5 Engagement Party Theme Ideas
So, someone’s getting engaged and it’s time to throw an engagement party. But what kind of theme should your engagement party have? Here are five ideas that might fit the bill:
A Cocktail Party. If you’re going to have more than about eight people, a cocktail party can be a better choice than a dinner party. For this engagement party theme, serve fancy drinks, preferably with umbrellas in them. Keep the music a lively jazz mix. Get lots of ice. Set up a bar, and serve trays of appetizers. Make sure the appetizers are the ‘walk around’ variety, that people can eat anywhere, so they aren’t stuck near a table, trying to dunk their carrots into a bowl of dip. Be sure to position the engagement party food in various places around the house, so that everyone is not crowded in the kitchen where you’re mixing drinks. Traffic flow is important at cocktail engagement theme parties, so serve food they can pick up on a small plate or napkin and walk away with. If you’re really creative, you can even “invent” a new drink and name it after the happy couple. For engagement party theme decorations, you might find an embarrassing or too-cute photo of the happy couple, and bring it to a Kinkos to be blown up life-size and hung on the wall for all the guests to sign. For a game to “break the ice”, ask all the guests to write their best wedding or marriage advice on a cocktail napkin and then read each one aloud.
Cake and Champagne Dreams. This engagement party theme is all about sparkle. You’ll want plenty of candles lit around the house, or at the very least, some twinkling white Christmas lights. And with this engagement party theme you’ll also want to have a few helium-filled silver and gold balloons on hand. The fare is simple – cake and champagne (or sparkling cider). The mood is buoyant and celebratory. For music, you might want brass or orchestral. The cake should be the centerpiece of your cake and champagne engagement party theme, and displayed prominently. The more it looks like a wedding cake, the better. If you don’t have enough champagne glasses in the house, really nice plastic ones can be purchased at any party store and won’t take away from the elegance of your engagement party theme. Ask someone special to the couple to make a toast to kick the party off. Assemble a scrap book to remember the event, with sample invitations and lots of photos.
Costume Ball. This engagement party theme is out of the ordinary. Ask guests to come dressed as their favorite married couples from history, the big screen, or the tabloid pages. Have a blast trying to guess who they are. Engagement party themes don’t have to be stuffy – as long as your guests have fun, and remember to celebrate the commitment that the couple is about to make. It can be as wacky as you like. Such an engagement party might have a raffle as entertainment, and flapper music would not be out of place.
Mexican Fiesta. Serve Tex-Mex casseroles or chili as an entree. Or, if you’re looking to keep the food snack-size, serve corn chips, empanadas, and other hand-held Mexican appetizers. For this engagement party theme, mix Margaritas and play the salsa music as loud as you please. For decorations, you might want to pick up a pinata and fill it with adult-fun favors, letting the bride and groom supervise the smashing of the paper beastie. Multi-colored balloons will add to the gaiety of your engagement party.
Afternoon Barbecue. Even less formal engagement party theme is the backyard barbecue. Fire up the grill, break out the plastic cups and the paper plates, and gussy up your backyard for a party. Hots, Hamburgers and beer are the usual fare, and music can range from country to classic rock. The main obstacle to barbecues are that someone is going to have to stand in front of the grill for a long time to feed all those people, the food is unlikely to be done at the same time, and you may run out of easy seating when it’s time to open the engagement party gifts.
Whichever engagement party theme you choose, remember that engagement parties are a time to introduce the new couple to the world as a social unit. It’s a time to get to know their friends, and to start the journey towards the wedding, which could be more than a year away. Celebrate that two people found their way together, and enjoy that you’re going to be a part of it.
