The Best Engagement Party Decorations, Ideas, Gifts, & More!

Tasked with planning an engagement party? You’ll need some party decorations,  gifts for the couple, favors for the guests, and more! Start by creating a detailed engagement party checklist, deciding your budget, and finding the perfect venue. We created this guide full of engagement party ideas to help get you started! Check out our favorite themes, decorations, favors, gifts, and activities below.  

Engagement Party Themes & Decoration Ideas

Make engagement party planning easy by picking a theme or color palette to stick with! Our favorite engagement party themes are simple to pull off and easy to find matching custom decorations for. Think about the couple’s favorite activities and their sense of style when you choose the theme. Get started with inspiration from some of our favorite engagement party themes below!

1) Garden Themed Engagement Party

Welcome Sign | Handmade Soaps | Eucalyptus Greenery Garland | Custom Napkins | Sage Green Invitations

A garden party is a classic and elegant option for any event, including the engagement party. Get inspired by sage, eucalyptus, and white roses for a simple nature-inspired color scheme. Use gorgeous faux greenery to add color to your tables and have custom engagement party napkins made to add a touch of personalization. For favors, choose a natural touch like hand-made eucalyptus soaps or wildflower seed packets.

2) They Found Their Main Squeeze Engagement Party

Orange Table Confetti | Handmade Soaps | Citrus Luffa Soaps | Lemon Party Invitations | Tangerine Dinner Napkins

They found their main squeeze, so now it’s time to throw an engagement party! A citrus theme is a super fun summery engagement party idea. Decorate your space with orange table confetti, fresh lemons or tangerines, and citrus pattern napkins or table cloths. Citrus-shaped luffa soaps make for the perfect on-theme engagement party favors! You can even get lemon patterned engagement party invitations with included recipe cards so the guests can share their favorite recipes. Buy the couple a recipe book or box to keep all the cards in so they have a go-to set of dinner ideas!

3) He Popped the Question Engagement Party Theme

Boho Tissue Tassel Garland | Champagne Bottle Labels | Ring Finger Napkins | Champagne Party Invitations

Let’s pop some bubbly: he popped the question! Grab some champagne, plan your toast, and send out the engagement party invitations. Add custom labels to the champagne bottles to personalize them. You can decorate with neutral tone tassel garlands, champagne gold details, and gold foil napkins. We celebrate all life’s most exciting moments with a bottle of champagne, so why not use this inspiration as your engagement party theme?

4) Love is Blooming Engagement Party

Initials Ring Dish | Flower Print Party Invitations | Floral Favor Tags | Name Place Cards | Floral Paper Straws

A flower-inspired engagement party is perfect if the couple gets engaged during springtime! You can order flower print decorations of all kinds including floral straws, table cloths, favor tags, and place cards. Let everyone know that love is blooming with floral engagement party invitations. As a cute gift for the couple, you could get a custom floral ring dish made with their initials. This gift is small and thoughtful as it gives the couple a place to keep their new engagement and wedding rings.

5) Minimalist Engagement Party Decorations

Acrylic Welcome Sign | Gold Engagement Party Invites | Custom Napkins | Engagement Ring Table Confetti

The engagement party theme doesn’t have to be complicated. If the bride and groom have a minimalist sense of style, why not use that for their engagement party? We love a simple clear acrylic welcome sign as the first thing guests see as they walk into the event. Simple gold lettered party invitations, gold foil napkins, and other gold details bring a little pop of color to the minimalist decor. If you need an extra pop of sparkle, add engagement ring shaped confetti to your tables!

6) I Do BBQ Engagement Party

BBQ Sauce Favors | Personalized Drink Tub | Custom BBQ Board | I Do BBQ Party Invitations | Barbecue Table Cover

One of the easiest engagement party themes to pull off is a backyard barbecue! If you have a backyard and a grill, you’re already off to a great start. Send out “I do BBQ” invitations, cover the tables to protect them from the mess, and fill a beer tub with ice and beverages. The perfect favor for guests are custom mini bottles of barbecue sauce with the couple’s names on them. Don’t forget the couple! The perfect on-theme engagement gift for the spouses-to-be is a personalized wooden BBQ board.

Engagement Party Games & Activities

Keep the engagement party lively by having a few games and activities planned for everyone. Our favorite games are the simple ones. Choose a mixture of easy-to-print downloadable games, classic yard games that everyone knows, and basic activities for all ages. Don’t feel like you need to fill the entire party time with games, your guests will spend most of their time mingling, eating, and drinking. Need some ideas? Check out some of our favorite engagement party games and activities below!

