Engagement Party Games

Engagement party games are generally the last thing on your mind when you decide to break the news to your family and friends, but these great pre-wedding activities can help everyone lighten up and enjoy the union of two people. Learn the different ways to break the ice to bring the families together so everyone can share the love.

The engagement party is a time when the families of the couple get together to get to know one another and in some cases, might be the very first time the families meet. Or maybe you want a party for your group of friends to meet their group of friends. Either way, most engagement parties are ice breakers and welcome events.

No matter who plans the engagement party (it will most likely be the bride's family, but it can be organized as a couple or someone else can throw the party for you), you should plan a few fun games and activities that are designed to help everyone at the party to get to know each other.


One popular icebreaker activity you can add to your engagement party games is commonly used at corporate functions or company parties but will work very well at engagement parties as well. When people enter the party, tape a blank index card to their back and encourage him or her to walk around and mingle with as many people as they can. This is great way for people to get to know someone they've never met before. Also hand that person a pen or pencil as they enter and tell them that when they get done talking to someone, they must jot down a quick comment about the person they talked to on the card on the other person's back.

Common comments are usually impressions your get when you meet the person, such as "he knows a lot about the weather" or "she has a beautiful smile". The mingling session usually lasts about twenty to thirty minutes at the beginning of the party. At the end of this period, the people get to take their cards off their backs and read them. This is the best of all engagement party games for people to get to know each other and also find out a little bit about themselves that they don't get to see from other people's perspective. Also tell people to be honest but keep hurtful or derogatory comments to themselves.


Another one of the engagement party games that comes to mind is a "Trivial Pursuit" type game that you put together with inquisitive questions about the bride and groom's lives. You can include questions that are just facts and events relating to both the bride and groom (such as how long until she said "yes", where did he propose to her, where did the couple meet, and so on), or you can ask questions that pertain to each of their separate lives before the two met. This is not only a fun game, but it can also be a quite entertaining way for people to get to know one another as well as the engaged couple.

For an activity that doesn't quite put people on the spot quite as much, consider letting the already married people help out the couple to be married. You place two poster-boards on the wall and title them "wedding planning advice from women" and "wedding planning advice from men". This provides great wedding planning ideas to the couple. Advice from the older people at the party can be a lot different from the younger men and women in the group, giving a wide range of ideas for the upcoming wedding.

Here are some more engagement party games to gather ideas from!

Wedding Budget

The wedding budget is one of the most important aspects of any wedding. This is what determines how extravagant everything is throughout the wedding. But it's not always about how much money you have, it's how you creatively apply the funds that makes the difference.

There are so many things you can do with the wedding to save money, but no one thinks about them during the spur of the moment during the planning process. Most people who plan their own wedding or are planning the wedding for a friend don't think about discounts, coupons, or things that will lessen the burden on the wallet.

There are some important pre-wedding planning things to consider before you even start planning for the big day. And it all starts with how much money you are able to use for the wedding?

Determining how much money you have available for the wedding is something that should be set from the start and NOT CHANGED once it's set. Now, there are circumstances out of our control than can affect this amount, but for the most part, this amount should never change. Why is this important? Because you aren't trying to start your new life together in debt. And you don't want to take away half of your parent's retirement savings either.

There are many ways to have a wedding on a budget but not make the wedding look like it was on a limited or low budget. First, you need to do some research into the various purchases you have to make. This includes everything from gifts to services. Here is a printable wedding planning checklist you can use to help determine all of the needs for the wedding you are planning. Before planning out your wedding budget, you need to know what all you'll have to pay for and what things can be done at no cost.

For instance, maybe you have a friend that is a DJ, or you have a family member who is a professional photographer. Both of these, if you pay for professional services, can cost a lot of money.

There are also many things you may not have thought of that you can get coupons or discounts for. The key to saving money on all stages of a wedding is knowing how and where to find the discounts. Do you need to spend $100,000 on a wedding to make it look like a $100,000 wedding? Absolutely NOT! You can make your wedding look like $100,000 with $25,000 and easily find the deals with some great resources. Part of the research is also looking around for vendors and getting an idea of their prices.

The next thing you must do after you research everything is to write down your budget. A wedding budget on paper is gold while if you just wing it will be crap. You want to write down everything you plan on purchasing, like decorations, the cake, the wedding dress, gifts, and so on. Then write down how much you think it is going to cost based on your research. This is your budget amount for that particular item. All of the budget items and their amounts you write down should add up to 90 percent of your total budget amount. Always leave at least 10 percent as a buffer to handle any unforeseen expenses.

Next, you must go back to your coupons and discounts and look for the deals. Learn negotiation tactics designed to save you 10 to 20 percent or more on everything. Most vendors that provide services are negotiable. Products such as gifts and decorations, on the other hand, can be a little trickier, but can most often be found online for discounted prices with allowable discount codes.

Making bulk purchases on things can also save you money. That means knowing how many people are going to be at the wedding reception and various parties is a must. That's why short term weddings are generally not as well planned as those that are a year out.

If you are determined to seek the assistance of a professional wedding planner, just remember that they cost money too and that you can negotiate a price that works for you. That doesn't mean you don't have the final say so for the wedding budget.

Finally, track down all of your expenses for the same budget. Put those amounts beside the budgeted amounts and track your savings. This savings can be used to apply to other more costly items that weren't expected or to the honeymoon fund after the wedding. All of the money left over from your budget can go towards spending cash for the honeymoon or you can simply save it for a future vacation fund.

The goal is to save as much money as you can without taking away from the final wedding look and feel. Here's a great tool and more great information on the wedding budget that can help you plan the perfect wedding.

Cheap Wedding Ideas

Cheap wedding ideas don't have to take away the value of your special day. Just because you don't have a huge budget doesn't mean you can't have the most beautiful and special wedding you can imagine.

There are so many things you can do to add the perfect visual appeal to your wedding and not have to spend an arm and a leg to get it. Your wedding isn't about how much money you spend, it's about what you want to get from it.

There are many aspects to consider when planning out your wedding. You need to start with the date, location, and how many people will be attending. The location may determine who can come and who cannot come, depending on if your guests are local or have to come from different parts of the country.

If you are looking for cheap wedding ideas, don't go to a professional wedding planner. There are several work from home wedding planners that can do just as good, if not better, of a job as a professional and cost thousands less. A planner is a great idea if you are a busy person and don't have a lot of time to plan out your events. But if you want to save even more money, you can do everything yourself as your own wedding planner.

You must consider several things that go along with the wedding such as flowers, dresses, tuxedos, transportation, lodging, the reception, catering, invitations, hair, make-up, gifts, and entertainment. These things can suck down your budget very quickly, but you can find out how to save on many of these items and actually get more for your money

I found a great guide to wedding savings that you can find on the blog pages in the Navigation bar (this is a post) on top of this page under Wedding Discounts that provides hundreds of wedding coupons and promotions for online wedding purchases (who says you have to buy everything at your local wedding stores that price things ten times the amount they should), dozens of industry secrets proven to get wedding vendors to lower their prices, and has tons of simple tricks to planning a lower-cost wedding regardless of your wedding budget.

Stretching your wedding budget three times more than you have is what it's all about and you will have the most spectacular wedding that will impress everyone. Use these cheap wedding ideas to save thousands and give you more bang for your buck.