Ever since people have been getting engaged, they’ve been arranging extravagant parties – opportunities for them to celebrate the occasion and put a flag in the ground.
Engagement parties are different from wedding receptions – aside from the obvious reasons. With one of these, you have more scope to pretty much design it how you’d like. It’s supposed to be a highlight of your year, but there isn’t the same kind of pressure you get with a wedding. You’re free to relax and enjoy yourself more.
So what is the anatomy of a perfect engagement party? What do you need to do to pull it off in a way that will make you happy?
Order Chef-Prepared Nibbles
No wedding party is complete without nibbles, but you don’t want to just lay out piles of chips in bowls. That smacks more of kids’ birthdays than an engagement party. Ideally, you want something a little more sophisticated.
For that reason, it makes a lot of sense to go to a chef and speak with them about the types of finger food that they can prepare for you and your friends.
When it comes to nibbles, you have a lot of options. Chefs can whip up all sorts of things, from miniature hamburgers on skewers to potato croquettes. Plus, the number of people you want to attend doesn’t usually make a big difference to the price. Often you hire a chef for the day. It is then up to them to come up with the goods.
Make Sure You Have A Killer Ring To Show Off
The first thing that people will want to do when they arrive at your engagement party is to see your ring. Fundamentally, they want to know how much the groom spent on you. Do you have a white gold solitaire diamond engagement ring or one that uses another type of material? These are all critical questions!
Prepare The Prosecco
Champagne is probably a little extravagant for an engagement party, but prosecco certainly isn’t. You want to make sure that there’s plenty of the stuff lying around on tables so that all your friends and family can fill their flutes.
Prosecco is very much the life and soul of an engagement party and helps to make it a night to remember. Pop the cork, let the wine flow, and the conversation will follow.
Prepare Some Entertainment
Having a party is great, but ideally, you want to offer some kind of entertainment around which you organize the day. The entertainment can be pretty much anything you like, from hiring a magician to bringing in a DJ. You could even hire actors to perform a sketch or show. The choice is yours.
If you don’t have the budget for that kind of thing, you have plenty of other options too. Preparing a good film or organizing some sort of team-building challenge can all be a lot of fun for the people in attendance.
Fire Up The BBQ
When people go to an engagement party, there’s an underlying expectation that they will have the opportunity to fill their stomachs with delicious food. But they want something exciting. We already discussed the possibility of hiring a chef, but what if you don’t want to do that? What if you’re going to prepare the food yourself?
Summer engagements usually make use of a BBQ. Here you can make food that tastes a little different from the norm while catering to a large number of people relatively easily. You just throw the meat and veg on the grill, close the lid and wait for the magic to happen. Guests will enjoy the fact that everything tastes a little different. Don’t forget to include plenty of pillow white buns and subs.
Enjoy Yourself
Engagement parties are all about enjoying yourself. They’re a chance for you to relax and let your hair down a bit. They shouldn’t feel like a dress rehearsal for a wedding. You have way more freedom than that.
It can be a little nerve-wracking to announce your engagement in front of a large group of people you know and love, but it can also be rewarding. People are generally very supportive of the new couple and will wish you every success. Plus, they can look forward to a wedding invitation at some point in the future.
Don’t feel like you have to rush around organizing everything. Spend some time speaking to everyone who shows up. Get somebody else to deal with all the nitty-gritty details.
