Graduation Party - Thoughts/ Ideas ?

[swanmom]

Our DD is graduating high school and we'd like to have a party. Here's the dilemma - we'd like to have a family/friends party and she would also like to have a teen/friends party. Since we can't afford two different events, I thought what we might do is an 'open house.' We would have family/friends come late afternoon through early evening and have the teens come early evening until late - with some casual overlap between the two groups so they can see each other. DD, of course, would be there the whole time. Do you think this would work?
And, does anyone have any ideas to share about things they've done for a graduation party?

Thanks all!

 

[buffettgirl]

Is there any great reason why these two groups can't be at the same party together?
That's pretty much what we're doing - just calling it an open house from 3-11 and you come when you come. We're not saying that this half of the party is for the teens and this half is for the family...

 

[Abbie]

Our DD is graduating high school and we'd like to have a party. Here's the dilemma - we'd like to have a family/friends party and she would also like to have a teen/friends party. Since we can't afford two different events, I thought what we might do is an 'open house.' We would have family/friends come late afternoon through early evening and have the teens come early evening until late - with some casual overlap between the two groups so they can see each other. DD, of course, would be there the whole time. Do you think this would work?
And, does anyone have any ideas to share about things they've done for a graduation party?

Thanks all!

I think that's a perfect solution! (Of course that's what we did four years ago so I think it's perfect. )

We are facing the same thing, only we are combining a hs grad w/a college grad. We did that four years ago too (poor middle kid, always sharing a party! ) Same family of course, but extra friends (adults) for both kids. It is a huge group so the only way is to stagger it a little. After having two kids already graduate hs, we found that the "kid" factor is really an unknown. It seems the entire student population spends those weekends surrounding graduation just bouncing from one party to another, never really staying long at any one, so you never know exactly how many to expect.

As far as ideas, we always have areas set up for volleyball, wiffleball, horseshoes, badminton, tetherball, etc. This year the kids begged for a moonbounce so we are splurging on that! You are reminding me that we have to get going with the planning!

 

[disneyismyname]

Our DD is graduating high school and we'd like to have a party. Here's the dilemma - we'd like to have a family/friends party and she would also like to have a teen/friends party. Since we can't afford two different events, I thought what we might do is an 'open house.' We would have family/friends come late afternoon through early evening and have the teens come early evening until late - with some casual overlap between the two groups so they can see each other. DD, of course, would be there the whole time. Do you think this would work?
And, does anyone have any ideas to share about things they've done for a graduation party?

Thanks all!

My party (it was 7 years ago) had family and friends (open house). It worked out fine. My friends all grouped together and I hung out with them in between guest arriving. I don't see why you couldn't have them all together unless your DD wanted to do other things with her school friends that didn't include the family.

 

[Diegosmom]

Someone on here posted a thread on a candy buffet. It looked awesome.

 

[Hannathy]

That is what EVERYONE here does which leads me to my next point. Your DD needs to think about how much she wants her friends to be there and how long she wants them to stay. If she wants more friends and to have them stay longer then she needs to bump her party back into the summer away from the prime weekends. If she cares more about family being there and friends just dropping in for 30 minutes to an hour then go ahead and have it on a prime grad weekend.

My DD graduated last year and on the 3 weekends in June she often had 4-7 parties on Sat. and another 3-4 on Sunday so she was doing the rounds and only a few did she stay at more than an hour or two. These kids seemed to have a lot of family at them. Now a few kids had their parties much later in the summer and they seemed to be more kid oriented with family there but not for as long and these usually went later into the evening.

Just remind your DD also that there are a lot of parties all around the same time so when you consider they all have to stay at their parties and then the other kids have to hit so many parties that sometimes it seems like not to many people are at your party. Having slightly different hours than everyone also helps.

Good Luck! I don't think I saw my DD for the first 3 weekends in June.

 

[ashley0139]

I had my "friends" party the weekend before graduation and my "family and family friends" party the evening of graduation, when family was in town. We spent a lot more on the friends party, and for the family party my mom cooked a ton of her amazing food and we had that. But I have to say it was quite nice to have them split up like that.

