Grad Party Help

[Styx Fan]

We are having a grad open house for my oldest on Sunday from 2-6 and are suffering from a wonderful problem. The vast majority of the people we invited are coming. We are thrilled, but surprised what with summer weekends being so busy. But now I am in a panic! Sounds like we could have 100 people come by. Many of the guests are coming in families of 3-6 so the number goes up rapidly.

For those of you that have had this event in the past, I could use some reassurance that surly we will not end up with all 100 here at the same time! 25ish are friends of my sons who will be coming without a family and I don't have a clue if they will wait until the end to come and stay in the evening or what (we told my son his friends can stay, but the food will be over and we will be doing some pick-up).

My house has an eat-in kitchen, small family room and typical living room. We have a deck with a table/chairs for 6. We can also have some lawn chairs up on the deck. I have rented a tent, table and chairs that can seat 50. Food will be served in the kitchen, drinks on the deck. It is not supposed to rain, but if it does we have a 2 car garage, but I hate to have to use it.

My other big worry is how much food. Here is the menu:

Nachos....that melty cheese sauce, meat, a few toppings..10 pds of meat?...how much real cheese? The can of nacho cheese says 40 servings but I want to have both liquid and real cheese
Chicken from a local place..rotisserie style...how many?
Ham..planning on buying a whole kirkland from Costco
Rolls...to eat and have with ham..so mustard, etc
baked beans
potato salad
pasta salad w/ veggies (the recipe says it will serve 14 3/4 cup servings....1 pd of pasta..so 4x?
tossed salad
watermelon/cantaloupe

pop, ice tea, lemon aide, water

I want to have enough food, but not have a crazy amount left over...not too mention money is a factor.

So, o wise experienced parents of graduates....Help???

 

[Styx Fan]

Bump! If anyone could help, I would really appreciate it. If I start telling you our family dramas could that generate some interest? I would very willing to do so!

 

[lizabu]

I've done the nacho bar thing and I had a crockpot of chili to put on the nachos. Then I borrowed a crockpot from my SIL and used that for the nacho cheese. I'm not sure what kind you have but I bought the kind in the jar from Doritos and watered it down with a couple cans of Campbell's cheese soup because that jarred nacho cheese is expensive. Everyone liked it. I've bought the powdered nacho cheese that you add water to before and found it doesn't hold well and gets thick very fast. You could probably water it down with cheese soup too. I had grated cheese, chopped tomatoes, olives, green onions, avocado, sour cream and salsa. The kids loved it.

If you have the space I would set up the nacho bar in one area, soft drinks punch etc in another area, the other foods in another area and another table for your cake and fruits or other desserts. That will keep people bunching up in one area and keep them moving. I would utilize all the space you have. Open the doors and open the garage. Rent tables from a party store if you need. Have the nacho bar in the garage (you likely have outlets there). Drinks on the back porch, desserts in the living room etc to keep people moving and mingling. Just an example.

I'd probably grab 2 chickens and 2 hams, 4 dozen rolls (not everyone will take one probably), two litres of each of the salads and beans. If you think people are likely to make sandwiches maybe extra rolls and have a pickle tray with sliced tomatoes and onions etc

 

[TAX GUY]

When you say come by, does that mean stop in for a quick hello then leave? Or stick around and chat, eat, drink (and be merry)?

Regarding food, I'd try to stay away from anything that could spoil quickly if left out. If its a nice day and warm/hot, those mayo based dishes could spell disaster. If the plan is to have snacks and finger foods, stick with that and avoid the hot dishes.

FWIW, if you over do it with food/drinks, consider donating it to your local fire station? We've done this after school events. Rather than wasting it, the local volunteer and paid fire fighters LOVE the food and its convenient for them in the event they need to run out on a call. A local shelter could benefit too, if you have any in the area.

