Invitation Themes and Ideas for Your Engagement Party.

You’re engaged…time to celebrate! But before you plan the usual demure gathering that centers on showing off the ring, circulating amidst platters of finger sandwiches, and sipping spiked punch, spend some time thinking about some unique party themes that might prove more memorable. After all, your engagement party invitations are your chance to be creative and really think outside the box. While you’ll be sure to personalize your wedding invitations with your photos, the lighthearted celebration of a couple that’s newly engaged allows for an anything-goes approach to toasting the good news. Here are four ideas for making your one-of-a-kind engagement party fun for everyone.

1. Host a Cowboy-Style Engagement Barbecue

Start by personalizing our Wood Engagement Dinner. The simple rustic wood background would be perfect. Encourage guests to come wearing their best bolo ties, 10-gallon hats, high-waisted Wranglers. Serve up pulled-pork sandwiches, homemade slaw, and a keg of cold beer. Guests can gather around a few round tables dressed in red-checkered tablecloths with hay bails for seating. Hire your favorite local bluegrass band or fire up some country classics on Rdio, then kick up your cowboy boots to celebrate western style.

2. Host a Beachside Engagement Party

If you’re going with a more traditional venue for your marriage, but you always had dreams of having a casual beach wedding, now’s your chance. Host your engagement party on the shore—or simulate a beach setting in your backyard. Customize our Retirement Party invitation and encourage guests to come beach casual: flip-flops and sundresses for the ladies, linen pants and straw hats for the gents. This design mimics a beachy horizon! Serve up a menu of seafood—from shrimp cocktail and oysters to lobster and grilled fish—along with simple salads, white wine and champagne for toasts.

3. “The Perfect Blend” Engagement Party

If you and your brand-new fiancé love wine, make the fun process of blending the perfect glass a theme for the party. Start by sending an invitation that looks like a wine label, with the newly engaged couple as part of the design. Start with Floral Party Invitation, change the background to a solid merlot color, and edit the “label” center design. On the day of the party, put out a beautiful cheese board, then simply set up a few stations with bottles of straight varietals like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. Then use graduated beakers and lab flasks to measure perfect percentages just to taste. You can even have groups enter their custom blend to compete in a “perfect blend” competition. The winner gets a case of wine, of course!

4. Groovy Disco Engagement Party

And finally, if you’re not shy about wanting to show off your brand-new bling, why not do it beneath the flattering light of a disco ball? Customize our Holiday Sparkles invitation and invite guests to get out their platform shoes and bell-bottoms. There’s nothing more fabulous than getting down with friends and family to the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever.

Whatever theme you go with for your engagement party—even if you ultimately decide that a simple evening of sipping champagne with friends and family is best—don’t forget to snap lots of pictures and create an engagement party photo book. You’ll reminisce about these days of excitement leading up to your wedding day for years ahead—and an engagement party photo book will be the perfect vehicle to take you back.