Plan an engagement party

An engagement party is smaller than a wedding and easier to overbuild. Decide whether you want a long lunch, drinks before dinner, or a night, and ask venues about that shape. Don’t accidentally book the reception while you are only trying to tell people you’re engaged.

Updated 25 October 2026

Timeline

Eight to ten weeks out
Pick the shape of the party and two dates. Tell both families before you pay a deposit, so the date isn’t a surprise you can’t move.
Six weeks out
Send enquiries. Ask for a total, not a brochure rate. An afternoon booking and an evening booking are different products.
A month out
Visit the shortlist. Stand where the photos will be. If any of the party is outside, ask where you go if it rains.
Two weeks out
Confirm menu, drinks and the speech. Pay only what the venue’s own terms ask for.
The week before
Final numbers, dietary needs, and the name of the person the venue should call on the day.

Checklist

  1. The shape: seated lunch, canapés, or an evening. Write it in the enquiry.
  2. Guest count, and whether children are invited. A room’s standing number is not a seated lunch.
  3. Two dates and the hours, including setup if you are arriving with flowers or a playlist.
  4. Speeches and photos: where, and whether the venue charges for either.
  5. Wet weather, if a garden is the reason you liked the place.
  6. Cake or dessert, and whether you can bring it.
  7. How the two families are paying, so one person can approve the quote.

Budget

Per head looks easy and hides the hours. A three-hour drinks package and a five-hour one are not the same quote. Room hire looks expensive until you add the caterer the hall requires. Write the hours next to every number before you compare.

In Perth, Eventier’s catalogue on 25 October 2026 has 432 rooms with an email whose published capacity falls between 20 and 80. 183 of those publish a price on the venue’s own site. That is a count of rooms, not a typical price, and it is not a national figure. The Perth page for this occasion records the capacity rule and the Overture Maps attribution.

Ask every venue which of the three you are being quoted, then put the same guest count through each answer. The cost per head calculator does that arithmetic in the browser. how to compare venue quotes is the same method written out.

What to ask every venue

  1. Is the date free for the hours we named, and is the space only ours?
  2. What is the total for our guests: room hire, a minimum spend, or per head?
  3. Can we make a speech and take photos without a fee, and is there a wet-weather plan if any of it is outside?
  4. What is included: tables, glassware, staff, a microphone?
  5. How much is the deposit, and what is refunded if we cancel?

questions to ask a venue covers the deposit and the rules once you are choosing. This party does not need a wedding planner’s questionnaire.

What Eventier will and won’t do

Eventier finds rooms, writes the enquiry, and sends it only after you approve it. It sends up to two follow-ups if a venue goes quiet, and lines the quotes up side by side. It never signs, books or pays. Finding venues and writing the emails are free. Sending them takes an Event Pass (A$11.99) or Eventier Pro (A$39.99 a year).

Place leads come from Overture Maps Places (Overture Maps Foundation). That theme includes data from Meta, Microsoft, PinMeTo, Krick, RenderSEO, DAC, BrightQuery, Birdeye, Uberall and the OpenTravel Alliance under the CDLA Permissive 2.0 licence, Foursquare data under the Apache Licence 2.0, and AllThePlaces under CC0. These pages do not republish those records. Counts are rooms Eventier read from venues’ own websites, on 25 October 2026.