To over invite guests to DD's party?

[aimlesswanderingg]

Invitations went out two weeks ago for a joint party for DD 6 turning 7 and DS 4 turning 5 (both have birthday in May). Never had a party before, DD Is beyond excited. Venue capacity is 60 with no wriggle room as they're the venue/hosts/entertainment and they do a head check. No one has rsvp'd for DD (DS has six guests so far) out of 60 invites (30 each). It's a bank holiday plus someone else in her class is having a party the same day. So no one has said they're coming for DD, three have said they can't due to other party. Dd does dance club Mondays which only has one girl from her year in it (most go to other schools). DH said to invite all 30 of them and just cancel individuals if we do end up going over capacity, but I'd feel awful doing that, but as it stands DD has no one coming, I can't even begin to imagine how devastated she'd be. Would I be unreasonable to risk going over capacity and then having to cancel individuals? How many people do normally RSVP out of 30 in your experience?

Create a WhatsApp group with the parents numbers you have, ask them to add the parents of the other children invited, then send a reminder asking for an RSVP by the end of the week saying you have to confirm numbers by Friday. Send another message on Thursday thanking those who've already responded, which should act as a prompt to those who haven't. Then invite people from the dance class if the numbers are still low.

Although changing the date doesn't work for you, would a time change, which may allow those going to the other party to come to yours too, be a consideration?

For other posters, I assume OP means the bank holiday at the start of May as she's in Scotland, so there's only 3 weeks to get this sorted.

Have you been to a lot of other parties? I had for my child and knew for a fact that inviting the whole class (30) I would be lucky if 50% showed up. So I invited the whole class ( didnt want anyone not to have an invitation given to them) plus other children. My venue was capped at 25. I had 20 say they was coming. Two family members and two sliblings invited along. Out of the 37 invited 18 turned up. Some who said they was coming didn't and some who never said they was coming turned up. It was stressful for the first 30 minutes when I had no idea how many would actually turn up.

I certainly will not be booking somewhere again. I knew the whole class wouldn't appear but I was nievely thought if someone hadn't rsvp then that meant they wasn't coming.

OP - for future reference 60 is an insane number of children to have running around. Have you got an entertainer coming for the £300 or is that just a hall hire ? I would probably have paid £50- £60 for a church type hall then an entertainer on top. Where I am a lot of parents stay in reception year and then will leave from year one onwards. I’m not sure if you’re anticipating having the parents hanging around or not ? I would probably have invited 30 kids and expect 20 - 22 on a normal weekend. (Of those one will be crying under a table and one will be making a break for the borders). A lot of parents will need chasing for the RSVP so don’t assume that hearing nothing is a no.

They will probably turn up even though they haven't rsvp'd. Not all but some or even most. This is the annoying thing about kids parties. As pp said I always make sure the key friends are free before setting the date so you at least get some but it's annoying trying to plan, decide who to invite etc!

Had another 'thank you but no' this morning

That's so disappointing. I would go ahead with inviting other children she knows xx

I would just do party booking for DS and arrange something different for DD. It sounds like the class are going to other party already? I think 30 would be plenty. £300 sounds like a lot for a room hire.

Such a shame when parties clash. It's my worst nightmare. I've got the date booked for DS' in July and I'm just twitching to get the date into people's diaries.

First q, are you 100% sure the 60 doesn't include all of the adults? That's an awful lot of children!

Given where you stand, doing the paper reminder in the right thing to do, and once the date has passed, yes, go ahead and invite the dance class.

I hope it works out!

How did it go in the end?