No One Replied to Birthday Party Invites

You sent the invites out way too early. They should just now be going out. You will have to send a reminder. I know if I got an invite six weeks out, especially for my kids, I would put it aside to deal with later b/c there is no way I am committing that far out...................and then I would forget.

So chill and get those reminders out :)

I am betting no one saw it with all the end of year stuff that comes home.

Do you have a school list _most schools give them- of addresses and phone of each student?

I throw a few kid parties a year- and about 5 % of the time get RSVPs if I do it by mail or paper card... ALL my invitations now are done by EVITE. Not one to track, everyone gets reminders from EVITE, and all you need is an email address. I get about 90% RSVP rate from EVITE because no one has to track a little card for a month or more :)

sounds like you should have gone with a detective theme. ha ha. Do a whitepages search, spokeo, the regular phone book, If you can find one person hit them up and see if they know the number for some of the other guests etc. IF there was anyway to contact the school and ask for the teacher to be contacted so she/he could contact you maybe maybe they would give out that info. or tell you the room mom and you could get it out of them.

could you find a few other aquaintances to invite just so she does have a party. THere is a good chance you will find some that do show up. so you really can't plan. but i know if I was on the other end of the invite i would hope i would RS
VP early, and i would call and confirm/touch base a bit before hand. Just a thought i'im wondering if this had been a destination party like bowling or mini golf type thing it might have stuck in peoples minds more. which is too bad because i think house parties are teh most fun.

I have a party for my daughters every year, and most people don't RSVP until the day before or even the day of, and a big percentage don't RSVP at all, they just show up. I see questions like t his all the time of people freaking out about this and honestly, birthday parties are not popularity contests. Celebrate your child and if they show up, awesome, if not, OK! Just my two cents. God bless!

If you have their contact information, then you have to start contacting them to follow up. "Hi Beatrice, I hope you guys are having a great summer. I know it's been a while since you received the party invitation, but Lila's party is coming up in ten days and I need to get an accurate head count. Will you be able to attend?"

What a mess you find yourself in.. I guess you could ask family over and make a big cake. That way its like a party and she will have fun, but if any of the kids do show up, youll at least be "having a party" and they can come in. I would possibly meet them at the door and say, " oh, you didnt RSVP so assumed you werent coming so we cancelled the party, but you are more than welcomed to come in and have cake and visit for a bit." if nothng else they will realize how rude it was of them to not RSVP and your daughter will be happy. Tough situation Im sure. Hope it works out.

These parents need a reminder!! Most of them probably filed the invitation away and forgot about it. Try to find some sort on contact/e-mail and send our reminders.

I have four kids 8-12 and each one has a party every year and out of all those parties almost everyone rsvps the day before or the day of the party! It drives me nuts. Only one time did we have only one child show and that year there was a snow storm in Texas.

I would cancel the party.

This happened to us last year, and I was so disappointed for my son. I had made a bunch of food, and cookies to take home... knowing that no one replied. Stupid I know. But it sounds like you are about to do the same thing... move forward with a party that no one is coming to.

This year we kept it simple... I let my son invite 3 clos{er} friends, and I took them bowling.

SO low key for me. No silly party favors, or anything. They came to the house and ran around for a few hours, we went bowling, and I took them home.

Awesome!
KATIE

Unfortunately many people just do not RSVP for parties anymore even if they are planning on attending. How can you cancel the party If you do not have any of their information to say it has been canceled? As far as the family that invited themselves, if you (or your daughter) do not want them there tell them! Have items for goodie bags available that you can easily return or use for your family if no one shows (book, puzzle, mcdonalds gift certificates). Invite her friends that she hangs out with now. Even if it is one or two friends or even just family she'll enjoy it. It does not have to be a big production unless you want it to be. Good luck.

if you sent out the invites a month ago and no one responded, cancel the party, put the money that you would have spent on the party back in your pocket, you are under no obligation to entertain people who just happen to show up, uninvited, where i am from, they have a word for that kind of behavior, its called RUDE.
K. h.

What Momma 11 said.

I can't imagine that parents won't want free activities for their kids during summer, so a party will be welcome. Send the invites again.