For my friends party, we had Moe's (Southwest Grill) cater - YUM!!! Also, we got a moonwalk/bouncy house and it was a HUGE hit. Every one of my high school friends loved having the moonwalk to play on at the party, instead of everyone sitting around. You wouldn't think a bunch of high schoolers would be into that, but everyone really loved it.

Can't believe that was almost 5 years ago now. I graduated from college last May!

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

candy buffet maybe a luau theme?

 

[swanmom]

Thanks, everyone, for these great suggestions and support! Just a reminder, we can't really afford two events easily. So, I'm looking for ideas for a one party day! (Unless some of you think that this is totally not do-able.)

Thanks!

 

[golfgal]

Everyone here does an open house grad party (well most everyone anyway). If you want to have "separate" parties, start your party around 5:00 have it run from 5:00-8:00 or whatever and have your DD tell her friends that you will have a bonfire or whatever "after" the party. There will be food left over and whatnot but if your area is like our area, the kids will be stuffed from going to all the other parties that day.

I also see no reason why you can't just have one party and have everyone there at the same time. This is what most people here do. The family ends up in one area, friends, in another, teens in a 3rd spot. It works our just fine.

If you want to save money, have a party starting at 7:00PM and just have desserts. People will be THRILLED not to see another ham sandwich when they come to your party. One friend's DD just had root beer floats at her party. Another girl I know just had cheesecakes. Her and her mom and sisters made about 10 different cheesecakes and they served those and punch.

For DS18's party last year he wanted pulled pork sandwiches. We got the meat and salads from a local meat market. Food for about 100 cost $175. We had some family members make some bars/cookies and we had a cake.

 

[Rora]

Everyone here does an open house grad party (well most everyone anyway). If you want to have "separate" parties, start your party around 5:00 have it run from 5:00-8:00 or whatever and have your DD tell her friends that you will have a bonfire or whatever "after" the party. There will be food left over and whatnot but if your area is like our area, the kids will be stuffed from going to all the other parties that day.

I also see no reason why you can't just have one party and have everyone there at the same time. This is what most people here do. The family ends up in one area, friends, in another, teens in a 3rd spot. It works our just fine.

If you want to save money, have a party starting at 7:00PM and just have desserts. People will be THRILLED not to see another ham sandwich when they come to your party. One friend's DD just had root beer floats at her party. Another girl I know just had cheesecakes. Her and her mom and sisters made about 10 different cheesecakes and they served those and punch.

For DS18's party last year he wanted pulled pork sandwiches. We got the meat and salads from a local meat market. Food for about 100 cost $175. We had some family members make some bars/cookies and we had a cake.

I agree with this.

A dessert bar might be fun!

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

I think the multi party on 1 day is a great idea. We did it for our ds' birthday one year. The adults & family came in the afternoon and his friends came in the evening.

A candy buffet is a great idea. We also had 2 different cakes-1 for each party. Also served food buffet style so people could help themselves. I just doubled what we made-- served 1/2 in the afternoon and the other 1/2 in the evening so the food was fresh.

Activities in our case included swimming, basketball, soccer & music.

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

The benefit of having 2 parties on 1 day is your child might actually want to skip out with the friends later and attend other parties.

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

When each of our boys graduated, we had a make your own taco bar. Huge roaster of taco meat; nacho cheese, chili cheese dip and refried beans in crock pots; tortillas, hard shells and tostitos; then lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, shredded cheddar, taco sauce, jalapenos, picante, etc.

It worked out awesome because people could make whatever they want - tacos, taco salad, nachos, etc.

We also did a massive fruit tray and several gourmet cookies instead of cake. People were thrilled to see something besides pulled pork and cake!

 

[INDISMOM]

I agree -- 1 big party would work.

My cousin had a dessert buffet -- lots of different things plus a chocolate fountain. Yummy!

With the exception of the official graduation cake, my aunt made all of the desserts. She did a lot of them ahead of time and put them in the freezer.

Her sister is graduating this year and they think are going to do a pasta bar, which seems fairly easy and affordable!