Engagement Party Invites?

MelanieFHardy

My fiance and I have compromised our ideas for an engagement party into a big backyard BBQ; late afternoon to dinner with family, dinner to evening with friends.  We want everyone to meet and mingle, but we can't deny that our older relatives aren't interested in the same kind of party as our college buddies.  What we want to know is if there is any etiquette in sending out invitations to a party of this type.  Should we send paper invitations to our older relatives and use facebook for the younger crowd?  Should we send mail to everyone?  Should we just rely on a phone call?  Some of our guests are travelling from out of town, so should they recieve something different?  This party is so much less formal than our actual wedding, but I don't want to accidentally offend anyone a whole year in advance!

Thanks for the advice!

quotequeen

You should treat all of your guests the same.  If you are sending paper invitations to some, then you should send them to everybody.  (FYI, the consensus around here is that you shouldn't be planning your own engagement party, so you wouldn't be the ones actually inviting people.)

SuMmErKuTiE

Ditto pp.. you shouldn't be planning your own engagement party, but it looks like that ship has already sailed.

As far as invites, I would send out traditional invitations to everyone. Especially if this is a wedding related event, it should be a little more formal even if it is a casual backyard party. The invites that were sent out for our engagement party last year were from Wedding Paper Divas, I think my mom used Vista Print though for the bridal shower and rehearsal dinner. But both of those places will have great deals on invites.