To send out children's party invites this early?

[DreamCloud99]

My DTs are turning 3 soon .

They attend pre school during term time and we want to invite their friends to a soft play party .

I was planning to send out the invites after the Easter holidays , but DH has pointed out that it will only give people a few days to RSVP.

I have to pay the balance of the venue two weeks before the party - I don't want to pay if I have no RSVPS (hence the only a few days to RSVP) .

If I send the invites out before the Easter holidays , then it will be 5 weeks from invite date to party date - is that too big of a gap?

If I send them out before the holidays , then it means I can see if the party is going to be viable before I pay the full balance on it .

Opinions please ?

Either is fine.

I have mine ds' out four weeks before.

Some people do it closer. But the closer you do it, the more likely there is that people will have made plans.

5 weeks is fine, even the norm where I am.

I think 5 weeks is fine.

We've just handed ds1's out today for his party in just over 3 weeks and I felt like we were cutting it close really.

Sending them now is fine.

5 weeks notice would be great. 5 days notice is usually a juggling act.

I think 5-6 weeks is the norm here too. Especially when there's holiday in the middle.

Sending now is fine - if you think about it it's only 3-4 weeks if you take the Easter holidays out. Anything less than 2 weeks is not enough.

I have sent them out quite a bit further in advance than that as my daughter's birthday is at the end of August so I need to plan far enough in advance that I can get the invitations out and give time for rsvp's before the school breaks up in July. So I think 5 weeks is fine

Danger of 5-6 weeks out is that lots of people think "oh, that's ages away" and don't reply at once and then forget. So i'd suggest sending them out a maybe a week before the holiday and trying to get all the responses before the holiday starts.

I think it's fine but I'd put on the invitation that you have to confirm numbers so need an answer by x date (a few days before the actual cut off).

Either is fine, but people are often terrible at rsvp-ing, so make it very clear on the invite (as pp said).

5 weeks sounds about average then

rapidly I know ! I think so too . I'm not willing to pay the full balance with no RSVPS so I want to get numbers before I pay .

Yes I'll make sure I put an RSVP by date .

It's their first party and I've heard about people's lack of ability to respond

I think the holidays effectively don't count, so five weeks becomes three weeks, which is fine.

Thank you for the reminder: DC2's invitations are sitting on the printer and need to get to school!

Just because they rspv doesn't mean they will actually turn up, I book a party for 10 and pay on booking. Then when or if more turn up I pay on the day.

I have to the same for my ds's birthday party because of the Easter holidays. I think it's better to do it early rather than late

Invited 17 to ds' birthday had 13 replys one was ill on the day.

Somehow 18 showed up. Found out later that two people had turned up with siblings and passed them in as with the party. I was bloody furious. And the ones who didn't reply came as well.

Not too early at all.

I sent DS's party invitations out yesterday and his party is four weeks away.

I wanted the chance to let people know before school breaks up and still have the change to remind them when we go back.

I don't think it's too early.

5 weeks is fine.

I give an RSVP date and say that if they want to bring siblings, please could they let me know when they RSVP.

Def yes to an RSVP date, that allows you time and opportunity (so term time) to chase up non-responders.

You are gaining the benefit of my hindsight btw!