Engagement party or Bridal shower

Thank you everyone for your advice! I think engagement party will be the best option!!

Thank you! I think that’s going to be the plan!!

I would do an engagement party! We chose an engagement party over just me having a bridal shower and it was so much more fun!

We invited guests from both of our sides and booked a room in the restaurant, it was so much fun. I would do it again 10 times over than doing a bridal shower.

In your case, I would plan the party to be this fall - give people a few months to get travel situated. It would be like a kick off to wedding planning for the next year.

I would probably choose an engagement party and as mentioned by Hank, of course invite everyone you plan to invite to the wedding. Also, since your families are far away, it brings everyone in from your side and your fiancé's side at the same time to celebrate. I also like the idea that people do not need to bring gifts and they are just to come to genuinely celebrate.

They're different events. A bridal shower's purpose is to get gifts for the bride, usually at a party attended by the bride's friends and family. If you want to bring in the groom's family and friends, you can have a Jack and Jill (same idea, but with both sides present). These are usually held around 4-8 weeks before the wedding.

An engagement party is like a birthday party except the cause of celebration is the couple's engagement and no gifts are expected. It's usually held within the month of engagement.

Not sure how big your wedding is planned to be, but it is good etiquette for those invited to a bridal shower/Jack and Jill to also be invited to the wedding. Otherwise, you're treating those guests as a gift grab. So if you're planning to keep your wedding party and guest list small, a shower might not be the best option. And since your family lives far away and it may be cumbersome for them to attend multiple events, I would just host a casual engagement party attended by friends who are local to you.