<p>What would be an appropriate gift for the daughter of close friends? The wedding is next summer. The engagment party is this month.I know ettiquette says gifts are not necessary, but this crowd will bring gifts. Any suggestions? Thanks.</p>
<p>My favorite engagement gift is to give a cake knife and server set that the couple can use to cut their wedding cake and all their special occasion cakes forever. We have my parents’ set, and we used it at our wedding. Now, we use it for all our birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Lenox makes a particularly nice one, but I think you can find them all over.</p>
<p>I have given a Waterford Ringholder to the bride-to-be (close family or friends).</p>
<p>Sorry, I have no suggestions but you reminded me that my mother gave us Barbie and Ken dolls. Barbie was in a wedding dress my mom made similar to mine and she gave Ken a beard like my husband to be and, of course, he was in a tux. Sounds silly but I loved it and, years later, I gave it to my girls to play with and they adored them. It gave them a little insight into who my mom was since she already was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s by then. Thanks for the memories!</p>
<p>I haven’t heard of an engagement party- you mean like a bridal shower?
I had a bridal shower- that was held a month or so before the wedding.</p>
<p>EK, not everyone has an engagement party. Neither of my Ds who are married had one. They both thought that it was too much to expect people to attend and give yet another gift. Even if gifts aren’t traditionally expected, you know people are going to feel obligated to buy something. A shower gift and a wedding gift is more than enough for even close friends and family, was the thinking of my Ds. We celebrated their engagements with a dinner for only immediate family and grandparents. No gifts, just a celebration.</p>
<p>No, she means an engagement party. </p>
<p>The Waterford cake knife idea is a great one.</p>
<p>In my family, the engagement party was an opportunity for my parents to celebrate their son’s engagement to an out of town girl. The guest list was her family, our extended family, and my parents’ close friends plus some of my brother’s close friends. It was a really nice time. I don’t remember a lot of gifts – but things like wine glasses, cake servers, etc would seem appropriate. Perhaps a picture frame. Little, simple, memorable items to mark the occasion are what i would think about. Perhaps something special to the couple … </p>
<p>A similar party was not hosted for me or my younger brother – because my engagement was only five months, and because my parents were elderly and ill by the time my younger brother became engaged.</p>
<p>Yes, typically gifts that are more memento than practical – not toasters and the like.</p>
<p>A mom I know gave the Waterford ring holder to the girl her son was marrying.
I thought it was a sweet gesture for the parents of the groom to do. It was given at the time of their engagement although I don’t know if there was an actual party.</p>
<p>Anyway, ever since I heard about that idea, I decided to remember it for future reference, in case S ever gets engaged :)</p>
<p>I’ve only been to one engagement party and some people just gave cards while others gave mostly sentimental gifts like those mentioned above. I gave a cookbook for couples.</p>
<p>My office had an engagement party for me and one of the girls made a point of telling everyone, “no gifts,” so everyone complied. It was a nice get together and everyone had a nice time. It was at the apartment of a woman who worked with our office.</p>
<p>I had two engagement parties, at the insistence of my future MIL. I had never heard of doing that. The reason we had two was so that both my parents (divorced and remarried) could attend one. I insisted that they were perfectly capable of being at the same function together, but MIL wanted to do this. They were simply dinners-one hosted by MIL, the other by her best friend. Mostly different guest lists, and NO GIFTS printed on the invitations. As uncomfortable as I was with the whole concept, I have to admit they were very fun. Fortunately, after the wedding, MIL backed off appropriately and left us to our own devices. She’s been a very good MIL. But she had me worried for a while there, lol.</p>
<p>Engagement parties, especially in the NJ/NY area are traditional. My mom gave us the cake knife (waterford), our in laws gave us the champagne flutes for the wedding.</p>
<p>Mine was private, my SIL had the blow out party at the reception facility she was going to use for her wedding. She walked out with all of her china, silver and crystal. </p>
<p>Our closest friends DD got married only a month ago, when she got engaged, I went to Lowe’s and order the black metal house placard, with their last name on it and est. 2010. This way they could take it wherever they moved to. Other people, gave gift cards to restaurants and Best Buy, which I thought was a great idea because the restaurants gave them their own down time during the hectic process, and what groom isn’t going to like a Best Buy gift card. Actually, Best Buy now has something akin to a bridal registry, where, you can go into the store and add money to their wish list…i.e. they register for a 42" tv, you can go in and place whatever amount you want to the account, you don’t have to buy it for them.</p>
<p>Here are the other gifts that I have seen besides the traditional cookbook or check:
- Wine of the month
- Beer of the month
- Ancestry searches framed…family tree of both couples, and obviously the tree starts with them united already.<br>
- Engagement announcement framed, with an opening for the engagement picture.
- Embroidered throw pillow with their initials.
- Scrapbooking supplies, if they are into that, to create a nice scrap book of their dating yrs.
- Crystal decanters.
- Silver mantle clock</p>
<p>Back in the day, if invited to the engagement party, I would give a door knocker engraved with the grooms last name.</p>
<p>Ha - that’s on our front door, the one I received at an engagement party! Of course, that was in the day when we all took a new last name!</p>
<p>Quick quiz: How many of you took your husband’s last name?
I did. Married in 1986. But I also went from a not-so-good to a “good” last name.</p>
<p>I took my husband’s last name. </p>
<p>This was after he declined my suggestion that he take my maiden name. My sister and I were the end of the line for that name and I thought I’d make one try at keepin’ it going. Didn’t work. Oh well. </p>
<p>1990.</p>
<p>I hyphenate my maiden and married name. Married in 1979.</p>
<p>I gave up my hard to pronounce and always misspelled last name and took my husband’s **similar **to a very common therefore always misspelled and mispronounced last name. :)</p>
<p>Married in 1988.</p>
<p>I wanted to keep my name but like Nrdsb4, mine was one that was always mispronounced and misspelled, so I went with my husbands. I’m not a big fan of hyphenated names just because they are so cumbersome. I wish combining names was a normal option, not something weird. We had friends that did it 30 years ago, one name Smith and the other Vine and the combined it to Smithvine. (names changed to protect privacy. :))</p>