 

[maslex]

I'm also planning my son's graduation party (we're not having it until next month though) My menu consists of:
burgers
hot dogs
fried chicken
beans
corn on cob
potato salad
macaroni salad
broccoli salad
fruit salad
cake

We have probably 40-ish people coming not including any of my son's friends that want to stop by.
Last year (for my oldest son's grad party) we set up a few tents out in the back yard, some yard games and we also have a pool. We invited everyone to bring their bathing suit & towel in case they wanted to take a dip. We started the party at noon time and most people were gone by maybe 4-5pm? Whoever stayed longer, we just fired up the grill later in the evening and then had a fire out in the backyard & made s'mores.

We are having a grad open house for my oldest on Sunday from 2-6 and are suffering from a wonderful problem. The vast majority of the people we invited are coming. We are thrilled, but surprised what with summer weekends being so busy. But now I am in a panic! Sounds like we could have 100 people come by. Many of the guests are coming in families of 3-6 so the number goes up rapidly.

For those of you that have had this event in the past, I could use some reassurance that surly we will not end up with all 100 here at the same time! 25ish are friends of my sons who will be coming without a family and I don't have a clue if they will wait until the end to come and stay in the evening or what (we told my son his friends can stay, but the food will be over and we will be doing some pick-up). I would say depending on people's schedule that day, most people usually arrive within the first hour or so of the party and stay about an hour/two. Then might have a few later-comers, later in the afternoon. As for his friends, I would guess they might be some of the last people to arrive?

My house has an eat-in kitchen, small family room and typical living room. We have a deck with a table/chairs for 6. We can also have some lawn chairs up on the deck. I have rented a tent, table and chairs that can seat 50. Food will be served in the kitchen, drinks on the deck. It is not supposed to rain, but if it does we have a 2 car garage, but I hate to have to use it. Could you serve the food outdoors under the tent maybe? It might get too congested with everyone trying to grab a plate/food inside. Not too sure though, I don't know the layout or size of your house. You could also set up some extra chairs next to the tent.

My other big worry is how much food. Here is the menu:

Nachos....that melty cheese sauce, meat, a few toppings..10 pds of meat?...how much real cheese? The can of nacho cheese says 40 servings but I want to have both liquid and real cheese Maybe get one of those 5lb bags of shredded cheese
Chicken from a local place..rotisserie style...how many? How are you serving the chicken? In pieces or maybe pulled apart and served along side the salads?
Ham..planning on buying a whole kirkland from Costco
Rolls...to eat and have with ham..so mustard, etc
baked beans I would just do a regular batch
potato salad I would use a 10lb bag of potatoes
pasta salad w/ veggies (the recipe says it will serve 14 3/4 cup servings....1 pd of pasta..so 4x? I would probably just make a double batch, not 4.
tossed salad
watermelon/cantaloupe

pop, ice tea, lemon aide, water

I want to have enough food, but not have a crazy amount left over...not too mention money is a factor. I recently went to a baby shower and at the end of the shower, the host had a stack of those disposable pans. Whoever wanted, they could take those pans and fill them up with leftovers and take them home. I think I'll be doing the same with my son's party. I know last year for my oldest son's graduation party, I had a TON of stuff leftovers and a lot of it when in the trash.

So, o wise experienced parents of graduates....Help???

 

[sksjasams]

Congrats to your DS!!

I'm not sure and I might be the only one, but that doesn't sound like enough food to me. I would want to plan on everyone eating...

As far as keeping things cool, you could get some of these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=06439J7FK5BM49T27GC3
I've seen them at Menards (maybe even cheaper) or you could prob rent them from the tent/table place you are using.

 

[yoopermom]

I had to check and make sure you aren't my cousin, because we are headed out for the long weekend to her house for my goddaughter's graduation and she is FREAKING out over all the same issues !

