Everything You Need to Know About Pre-Wedding Parties
Diana Ascarrunz Photography
Congratulations on getting engaged! This will be one of the most memorable times of your life, and the best part is that you get to celebrate it with friends and family. From engagement parties to bridal showers, there are plenty of opportunities to gather your loved ones together before you say I do!
Are you lost on all of the different pre-wedding parties? Don’t sweat it - it’s understandable to feel confused since there are so many.
What’s the difference between a bridal shower vs wedding shower? Do you need to have an engagement party? We’re answering all of your questions and telling you everything you need to know about pre-wedding parties.
Do I Need to Have ALL of the Pre-Wedding Parties?
Before we break down the pre-wedding parties, let’s throw out this disclaimer: you are not obligated to have all or even any of these parties during your engagement! Your engagement should be a fun and celebratory time, and you already have to deal with wedding planning busyness.
If the idea of having all of these parties, even if you aren’t the one hosting them, stresses you out, don’t do them all! As you read through the list below, take note of which parties sound like fun and which ones don’t fit your and your partner’s personality as a couple.
Cory Ryan Photography
Engagement Parties
An engagement party is typically the first pre-wedding event. Pre-social media, engagement parties also served as a way to announce new engagements. Today, they are mostly a fun way to celebrate with your loved ones in person and show off your ring.
Engagement parties take place soon after the proposal (usually in the first three months) and they are known for being classy affairs. Think wine, passed hors d'oeuvres, and cocktail dresses.
They are hosted by one of the families, a relative, or a close friend. If each side of the family wants to throw one, you may have more than one engagement party. They are often hosted in homes, but they can also take place in restaurants or event spaces.
The guest list can vary at engagement parties: they can be intimate gatherings or large affairs. Keep in mind that an engagement party invite = a wedding invite, so be thoughtful with your invite list.
Gifts are optional at engagement parties, but some guests may bring something to celebrate, like a bottle of wine. It’s not expected to get gifts from your registry at an engagement party.
Out of all the pre-wedding events, we love engagement parties because they kick off the festive season of being engaged. You’ll feel the love and support of your loved ones as they pop the champagne with you and toast to your upcoming wedding.
Bridal Shower
Bridal showers are women-only events where the bride is literally showered in gifts. It’s a daytime event that includes small appetizers, sweets, and punch. Sometimes showers have a fun theme, like “He Popped the Question” where the whole place is decorated in painted champagne bottles.
Bridal showers, along with wedding showers and lingerie showers (details below) usually take place a few months into your engagement but not too close to the wedding. However, there are no strict rules on when they should happen.
A bridal shower is where you get most of the gifts from your registry. If you’re a young couple setting up your first home, they are extremely beneficial. However, they’re also a great way to celebrate your upcoming marriage with women who are already married and can offer you some advice.
Bridal showers are usually hosted by your maid of honor or bridesmaids, or a group of them may host together. A relative or close family friend may also offer to host a shower for you, and you may have more than one depending on your social circles.
Wedding Shower
A wedding shower is exactly like a bridal shower, but both the bride and the groom get to attend! The guest list also isn’t limited to only women. Wedding showers are a more modern and inclusive option for couples, and you get to share the experience with your partner.
Lingerie Shower
A lingerie shower is almost exactly like a bridal shower, except for one thing: all of the gifts are sexy. The bride is showered with intimates and sleepwear for the honeymoon and beyond. A lingerie shower can be a fun girl’s night before the big day. Sometimes it’s combined with the bachelorette party, but it can also be a separate event.
At bridal showers, you often invite women from different generations: AKA friends of your mom, women from church, aunts, and grandmothers. A lingerie shower is a fun excuse to gather your bridal party and other close friends your age. They are more laid-back affairs hosted in someone’s home.
Eryn Chandler Photography
Bridesmaid Luncheon
A bridesmaid luncheon is an opportunity for a bride to gather together her bridal party right before the big day. It usually takes place at a restaurant and is hosted by the bride. Most bridesmaid luncheons are hosted in the days before the wedding, but they can also be hosted earlier if that works better with the wedding schedule.
A bridesmaid luncheon is the bride’s opportunity to thank the bridesmaids for being part of the wedding. It’s also when you can distribute your bridesmaid's gifts.
If you have bridesmaids from different times and areas of your life, a luncheon is a great way to get them together and solidify Team Bride. They can get to know each other before the big day, which will make the wedding even more fun.
Bachelorette and Bachelor Party
The bachelorette and bachelor party are notoriously known as the couple's last time to party with their friends before tying the knot. It’s tradition for the couple to split up, but some couples like to combine parties.
These shindigs used to happen the night before the big day after the rehearsal dinner, but now entire bach weekends are customary. You can rent a beach house for a few days, jet off to vegas, or have a staycation in a fancy hotel.
If you opt for a full weekend, they usually take place a few weeks before the wedding. Gifts aren’t expected for bach parties, but it is expected for the attendees to pitch in so that the host doesn’t have to foot the full bill.
Bach parties are thrown by the maid of honor/best man, and they can be customized to the bachelorette's or bachelor’s personality. Maybe hiring a stripper sounds like a blast, or maybe you’d rather have a spa day with your girls. The most important thing is that you get to make memories with your best friends - even if you don’t remember them all!
Final Thoughts on Pre-Wedding Parties
Every pre-wedding party is an opportunity to celebrate your upcoming marriage with loved ones from different areas of your life. Who you invite to an engagement party could be extremely different from who you invite to a lingerie shower, so they each serve their own purpose.
However, that doesn’t mean that you have to commit to every party if that feels like too much. Which parties you have will depend on the length of your engagement, the size of your wedding, and your personality and desires. Your engagement is a time of celebration, so do what sounds fun to you and your partner!
We love celebrating couples at Pop & Drop! Whether it’s a wedding or a pre-wedding party, we want to be part of it. Contact us today about renting balloon garlands, streamer fringe, and more for your Austin-area party.