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Wedding Parties - The Main Events
Engagement Party
​Even though engagement parties are optional- it's still a fun thing to do. If your relatives have not yet met your fiance, an engagement party is a better place for them to meet than at the wedding itself. An engagement party is also a great way for either side of parents to show their support of your upcoming wedding, or it is a great way for you to pitch in to the wedding costs as a couple.

Usually an engagement party will take place within two months after the actual engagement. Of course, if you're having a particularly long engagement period (a year or more) you may want to wait a couple months before getting your friends and family into the wedding spirit.

Generally for an engagement party you will want to invite only a couple dozen of your closest friends and family. The idea of closest should be taken both ways- you don't want your aunt to fly in for one little party, so make sure you just invite those people who live close to you or close to the location of the party. Anyone who is left out of this party can receive an engagement announcement if you so wish.

Don't expect any gifts at this particular party, those will come later. However, it is a good idea to get started on your registry before the party, just in case someone happens to want to get you a gift. Make sure that you do stash away any received gifts until after the party - you don't want the guests who didn't bring gifts to feel bad.

Whether you decide to have a party or not, just enjoy your engagement and let everyone know how happy and excited you are.
Bridal Shower
A bridal shower is commonly hosted by the maid-of-honor and bridesmaids. 
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Things to Consider When You Planning Your Bridal Shower:
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The event is usually held two months or so before your wedding, no closer than two weeks before the big day.
Don't invite guests to the shower who have not been invited to the wedding.
These days you'll need to decide whether this will be a traditional 'girls only' event or a couples party, often referred to as a "Jack & Jill" shower.
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Any time of day is acceptable - most often showers are afternoon events.
Games that can serve as ice breakers for the party are a particularly good idea if a large number of the guests don't already know one another. Encourage the bride to register for gifts. With so many couples living on their own before getting married, it's difficult for guests to guess which things they still need. Remind the bride to include a reasonable number of inexpensive items on her registry for guests with limited budgets.
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Decide whether the party will be held at a home or in a restaurant or other locale. These days many shower planners now choose activities instead of the traditional finger food/gift opening shower. For example, many bridal parties take the bride out for a day at the spa instead of a shower. Or for an active Jack and Jill shower, the party could be a beach barbecue complete with volleyball, Frisbee, music and dancing.

Unless you feel it's mandatory to surprise the bride, involve her in the planning. Ask her if there's a particular theme she'd like for her shower. Some popular themes include lingerie showers, kitchen item showers, around-the-clock showers (where everyone is assigned a time of day for which to select a gift) and travel gift showers.

Don't forget to give party favors to all guests. These can be traditional favors such as small boxes of candy. Or they can be something that relates to the theme of the shower, e.g. drawer sachets at a lingerie shower.

As you plan the bridal shower, be sure to give careful thought to the decorations. Decorations will be the most important thing for setting the stage for your event. Don't be afraid to be creative. With the abundance of wedding bells and umbrellas you find in the bridal shower section of party stores, one might think that's the only possible motif for this event. Think again. It can be very simple and relatively inexpensive to be a lot more creative than that. Here are three possible decorating plans to get you started.Bridal shower menus are often comprised of finger food recipes that can be enjoyed while guests walk around socializing with one another. That is certainly one way to handle your menu, but a sit down luncheon can work just as well for a small group. Just be sure to leave time for guests to mingle after the meal.

Bachelor Party
The bachelor party is a men-only night/weekend of hanging out. Usually the best man will host the party and plan it, but everyone invited will be expected to pitch in for the cost. With so many fun things possible in this era, many parties are really just outings, maybe going to Vegas, going bungee-jumping, etc.

If your are lucky best man - old buddy - lifelong pal this is your one chance to throw him the bash of a lifetime!
Here are some bachelor party ideas to get you started on planning a night he'll never forget.

Strippers and Strip Clubs
Inevitably, at least one person in the group will insist that it's not really a bachelor party unless naked women are involved. The only hard decision you face in this instance is whether to have strippers come to you or going out to a strip bar.

On the one hand, you'll get more undivided attention and less overhead costs with a stripper party. However, a strip club will ensure that you won't have to wait around for the dancers and you'll get the camaraderie and energy of a club setting. And, since it is in public, it may be easier to convince the bride that nothing bad will happen. 
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However, while a strip club will be your final destination, make sure to partake in a variety of other activities before hitting up naked ladies – perhaps dinner or a poker party. This way, any guys who aren't as comfortable can still participate in the bachelor party and go home before the naked ladies get involved.

A Bachelor Party for the Sports Lover
Sports will always be a great male-bonding activity. Why not organize a big tournament? You could print up tee-shirts saying "I survived Joe's Bachelor Party Golf Tournament and Bacchanalia." Remember that a thirst-quenching afterparty is an important part of any tournament. Some good organized sports for bachelor parties include: tennis, basketball, baseball, football, volleyball, soccer and golf.

If the groom and his friends aren't so athletic, you can also organize tickets for everyone to see the big game. Make it more fun by tailgating, organizing a post-game pub crawl and getting the stadium to put the groom's name up on the scoreboard as a congratulatory gesture.

An Outdoorsy Bachelor Party
Picture it: surviving in the woods, hanging out with your buds and attempting some potentially death-defying feats, all while drinking lots of beer. Rather than organizing the boys for a strip-club bachelor party, test the groom's limits in a different way with outdoors activities like camping, climbing and hiking, whitewater rafting, wakeboarding, dirt biking, parasailing, skydiving, hang gliding, bungee jumping, skiing, snowboarding, hunting and fishing. At the end of a jam-packed day, don't forget to sit around the bonfire and share embarrassing stories about the groom's ex-girlfriends and college adventures.
Rehearsal Dinner

The name is exactly what the event actually is. It is the dinner after your rehearse the wedding ceremony. The dinner is usually held the night before the wedding. The couple and the wedding party will meet at the ceremony location and the officiant will go through the wedding process with them. Afterwards, the rehearsal dinner is held in celebration of the upcoming wedding.

The rehearsal dinner is usually hosted (and paid for) by the groom's parents. Sometimes the couple may choose to pay for the party, or it may be a collective effort by both sets of parents. The party can be formal or completely casual and does not need to be based on your wedding style.
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Typically, the rehearsal dinner guests will just be the couple, their immediate family, and the attendants. Some couples choose to invite more people though- up to 75 guests for the dinner. You may choose to invite close friends or relatives - generally whoever you want to invite can be invited .Make sure you get approval from the hosts for your total amount of guests.

The main activity at a rehearsal dinner is toasting. Everyone will want to get a toast in tonight if they know they won't be able to at the wedding. Since the party is hosted by the groom's parent s- theyusually make the first (and longest) toasts. The bride and groom may choose to give toasts to thank everyone that helped them plan their wedding.

The bride and groom may choose to give their attendants and family members gifts at this time to thank them for all the time and effort they put into your wedding. Some couples just choose to give a toast or just a hug to thank everyone that was involved. Just make sure you thank everyone somehow in your own personal way.








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