Graduation party invitation advice needed

[tcufrog]

Since we're iced in I decided to use the time to start planning my kid's high school graduation party. I've tentatively scheduled it for Sunday, May 17th. I was originally planning to put a cap and gown photo on the graduation announcements or party invitations but the photography company won't tell the school when they'll be available. How far in advance should we send them out.

I'm also trying to decide how to send out the invitations. Normally I send out party invitations using Paperless Post. They look nice and are great for tracking RSVPS. I'm debating whether or not to send paper invitations in the same envelope as the announcements. I thought it would be more special and would be a nice memento.

 

[clh2]

I voted “other”. An invitation to a high school grad party “is” an announcement, therefore, in my opinion, a formal announcement is not necessary, and a waste of money. (Although, when my daughter graduated, we bought 2 or 3 actual announcements, kept one, and gave one to her grandparents.)

As far as paper invite or online invite, I would just do the online option, as long there was a benefit, Ie easier/less expensive!

Please do not take this opinion personally, there may be a few people who would consider the invite/announcement as a momento. Regardless who a paper invite is from, I will just toss it when the event is over.

I loved the whole planning process for my daughter’s grad party! We had ~100 people throughout the day-it was so much fun!

 

[barkley]

I was originally planning to put a cap and gown photo on the graduation announcements or party invitations but the photography company won't tell the school when they'll be available

high schools are still doing these? curious-is this what is put in for their senior yearbook photos as well? I ask b/c by the time my oldest graduated ('13) the schools in our area just did the standard yearly school photos and let seniors submit (with an EARLY submission cut-off date) a photo of their choosing. most went with something reflecting their interests or future plans. caps and gowns weren't available for ordering until well into spring quarter so nothing to wear with their grad year on the tassle.

it was pretty amusing to see the senior's student id cards-b/c they knew their photo was only going to be used for that purpose (noone bought their kid's senior year photos from the company the school used) they would make outrageous faces/do outrageous stuff with their hair I still have my oldest's-i said 'if you ever end up famous-this is the photo i'm selling to the tabloids'

(Although, when my daughter graduated, we bought 2 or 3 actual announcements, kept one, and gave one to her grandparents.)

yeah, we only sent out a handful as well to people who lived out of the area that we would not be extending an invite to.

there may be a few people who would consider the invite/announcement as a momento.

even my mom who was very sentimental tended to toss the announcements-she DID hold on to those photos though (much to one cousin's delight when I mentioned needed to go through and toss when mom passed/cousin's mom apparently NEVER kept any of their school/graduation photos b/c she sent them all to relatives so it was a windfall for my cousin to recoup these).



op-i think on timing it kind of depends on if you will be holding in the time frame to be competing with other celebrations vs. after the fact. I know when my kids graduated there was allot of 'which one will I go to' for the parties held grad day so the earlier invites sometimes yielded more guests (we had a party the day after and got a nice turn-out).