B-day party and lack of RSVP's

renogaw

DD is turning 4 this weekend.  About four weeks ago, I handed out party invitations to every child in her preschool class (I put them on top of their lunch bags in their lockers).  The RSVP date was this past Saturday and I included my email address and phone number.  Almost half the class hasn't bothered to respond.  Yesterday I asked one of the teachers if she'd mind asking parents to get back to me, she said she'd do it.  We're having the party at a place where I need to pay by the child (I would have preferred to have it in our house, but we don't have the space at the moment because our finished basement flooded a few months back and we haven't finished fixing it yet).  Did I do something wrong with the invitations?  I need to give the final head count to the place in a couple of days and am planning to tell them the number of kids that replied yes (plus 1 for my daughter).  What do I do if people show up despite not responding?  We have to pay in cash or cashier's check.

Pesky

No.  I have been on both sides of the fence here -- the parent with outstanding RSVPs for her kid's party and the parent who has not responded, usually due to forgetfulness or lost invitation.  As the parent, I have not shied away from hounding the outstanding invitees parents for a response and wouldn't hesitate to say that I need to know as I must pay by the child.

KathrynMD

I would just assume the no rsvps are no for the party.

Jen&Len

Do you think the invitation could have been lost before it got to the parents? Half of the things the schools sends back to us in DS's backpack never makes it into the house because DS knows there's something in there and opens his backpack to get it while he's waiting for me to pick him up.  He stuffs them in his pockets or just leaves them behind somewhere.  Do you have a class directory? Maybe send an evite instead?

jlw2505

You didn't do anything wrong, in general people are very rude when it comes to party invites and RSVP's.  With any type of party I have ever hosted, I am always having to track people down once the RSVP date has arrived and it is a huge pet peeve of mine.  I am one of those people that respond within days of getting an invite but I always have people, especially for my kids parties, that I have to track down.  What I have done with the daycare invites, since I don't have emails or phone numbers, is a day or 2 before my RSVP date, I put a photo-copy of the invite into the parent folders of anyone that has not responded with a reminder to please RSVP by the given date and that typically does the trick.  I have never had anyone show up who has not responded although one year, I had 2 people call within days of the party to RSVP, one the night before.

rsd12

I would just call or email the parents to make sure if it it that important to you. I forgot to call one of my son's classmates to say he was not going to a party. And then the mom tried to guilt me in since it was only girls showing up ; ) I am so glad I just let my kids invite just a few friends, I am so bad at rsvping too!

luvmagoldn

I would call or email directly to follow up. 

Parents from our school tend to use Evite which I think helps a lot.  People see the invite on their computer/phone/iPad and can respond right then.  Evite also sends out reminders to catch those that forgot after reading the original email.  I think I had to email two people directly out of 18 or so invited to my boys' birthday in January so I feel that the response I received was pretty good.

*littlered*

I had this problem for my daughter's 5th birthday party - I mailed the invitations so I know they got them.   About half had not responded so I did a mass email that was blind and just asked if they would kindly reply, I needed a headcount.  Worked like a charm, people emailed back quickly with apologies for not RSVPing, most of them were planning to attend.  I don't understand people not RSVPing - it is so rude!