1) Engagement Party Advice Cards for the Couple

Marriage Advice Cards for Engagement Party

Getting engaged isn’t just about planning a wedding, it’s mostly about planning a whole life together. Help the couple out by having engagement party guests write down their best marriage advice. These advice cards give guests simple prompts to help them write out tips, ideas, and well wishes for the newly engaged couple. 

2) Who Knows the Couple Best? Engagement Party Game

How Well Do You Know The Couple Printable Engagement Party Game

Challenge the engagement party guests to a quiz about the wedding couple! The guest who knows the most about the bride and groom wins. The questions in this game range from as simple as knowing the bride’s eye color to as specific as knowing which one of them planned their first date. This engagement party game is easy to play for guests of all ages!

3) Date Night Idea Cards

Printable Date Night Idea Cards for the Wedding Couple

Date night idea cards are a simple engagement party activity that also doubles as a gift for the couple! Have all the guests at the engagement party write their best date night idea down on one of these cute little cards. Then, put all the cards in a big jar for the couple to open on nights when they need a new date idea. This thoughtful present will help the couple maintain a sense of playfulness in their marriage for years to come. 

4) Wedding Shoe Game for Engagement Party

The Wedding Shoe Game - A Classic Engagement Party Game

The wedding shoe game is a classic engagement party game. The concept is simple: guests answer a series of questions about the bride and groom’s relationship with either “her” or “him.” Example: Who said ‘I love you’ first? Her or him? Then the couple sits back to back and holds up their shoe or their future spouse’s shoe to answer the questions without being able to see the other’s answers. Guests can compare their answers to the couple’s answers and the couple can see how many they answered the same! 

5) Fill Out Song Requests for the Wedding

Printable Wedding Song Request Cards

Is the couple taking song requests for their wedding? The engagement party is a great time to let the guests choose a song they’d like to hear at the wedding. Print out some of these adorable wedding song request cards and let the engagement party guests fill them out. The couple will have a hard time coming up with a full list of songs for their wedding, this way, they have ideas to look through and can pass along the ones they like to the DJ.

6) Set Out Yard Games: Cornhole, Ladders, Jenga, etc.

Custom Last Name Bean Bags for Cornhole with Wedding Year

The easiest engagement party games are the ones everyone already knows how to play. If the weather is nice, set out some of your favorite yard games. One of everyone’s favorite classic yard games is cornhole. You can easily add cornhole to the list of engagement party activities. You can even buy the couple their own custom cornhole bags or boards!

Engagement Party Favors for the Guests

Engagement parties are often simple affairs, so don’t feel the need to go crazy on the party favors. Choose favors that are simple, affordable, and meaningful. Having any small gift personalized makes for a beautiful engagement party favor! Below are some super cute engagement party favor ideas that we love.

1) She Said Yes! Ring Pop Engagement Party Favors

She Said Yes! Ring Pop Engagement Party Favors

She said yes! Now let’s celebrate with the perfect engagement party favors! These ring pops come with a customizable wrapper. The bride has her engagement ring so it’s fitting to give away these candy rings to the engagement party guests. These candy engagement party favors are both adorable and affordable.

2) Wildflower Seeds Engagement Party Favors

Wildflower Seeds Engagement Party Favors

Give the guests at the engagement party a favor that will live and grow with them while they wait for the wedding. These custom seed packets come with a variety of wildflower seeds, a custom stamp, and rustic brown paper envelopes. The variety of wildflowers includes: Aster, Bachelor Button, Calendula, Coneflower, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Forget Me Not, Larkspur, Poppies, Yarrow, and others.

3) Personalized Match Box Engagement Party Favor Idea

Personalized Match Box Engagement Party Favor Idea

Matchbooks are a go-to favor for a reason. Custom matchbooks are small, useful, personalized, and affordable. Your guests can use these matches to light candles around their house. You could even buy a custom candle for the bride and groom to match! These matchboxes come preassembled and contain matchsticks with white heads and natural wood stems. We love the pale pink color with a simple arch design

4) Custom Stickers for Engagement Party Favors 

Custom Stickers for Engagement Party Favors

You can customize any wedding favor with personalized stickers! Whether you’re thinking about getting candles, candy, or mini bottles of champagne, you can add an extra special touch with a custom sticker. Your favors could be as affordable as making cookies and putting them in cellophane bags with these stickers. Customize these stickers with the engagement party date or wedding date, the couple’s names, and a cute phrase!

