Q & A: Engagement Party Guest List Etiquette

Q: My fiance and I have a very small budget to work with for our wedding. As a result, we've decided to host a small wedding of 50 people, however our guest list is so long, we're having trouble deciding on who to cut from the guest list. We thought it would be a great idea to host an engagement party for the extra people who won't be invited to the wedding however my mother says it's rude to invite guests to the engagement and not the wedding. Can you help us put this battle to rest? Who knows best?

A: Unfortunately, mom knows best in this situation. While most people are quite understanding when it comes to budgets and wedding planning, we always like to keep everything pretty standardized when planning out the guest list to any wedding related event. If a guest is not included in your head count for the wedding, they shouldn't be invited to any engagement parties or showers as it's seen as bad form. We love that you're trying to include all of your loved ones in your special day and as a compromise, planning a post-wedding bash or house warming party (if you recently moved into a new place) would be a great way to celebrate this new chapter with some additional friends and family members.



Photo by Simply Sophisticated Events