No need to give reason for dinner party

DEAR MISS MANNERS: It looks like my niece will be getting engaged to her companion of several years. They are lovely young women, both college graduates, both with good jobs. They have the support of both families.

My niece has never lived in the town where the rest of the family lives and where her mother (my sister) grew up. She will be here this spring, and I would like to invite close family and friends to meet her fiancee and say hi to my niece. This is not a shower, just a family dinner.

I would like to word the invitation: "We are pleased to announce our niece, Mia, has recently become engaged to Jordan, a delightful woman from Chicago. We would like you to join us for dinner on Saturday,

March 15 at 6 to see Mia and meet Jordan. Please let me know if you can join us."

I thought it necessary to add the "delightful woman" wordage because her name could be a man’s or woman’s.

Does this sound appropriate? What do I do if people ask about presents? It will be a small wedding out of town, so most of the guests will not be invited. GENTLE READER: There is no need to announce the reason for having a dinner party, merely that you are having it. This, Miss Manners points out, will not only eliminate the need for superfluous details, but also for guests asking about presents.

"Please join us for dinner on March 15th at 6 p.m." will suffice. Then, at the dinner, give a toast to the happy couple, introduce your prospective niecein-law, and announce their engagement. As a bonus, this plan will make it far less rude when these same guests are not invited to the wedding.

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I have been part of a "family meal swap" for a little over a year now, but recently, the woman in charge specified a menu for everybody to cook, including specific ingredients and side dishes. When I joined this meal swap, I did it to taste other families’ dishes and expand my own cooking. Now I feel kind of peeved that I have to cook somebody else’s specific menu.

I don’t think that it’s wrong that I feel this way, but I am unsure how to approach it with the hostess. My first instinct is just to lie and say I’m too busy after this first month’s rotation, but I like and respect her enough that I feel I should tell her the truth. Thoughts? GENTLE READER: That you tell her why: "I’m afraid that I must have misinterpreted the point of this meal swap. While your menu plan sounds tasty, I thought we were making and trying new dishes. I understand if, as hostess, you want to change the plan, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to join anymore."

And then Miss Manners asks you wait a respectable amount of time before starting up your own meal swap and poaching all of this person’s guests.