In my last blog I shared how I had procrastinated on planning my son’s graduation party. I will be having it in July but it’s really not a big deal because now I’m not in competition with all of the parties being held in June.
Since I have no experience with planning a graduation party, it worked out great this past week when my husband’s entire softball team and their families went out to dinner. I was able to talk with one mom who had hosted a graduation party a couple of years ago and another mom who has gone to dozens of them.
They were able to offer some great tips, which I am going to share.
In my previous blog I mentioned that you should first pick a date and come up with your invite list. The next thing I did was design my son’s graduation invitation.
I like to use Snapfish, as it is easy and economical. They have a variety of templates to choose from. And you can save your work so you aren’t forced to put in an order until you are ready.
That ended up being a good thing because originally I put in a date and time. After talking to my friends, they said it should be like an open house, with a three or four hour time slot that people can stop by.
So instead of saying the graduation is at 2 p.m., I changed it to 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Then I talked to my friends about the food. That was one of the things I was feeling pretty
stressed about. How in the world am I going to feed all these people?
They gave me some great advice. Keep the menu small but just make sure you have enough. In other words, don’t have five different types of side dishes.
Stick to a couple and just make sure you have plenty. So I plan on getting one type of potato salad and filling a crock pot with beans.
As for the meat, it was also suggested that if you are going to grill, do the bulk of it the day before and then warm it up. Otherwise people will be waiting for their food and the person behind the grill will never get away from it.
What I decided to do is have some burgers and brats going on the grill (my husband loves to do that) and then in another crock pot have some shredded BBQ. I should also mention that I won’t be making the shredded BBQ and potato salad. I will get them from Sam’s Club, where you can get food items in bulk.
The other expense is soda and water. Since I have a couple of months, I am going to be slowly building up my soda and water supply. Every time there is a sale, I am going to purchase them. This gives me nearly two months to have enough.
Another great tip they gave was to forget decorations. One of my friends had spent $150 on them but no one noticed.
In the end I am feeling a bit more ready. Do you have any graduation party planning tips?
Related Articles:
Planning a Graduation Party – Part 1
First Step in Becoming a Military Mom
Photo by Abulic Monkey in Flickr