I was hoping for a fun casual event where our families could
meet.
Now we are at a discrepancy as to who to invite for the engagement party.
My mom's initial guest list for the wedding was tremendous. It was well
over the number of guests that the venue could hold not counting the groom's
family - well over 200 people (not to mention that this would put us over our
budget).
I finally got my mom to make some big cuts to the list and now we have a guest
list that is manageable.
My mom would like to invite all the people who are no longer invited to
the wedding plus all of her friends to the engagement party.
I let her
know this is really bad manners, but she thinks if we just tell
everyone we are having a small wedding that it will be ok and no one will
expect an invite to the wedding.
Also the groom's family and I are coming in from out of state and there won't be many of us, so I wasn't sure if this being a huge party with mostly my mom's family and friends there was inappropriate.
She also thinks that maybe we can rename it to a "meet the bride and
groom" party instead of engagement party then people will not expect
to be invited.
My mom says that this party is supposed to be about introducing the groom and I
to everyone, as opposed to this being about the families meeting. I'm
really confused at this point.
Is there another type of party or name for
this type of party that this falls under that isn't an engagement party?
My mom has also suggested doing this after the actual wedding, which I think is stupid and defeats the purpose.