I am having a graduation party in two weeks and we have sent out 160 invitations. On my daughter's menu she has hot creamy chicken sandwiches, cold turkey sandwiches, pasta salad, veggies and dip, chips, fruit cake, and punch. How do you know how much of anything to buy when you have no idea how many are coming?
By Sherry
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Where I live, our graduation parties are open house type. Also the people that I know don't send out that many invitations. A lot of what is served at the parties here are sloppy joes/bar-b-ques, potato salad, pasta salad. Cake, iced tea, and punch. These are all things that whatever is left over can easily be consumed, by the family.
Some cookbooks have a page or two telling how much to make for a certain number of people. You know for sure that not everybody will attend. A couple years ago my granddaughter thought she was going to plan the menu for her party and found out real quick that we couldn't afford a lot of what she thought should be served.
I can't remember how we figured out about how many would attend the party, but I think we planned out of the 50-60 invitations that we sent out, that about 15-20 wouldn't attend. We also served mixed nuts and home made mints in the form of diplomas and mortar boards in her school colors. Those mints can be made a long way ahead of time and frozen.
The left overs fed the family for one or two meals. If there had been a lot of the sloppy joes leftover that could even be frozen for a later date.
Years ago I had a friend who was big into entertaining and would often throw big open dinner parties. (Yes, she did have a lot of money, lol!) What she usually did was serve food on a first-come, first-serve basis. Those that showed up on time got the good stuff, while those who came later had to make do with nibbles.
I don't know what the wording of your invitations was like, but maybe you could do up hot food for about 50 people or less, then just have snacks or some sandwich fixings available for anyone else who shows. Someone could always run to the supermarket if you run short of food or drinks. I remember with my graduation a lot of kids were having parties the same day, so people tended to show up on a rolling basis. If people ask where the food is you could just act apologetic and say you've already had a crowd. ;-)
Won't help you now...but that is the reason most people put RSVP on invitations with an RSVP by date. That is so they can plan to have the correct amount of food, paper goods and don't forget toilet paper for those extra guest!
160 invitations? Where do you live and how can that be? Is it the entire class/town? Really curious as I can't imagine that many invitations to anything other than a wedding. The above suggestions are good as to what can be used later for family meals or frozen.
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