Thoughtful Engagement Party Gifts for the Couple

Do you bring a gift to an engagement party? Well, it’s up to you. Gifts aren’t expected, but if you are very close to the couple you may want to give them a small present as a token of congratulations. Anything the couple would find useful and meaningful during the time before their wedding date is a great idea! We collected a few thoughtful engagement party gifts to help get you started:

1) Engagement Journal Couples Engagement Party Present

Engagement Journal Couples Engagement Party Present

An engagement journal will help the couple document all the special moments leading up to their wedding. This journal is a meaningful gift that the wedding couple can cherish for the rest of their lives. Between wedding planning, bachelor(ette) parties, and wedding showers, a lot happens in the year or two that the couple is engaged to be married. This journal is filled with thought provoking prompts for the couple to write together.

2) Personalized Candle Engagement Present

Personalized Candle Engagement Present

Candles are a gift universally loved by everyone because they are a comforting classic. Buy the newly engaged couple a custom candle to celebrate their engagement! Every time they light this candle during the time leading up to their wedding, they can be reminded that the big day is coming soon! You can personalize this candle with the first names of the couple, the engagement date or wedding date, and location of the engagement or the wedding.

3) Future Mrs Bride-to-Be Engagement Gift

Future Mrs Bride-to-Be Engagement Gift

Congratulate the future bride on her new last name with a custom hat! This cute baseball cap is embroidered with her new name. A hat is a great engagement party gift because she can wear it to any casual wedding related events leading up to the big day. This is the perfect accessory for the bride-to-be!

4) Boho Engagement Gift Box with Champagne Flutes

Boho Engagement Gift Box with Champagne Flutes

A gift box is an easy and adorable way to tell the couple congratulations on their engagement. This engagement gift box includes a champagne toast candle, safety matches, and Mr. & Mrs. glass stemless champagne flutes. You can even include a custom written note. The couple will love toasting to their new life together with their custom champagne flutes while their new candle adds ambiance to the room.

Tips for Planning the Engagement Party!

Hosting the engagement party is a kind gesture to congratulate the couple on their big step toward the future. If you’ve offered to host this event, don’t worry, it can be as simple and affordable as you’d like. Whether you decide to have a backyard barbecue or throw a huge formal event, there are a few basic guidelines that will help you along the way!

1) What Is An Engagement Party?

An engagement party is a get together to celebrate a couple who is newly, officially engaged. Once a person pops the question and their significant other says yes, it’s time to celebrate! This party can be as small as a dinner party at a nice restaurant or as big as a full-scale catered event. The couple may even want to skip the event altogether, so be sure to check in with them about their wishes.

2) Who Throws the Engagement Party?

Anyone can throw an engagement party for the couple! Traditionally, this party is hosted by the parents of the bride. The parents of the groom may want to host their own party or co-host the party with the other parents. Oftentimes, friends or other family members choose to throw the engagement party. The couple may even want to throw the party for themselves!

3) What Do You Do at an Engagement Party?

Unlike the wedding shower, the engagement party is not gift-centric, so you’ll need more activities than just gift opening time. Most of the party will consist of guests eating, drinking, and talking to each other so don’t feel the need to fill every minute of the party time. Put out some yard games and plan some simple games for everyone to participate in during the party! You may want to plan on giving a short speech or toast to congratulate the couple or thank everyone for coming.

4) Who is Invited?

The engagement party should only include the people who will be invited to the wedding. You may want to narrow it down to a lot fewer than that if it’s supposed to be a large wedding. To have a more intimate engagement party, invite only the closest family and friends of the couple. Be sure to consult the bride and groom with the guest list before sending out invitations!

5) Do You Bring a Gift to an Engagement Party?

You don’t necessarily need to bring a gift to the engagement party. If you are very close to the couple you may want to give them a small present as a token of congratulations. If you do decide to buy a gift, choose something that is meaningful and has longevity. For example, we love the idea of an engagement journal or scrapbook like the one we listed earlier! Keep in mind, you may be spending a lot of money on wedding-related events leading up to the big day, especially if you’re in the bridal party. So if you’d rather save it, it’s perfectly fine to skip the engagement party gift.

Get Started on Your Engagement Party Checklist

The engagement party usually happens within a few months of the proposal. Get started planning as early as you can so you can congratulate the couple on their engagement while the excitement is still fresh! If you know when the proposal is happening in advance, you may even want to start planning before it happens. Create an engagement party checklist including sending out invitations, buying decorations, creating a menu, and planning activities. Then you can get started planning the engagement party as soon as you’d like!