Engagement Party Etiquette

An engagement party should really be within 6 months of getting engaged.

One reason for this is the awkward situation where someone close to you wants to buy you a gift to celebrate your engagement, and they go ahead and do that within a few months of you announcing your engagement (because there was no mention of a party in the works). Then you have a party a year later .... and they don't want to go 'empty handed' to your party .... so, now they're giving you 2 gifts?!

I think that could be one of the reasons that people accuse couples who have engagement parties of doing it just for the gifts.

If the party is within 6 months of the engagement date, then its usually been in the works for a couple of months .... so people will find out about it, and that gives them the option of waiting to purchase a gift.

(Not saying that I think that people have parties for gifts, just that there are people out there who think e-parties are greedy)

your situation is pretty much what ours is. i think we are going to have it within the next 3 months. and we dont have a date set yet but we know its going to probably be end of feb.beginning of march in 2010. so pretty much 2 years away.

thank you girls for all of your opinions!

we got engaged 1/1/08 and we're having the party sometime in late summer, partly because we're still not sure if we're having one and partly because a lot of FH's family live in Ocean City MD so they're busy work season is the summer, so in order for people to actually come, we have to move it back towards the end of the season. but its ok, it just gives us more time to plan

I was engaged christmas 06
our engagement party March 25, 07 (3 months later)
Our wedding date is November 8, 2008 (1 year and 7 months later)