[missmum05]

congratulations on your engagement:smiliedance:

Its so exiting planning yur party and the wedding and everything. Good Luck with it all :thumbsup:

We had a engagement party in a big yard kinda thing we had a pig on the spit and fairy lights and we put alcohol on and made some nice food platters and cocktails and things. Someone already suggested a juke box which is a great idea. And if you want alcohol there you could hire a daquari machine and have those going nice and icey:yes: and maybe a keg for the boys.
there is so many ideas if you have it in a back yard as you can spend more on the actual party.
you could have like a theme for your party eg. a hat party where everyone wears a cool hat ( you'd be amazed what people actually wear its so funny) and makes the photos great too.