DS graduated two years ago, so I speak from experience when I say:
1)clear EVERYTHING unnecessary out of the first floor of your house if possible to make room for people (even if they have to stand around). Where the food is is where they will congregate!
2)hope for the best, but plan for the worst, make sure your garage is cleaned out and ready to go "just in case" of bad weather or overflow guests
3)maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't have three "mains" because people are sure to not eat as much of one of them, and then you may end up with not enough of one (or two) and too much of the third (around here I would cut out the ham, but it's probably cheaper than the chicken).
4)I would precook/brown extra hamburger meat (like a few pounds), then if you start to run out, you could quick add water and taco seasoning, reheat it, and serve (if you don't need it, it's easy to freeze in usable amounts, lb, half lb, whatever)
5)have hot black beans for a vegetarian taco option for those who don't want meat, it adds a cheap protein
6)thin the liquid cheese, and don't do the regular cheese
7)have lots of lettuce in case people would rather have a taco salad
8)don't overdo on the cold salads, you'll probably end up throwing whatever's not eaten at the end of the night, anyways

Consider hiring a teen or someone to "watch over" everything so you can spend at least some time with your guests. This was the BEST thing that we did, because otherwise I never would have talked to anyone! She kept the food items topped off, wiped up spills, bagged the garbages as they filled up/put in new liners, cut the dessert, refilled the ice bucket, etc. Absolute best $100 I spent on a very expensive day.

Absolutely no way to know how many will show or how long they will stay. It tends to be regional, and can depend on whether there are other parties that day, the weather, etc. (We have three graduations and a baby shower this Saturday, if that gives you any idea, and last weekend was worse with Father's Day thrown into the mix.)

Good luck, you'll be tired the next day!

Terri

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Are you getting chicken pieces or whole chickens? If it's whole chickens do yourself a favor and just skip that. It will be too much of a pain to try and cut up chickens for 100 people.

1 ham is probably not enough if you want that for 100 people. We ate one ham at Christmas and we had tons of other stuff as well.

Burgers would be too much work for that many people but you can get a bunch of hot dogs, cook them in water in several crock pots and lay out all the fixins.

You could do trays of ziti or frozen meatballs in jarred sauce if you want something else hot.

Make too much and freeze the rest. You can freeze the ham, baked beans, cooked hot dogs, leftover rolls/buns etc.

 

[yeahdisney]

We had DS party with your menu. We got a restaurant to sell us the big can of nacho cheese. And I bought 9 bags of nacho chips from Aldi's. No meat for the nachos. All the cheese was gone. We had 12 to 15 kids here off and on. 20 or so Adults. We did fried chicken got 50 pieces had about 15 pieces left. We did beef brisket with Hawaiian rolls (rolls from Aldi's). I did have a large bowl of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots (so it would not have to be cold) and a dip for it. I was going to do a salad, changed to veggies. (My plan was to freeze any leftover veggies and steam them for meals later) and A great dill dip from allrecipes.com. I too was a little nervous about amount of food. So I added hotdogs and meatballs with the grape jelly chili recipe in a crock pot.
I put ice under the cold items. Put drinks in coolers with ice. We had party 1 to 8. I put the cold items back in the fridge, between feeding times, we did not want fridge open and shut all day or it would not be able to keep up. We had mini cupcakes and a cake. The frosting wanted to melt! Had to put it into the fridge too, put the cupcakes in the freezer, we were out of room.

 

[powellrj]

Nachos....that melty cheese sauce, meat, a few toppings..10 pds of meat?...how much real cheese? The can of nacho cheese says 40 servings but I want to have both liquid and real cheese
Chicken from a local place..rotisserie style...how many?
Ham..planning on buying a whole kirkland from Costco
Rolls...to eat and have with ham..so mustard, etc
baked beans
potato salad
pasta salad w/ veggies (the recipe says it will serve 14 3/4 cup servings....1 pd of pasta..so 4x?
tossed salad
watermelon/cantaloupe

pop, ice tea, lemon aide, water

I want to have enough food, but not have a crazy amount left over...not too mention money is a factor.

So, o wise experienced parents of graduates....Help???

