I am getting married in Ontario but live in Alberta.?

Question

Can I throw an Engagement Party to be able to celebrate with everyone I care about that can't attend?

Answer 1

Yes.

Despite what others will delight in telling you, an engagement party and a wedding are two separate social events. Receiving an invitation to *any* party should be thought of as an honour by the guest, not as a promise of future entitlement. Entertaining is not an all-or-nothing activity, and etiquette does NOT require you, as a host, to invite everyone you have ever invited to every other party you give. Since engagement parties are NOT proper gift-giving occasions, no-one should feel entitled to future considerations of any sort (in fact they shouldn't regardless -- gifts are voluntary at ANY occasion and no hospitality should be disrespected with suspicions that anyone is "just fishing for gifts"!)

Two things you can do to avoid even that least taint of impropriety, are to invite your guests generically to a "party", and then announce ***at the party*** that the purpose is to celebrate your engagement. This is the traditional means of announcing an engagement -- and only the guests of honour and the host know ahead of time that it *is* an engagement party.

The second thing, is to be sure that when you return from your honeymoon that you invite each of the attendees to some entertainment -- usually an at-home reception, but you could also have them over singly or in small groups to dinner or tea.