Prairie~Phlox Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 (edited) We sent out 85 invites, probably 1/2 was to either 1 or 2 people, the other half families. I know of a few no's, but 25 on Fb said they were coming. The open house is 5-8 pm, the same day as graduation. I know of a few families that also have graduaes, so not really expecting them. If everyone came, it would be about 180 people, so what do I plan for? 100? Edited April 28, 2016 by Prairie~Phlox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Probably safe, with leftovers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Locally, it runs about 1/2 in situations like this. Friends of ours do an open house for each graduation, and that's what she figures. We probably will do one next May because we'll have a high school and college graduation to celebrate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Event planner here. First take off most of the people from the list that have more than two hours to drive to get there. Unless they are grandparents or other uber close relative, it is unlikely they will come. I call these "courtesy" invites where the invitation is as much just a graduation announcement as anything. Yup, welcome to come, but hey, not likely. Then deduct about 20% as that is just very standard with any event. 80% is a typical number of attendees. The unknown is when you do something like "open invitation to the church" or "open invitation to the school" or....you really have zero idea how to plan, and I've seen those numbers run from 30% attendance to 80% so the only thing you can do is plan food and table service for the big number, and then potentially end up with a TON of leftovers. Now that said, this year we planned for a generous amount of leftovers for our son's graduation party. Several reasons: We are going away the next day because it is our anniversary and this leaves behind food for college boy, college bound boy, and high school boy. This many males in an age range of 19.5 to 16 eat like packs of roving hyenas. Next reason, my mom really wants to help but she is physically a bit fragile and my dad is dying of cancer. So she can take a bunch of food home and not cook for several meals while they rest up from the festivities. Last but not least, our dear friends are letting us have it at their farm, our graduating son's favorite place in the whole world. So I want to leave a bunch of food behind for them too so they can enjoy and not have to cook for a few meals too. So if you have people that you would be happy to spend the money to share with in that way, and can afford it, then having big leftovers is nice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitten18 Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Also, are there a lot of local people that will be attending other open houses? Is your open house at the same time as others'? Will many people have eaten by the time they get to your house? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prairie~Phlox Posted April 28, 2016 Author Share Posted April 28, 2016 There is a cake & punch reception after the graduation. Only 1 other is having hers the same day (we had a sheet where we could put tgat info so people knew.) there are 34 graduates participating in the ceremony. Graduation is at 1:30, our open house is 5-8pm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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