I have done lots of parties over the years, but take my advice with a grain of salt.
For the nachos, forget the ground beef and have refried beans, cheese (you can get the big cans of cheese at most grocery stores and I also had shredded cheese), lettuce, tomatoes, pico, peppers, salsa.

Forget the chicken unless you are getting fried chicken. Plan on 1-2 pieces per person.

If you go with ham, get it sliced and use small rolls and just put out mustard.

Baked beans, one large can in crock-pot
forget potato, tossed and pasta salad. Its not something that people eat much of and too hard to keep cool.
Go with veggie tray and make it huge. Also make a fruit tray with your fruit. I would add a cheese ball with crackers and a cheese platter and maybe a crock-pot full of hot dogs if you are having lots of kids. If you feel like you need more dishes, stoffers mac and cheese with lots of extra cheese on top is easy and always gone.

 

[Styx Fan]

Thank you all for chiming in and I appreciate all the tips

Some people will just stopping by briefly, others will linger....just unsure of how much of which. We have a tent/tables/chairs rented, the garage as cleaned out as it can get. Drinks to go on the deck, Desert is cake which has to go in the kitchen with the food as the rest of the first floor is carpet and I don't want to put it on carpet. Still praying for no rain! My MIL is on deck to be on top of restocking and keeping things tidy. She is an ace at this kind of thing.

The menu is pretty well set at this point as I have most non-perishables purchased....it's more that I am uncertain on amounts for this large of a crowd. But your opinions will certainly help!

Any other comments are more than welcome....I will keep reviewing them and re-reading so more will stick in my addled brain.

 

[Mizzoufan]

With that many people. I woudl do sub sandwiches or pizza.

 

[ksjayhawks]

My other big worry is how much food. Here is the menu:

Nachos....that melty cheese sauce, meat, a few toppings..10 pds of meat?...how much real cheese? The can of nacho cheese says 40 servings but I want to have both liquid and real cheese
Chicken from a local place..rotisserie style...how many?
Ham..planning on buying a whole kirkland from Costco
Rolls...to eat and have with ham..so mustard, etc
baked beans
potato salad
pasta salad w/ veggies (the recipe says it will serve 14 3/4 cup servings....1 pd of pasta..so 4x?
tossed salad
watermelon/cantaloupe

pop, ice tea, lemon aide, water

We had about 150 at both dd's and then ds' grad parties.

One thing to remember is that everyone who comes is not going to eat a full meal as this is a come and go party, not a sit down meal at a meal time. In fact, you may find that most of your guests won't eat much as your time frame, 2-6, is not really centered around a meal time. Most coming early will have already eaten lunch, those coming later may eat more, but might not as they have plans for supper. Make sure to have plenty to drink though.

I would forget the chicken and go with a nachos/tacos/taco salad bar. Have plenty of taco meat and lettuce with the toppings that you have planned (tomatoes, onions, cheese). Add hard and soft shells, refried beans, pico or salsa, guacamole. That gives everyone a variety of options from nachos with cheese or pico, loaded nachos, soft tacos, hard tacos, taco salad, taco meat with a few toppings. Plus it is easy to do and keep full. You open up the packages of shells and chips as needed, refill bowls as needed.

Slice the ham and have a few fixings--mayo, onions, tomatoes, lettuce--available for sandwiches. 50 buns should be plenty. People could also use buns to make a taco meat sandwich is they want.

I would forget the salads as others have suggested and go with a veggie tray and fruit tray and dips. I did salads for ds' grad party and my dh came home with twice as many as I had sent him for as he didn't think that was enough. Needless to say, those extras did not get eaten and even the ones I set out were not completely gone. Veggie and fruit trays went over well and there was little left. If you must have salads, remember most people will only take a spoon or two at most and not of each one, so you don't need nearly as many as you think.

Another hint--have extra smaller serving trays, bowls ready. As food is eaten and almost gone, transfer to a smaller clean platter or bowl. Makes it look fresh for those coming later. Example would be rearrange ham on smaller platter, salads to smaller bowls, taco meat, etc. And, if a dish is gone, it is gone. Remove the platter or bowl from the table and rearrange food platters/bowls that are left.

