September 14, 2009

Party Planning Panic

The big day is almost here. At the end of the week my little babies will no longer be babies. They will be four years old. We're spreading out the celebration over several days. Thursday they'll take cupcakes to preschool. Friday is their actual birthday and we hope to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Saturday is their party, which has me stressed out.
I sent invitations home with every classmate. Today is the deadline to RSVP. Only one child from the class has RSVP'd! She's bringing her sister who is in a different class. At this point we have my four girls and 3 other children confirmed for the party. How am I supposed to plan for this?
I specifically asked people not to bring gifts to the party. I didn't want any parent to not allow their child to attend because they can't afford four gifts. Plus, I just wanted my daughters to have a fun time running around with their friends and chowing down on cupcakes. How am I supposed to plan for this if no one will even say whether they're coming?
The cupcakes I want to order are from Sam's Club and you have to order a minimum of 30, so I guess I'll just go with those and we may have a lot left over. I bought party favors awhile ago from the Target dollar bin so I'm not in danger of running out of those, either. But what is wrong with people? All I want to know is whether to plan for a backyard full of preschoolers! Do people not RSVP anymore or am I just the victim of poor manners? Oh well, we're going to have a blast no matter how many kids show up!

15 comments:

LauraC said...

We got almost all our RSVPs on the day to RSVP. And then we still had people who didn't RSVP! So I emailed them to say - hey, what up??

Stephanie Manner Wagner said...

I'm afraid late RSVPing all the way up to the event itself seems to sadly have become a norm in my experience as well. I tend to go with the regrets only and always include my email address is a form of responding. Sometimes that helps because it can be done at 2 am.

Stephanie Barr said...

I don't know what's up. I almost never had kids actually show up to my daughter's parties. I ended up letting them do something at school and just keep the parties a family affair so she wouldn't be scarred for life.

Quadmama said...

I put my phone and email address, so maybe some RSVPs will come in today. I would love to call to follow up, but I don't have a class list yet and hate to bug the teacher for all those names and phone numbers. Stephanie B: at this age my daughters won't notice if very few kids show up... but I think I might be the one scarred for life!

Roman and Tiffany said...

Sorry you're not getting the RSVPs back! The same thing happened for Ryla's party. A day before the RSVPs were due I only had a few replies. At the last minute they started coming in and she ended up with a great turn-out.

Ryla is looking forward to the party! Roman is bringing her, I have to work :(

Quadmama said...

Boo that you have to work. I'm really thinking (hoping) that that some people will just show up with out RSVP-ing. We'll see!

Stephanie said...

For my wedding we had like maybe 10 people RSVP and over 100 show up. I think that the days of people being considerate and RSVPing are over... Sad!

I hope that everyone had a very happy birthday!!

Quadmama said...

Not RSVP-ing to a wedding? Now THAT is rude!

Jacqueline Miller said...

We had that happen at our wedding. Not to the same extreme, but some who RSVPed didn't show and some who didn't RSVP did show. I think RSVP etiquette has really fallen by the wayside - which is extremely annoying when you're trying to host an event. I hope it goes well!

Anonymous said...

Good luck! I'm sure the party will go beautifully. Total pain in the butt when people don't RSVP though. For my girls 1st birthday party last Valentines Day, we had 3 people show up on time, and everyone else was an hour and a half late. Kind of a food nightmare. So annoying. Their excuse? "We keep island time!" Grrrr. Wish people were more party considerate. But anyway- Happy Happy birthday to your lovely little ladies :)

Becky said...

It's BuhBuhpaloza in our house....tomorrow is his actual bday with lots planned but we are also stretching it out over the week. I've had 3 people RSVP for his kid party and need to turn numbers in soon because there is a price change if you have 9 kids! I'm hoping for 8!!!!! Is that bad????

Kim said...

What's up with the RSVP problem in this country?! I have experienced it all over the years—everyone RSVPing, nobody RSVPing, receiving RSVPs the day of the event(!), and people showing up without ever RSVPing.

My first thought about your situation is that most of the parents probably didn't look at the stuff their 4-year-olds brought home and pitched the invites without realizing it. So you're either going to have to follow up with a phone call or email . . . or just expect a low turnout (and the kids will still have a BLAST with just a few friends!)

Quadmama said...

We had one more RSVP yesterday, so at least my daughters won't outnumber the guests. The mom who called yesterday said she had the same problem last year when she invited the entire class... only 1 RSVP... and only 1 showed up. So she's determined to come to our party and make a lot of noise and help ensure the kids have a blast. Fine with me!

MaryAnne said...

I think the RSVP issue is a common one - sure makes for stressful planning for the parent running the party!

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