The Blog

   Engagement Parties (rambling)...

So, I've been to a few engagement parties in the last couple of years, and every time I ask the bride-to-be if they're expecting gifts. I'm usually answered by a "huh?" at this point, but I only ask because I remember gifts being given at engagement parties during my childhood.

This morning I did the sensible thing and asked my mum, because obviously she'd know if I was going crazy and making things up. The good news is I wasn't (hooray!) and that way back in the 80s when she and her sisters were getting married it was custom to bring a gift to the engagement party if you weren't invited to the wedding. It seems that the engagement party was the one that absolutely everyone you had ever met attended, and only close family and friends went to the wedding and reception. So your second cousin once removed would bring a gift to the engagement party, but the best friend wouldn't because they'd be bringing something to the wedding itself.

(These days wedding showers exist to be another source of gifts, but I haven't been to any of those yet, so I can't comment.)

Labels: chasing after butterflies and wishing I could fly, ms manners, weddings