Hi MN, I need your collective wisdom. DC is having a joint birthday party with a classmate. We'd like to invite a couple of people that the classmate doesn't know, but my DC is good friends with (the classmate is similarly inviting a few people we don't know). How do I phrase the joint birthday invite I will send to them?
I don't want these friends to feel awkward that they won't know the other child or to feel that they have to bring two presents. So I'd like to say in my invite 'no need to bring a present to the other child', but this sounds a bit grabby as it kind of implies that I expect them to bring a gift to us (I don't mind if they turn up with no gifts at all but of course I know this is unlikely to happen).
I composed this message: 'Hi [friends], DC will be having a joint birthday party with one of her classmates, [Name], at [place/date/time] and we'd love to invite you. Please let us know by (date) if you can come. I know you won't know Classmate, but DC would love you to be there. Also, just to say that we are not expecting guests to bring gifts to both children (or any gifts at all ), we just want to see you there! Hope you can make it.'
Does this sound ok? Can I improve it at all? I'm usually articulate but this one text invite has left me baffled and I want to get it right! Thank you.