Cut cake into small pieces. People are more likely to take a small piece than a large one. If they want more, they can get another piece.

Have plenty of napkins and forks and spoons. Have several garbage cans and ask someone to help check and empty those as needed.

 

[runwad]

For our DD grad party last year we had about 90 people and i had 150 pieces of take out chicken & jo jo's, 6 sheet pizza's, and 6# of rigatoni for the main menu. We probably had 20 pieces of chicken left and a couple of pounds of rigatoni and maybe 1/2 of a sheet pizza. We were at a park in a pavilion and most people stayed a while. I'd rather have too much food than not enough. Although I was afraid I was cutting it close with the pieces of chicken but it was fine. Most people go for the pizza.

One good idea I saw this weekend for the food that needs to stay cold is to get a little blow up pool, put it on a card table, fill it w/ice and put your food in that.

 

[Styx Fan]

Thanks for your tips Ksjayhawks and runwad. Some good tips I may have forgotten. I will consider dumping the chicken in favor of more taco stuff.

.

 

[denisem]

Another suggestion for holding ice for the salads is to use a plastic "under the bed" storage box from the Dollar store. The plus is that you have storage for after the party, and who doesn't need that??

 

[mousefanmichelle]

I second SKS on that rectangular thing from Menards. I used 2 of those to keep cold things cold for my son's party last year. They were way better than the kiddie pool I used the year before for my oldest's grad party. Go with fried chicken not rotisserie chicken. Go to Gordon's food service and get a big can of liquid cheese for the nachos. Baked beans did not go at our party for my oldest so I didn't use them for my middle's party. We did hot dogs/italian sausage, burgers and chicken - it all went. We also did homemade potato salad, taco salad, pasta salad and fruit salad and again - those all went (taco salad was first to empty).

Have a great party!!!

 

[sharona]

If you're worried about not having enough because you're not sure who is coming, when, and if they'll eat... I have a few thoughts on that. I usually buy extra rolls and cold cuts and keep them in the fridge then I can put them out if needed or freeze them so they don't get wasted. My go to if I don't know how many are coming or if everyone will be eating - pizzas. I buy a bunch of the square thick pizzas from a local Italian bakery and that's my back up if we start to run out of the party food. They heat in minutes in the oven and if we don't use them for the party, I know they'll get eaten soon enough. I cut them in 1/2 pieces and put them on a nice platter. They usually disappear in seconds, especially if there are teenage boys around. I'm sure you know how quickly those boys can eat their way through a buffet. I have several nephews and when we have family parties and "the boys" are coming, I usually double the amount of food that I'd make for that many girls or adults.

Love the idea about hiring a teenager to keep the buffet filled and to clean up as the party goes on. Genius!

 

[bethy]

You've gotten some great advice already. The main thing I can add is reassurance that 100 people is not as many people as it sounds like unless you are hosting a formal sit down dinner. Even with a small house. I have an 1800 sq ft split level and could make this work if I had to. People will come and go - esp on a busy summer weekend. Given the demographics of the party guests at least half of them will never sit down. So don't worry about having seating for everyone.

Also, if you run out of food but everyone has still gotten some things to eat then don't worry about it. They won't starve - esp not during that timeframe. Just have plenty of beverages (that are returnable) and lots of extra chips and salsa and cheese and crackers on hand that you can set out if absolutely necessary. The most important thing about a party is the fact that you are opening up your home to people (which frankly not very many people do any more these days.)

One other thing I might recommend is setting out food in multiple locations besides just the kitchen. That helps people spread out and not all close in on just the kitchen.

It will be great - having a house bursting at the seams is fun and festive and just makes everyone feel more comfortable!

 

[HeatherC]

All the food tips are great. One thing I did at my dd 16th bday was put out my Foreman Grill with a bunch of hot dogs and let the kids "grill" a hot dog if they wanted.