Do you Register Before an Engagement Party?

katiefa

We just got engaged three weeks ago and our engagement party is in June. I've heard it's good to register for a few things before the engagment party, however, we don't even have a definitive date set. What does everyone recommend?

jagore08

I have never been to an engagement party where the B&G were given gifts.  If anything we just brought a bottle of wine or champagne.

hoffse

Eh you could start a small one if you wanted.  You might have a date set by June, and if not you can always change it when it is set.  I always look to see if the couple has registered beacuse I feel awkward showing up to an e-party without a gift.  That said, they aren't traditionally gift-giving events.  If you don't register, you can probably anticipate receiving a lot of booze.

cwaggoner07

I never take a gift to an engagement party, and I've never seen anyone else bring any either.

egm900

We registered before ours, but I have yet to go to an e-party where gifts weren't given.  If you don't register, you will receive booze.  Everyone who knew we had registered gave us stuff from there, the people who didn't showed up with booze, if everyone had brought booze, that would have been a lot of booze.  

We had friends who had just gotten married tell us to go ahead and try to register for everything before the engagement party.  I'm glad we did, it was easier for us to go to the store a couple times to look at things and then sort out what we really wanted online over the following 6 months, but I suppose that has a lot to do with how much time you have, how close you are to stores, if you both have lots of opinions, etc.  We only had a couple things that were discontinued, but it was due to the manufacturer discontinuing the item, not the store.

LeiselEB

We had registered for a few items before ours, but most of the gifts we got were not from our registry (we didn't tell anyone about the registry, but happened to be starting it around the time of the party) and only half the guests brought gifts.

librababy

Traditionally in our families, engagement parties aren't gift giving events.  However, Fi's family the engagement party or serenade takes place closer to the wedding and I have already registered, but people won't bring gifts as we dont gift at those events.

StephBeanWed61502

Your guests will let you know if you need a registry before the e-party.  We weren't going to register before ours, but then we had like 15 of our e-party guests asking where we were registered, so we "got the hint" and registered a few weeks before the party.