Updated

What Momma 11 said.

I can't imagine that parents won't want free activities for their kids during summer, so a party will be welcome. Send the invites again.

If you don't have a way of contacting the other parents (no phone #s or emails), then I think you need to assume that at least some of the kids will show up, and need to plan to have it anyway. Pick favors that your kids/family/friends will use, and order enough to cover the invitees.

You could opt not to offer goodie bags/favors at all, and just say that you had planned to order them based on the RSVPs you received, but since you didn't get any RSVPs, you are surprised they showed up.... But that seems kind of a passive-aggressive thing to do.

I think you should cancel the party. If you haven't gotten any responses by now, more than likely the invites/evites have been forgotten and there's a slim to none chance that anyone will show. It would be easier on your child and her self esteem if you would cancel rather than let her suffer the disappointment of having one person out of 16 show up to her party. The effects of that could be damaging and long lasting.

I never had a childhood birthday party and never wanted one because I can remember how the kids would talk badly about the parties that were "lame" or "boring" or where no one showed up...there's a lasting stigma that can follow a child throughout high school when it comes to situations like that (I may be exaggerating but you understand where I'm coming from).

I let my children decide whether or not they want a birthday party. Most of the time they prefer to have a "ME" day, which means they choose exactly what they want to do for the day, whether it be shopping for toys, eating at their favorite restaurant, skating, etc. That NEVER fails. Maybe you should plan for a back-to-school party. Best wishes :)

We usually get invitations a month or more before the actual party. Sometimes it helps if you put an RSVP by date. About 95% of the people RSVP by email. This also happened to me the last time I threw a birthday party. The party was a week after Thanksgiving. I sent the invitation out 5 weeks early. A week before the party, we only had one confirmation. So I put a reminder slip in the kids' cubby at school and everyone replied to the reminder, with apologies. Everyone came including the one family who didn't reply at all. I got an apology email on the day the party from them. Yeah, I dreaded the thought of having to explain to a 4 year old why nobody came to her party. It was so stressful. I bought the goody bag stuff in advance online. I figure if I didn't use it for the party, I would donate to the teacher for her 'treasure box' to reward kids' good behavior at school.
You'll have to look up on whitepages and call the families.
Good luck. I can totally relate to your stress.

If you have email addresses or phone #'s, I'd start contacting them now. Been there, done that, and most people just are too "busy" to rsvp. The last party I had for my 8 year old, I called the girl's mothers that she wanted to invite and asked them over the phone. It's ridiculous how rude it is not to rsvp to any type of invitation! If you don't get anywhere with calling or emailing, I'd cancel and invite the family/friends you care most about. Good luck! Summers are hard for b-day parties, but that's no excuse if you sent out invites before school was even out.

If no one has RSVPed, I would send out a cancellation notice and include the people who "invited themselves". Spend the money and take your daughter on a very special outing. If she has a TRUE friend, take that friend along and let your girl have a sleep over with plenty of goodies!

Blessings.....

Summer Birthdays and the parties are hard. The invitations could have been mixed up with all the stuff that comes home the last day of school and forgotten. I know you said you don't have emails and such but could you do a little sleuthing as time allows and look up addresses (as many as possible) and send something snail mail? Make a plain reminder frimly requesting an rsvp (yes OR not) copy it and send it in the mail. The problem now is you may get someone who shows up at your house so you need to be prepared for that scenario, even if you end up leaving and post a note on the door or don't provide any party favors, just activities and something simple on hand that won't go to waste if you don't use it.

About the person who invited themselves, tell them this party if it happens is for your childs older friends. Don't worry about being polite, just be firm and tactful. This person shouldn't get to rule your event just because they are rude and thoughtless for whatever reason.

If you have phone numbers or emails, can you reach out again? Maybe you could talk to the teacher and explain your dilemma and see his/her idea. As you know sometimes parents get busy and just don't respond but come anyway. I'm in a school where annoyingly, NO one in my child's class has a birthday party, not even at home so I have no idea who the parents are for her friends or anything. It's kinda tough, but if you could make one last try to invite then move on to a family party, I think that would make sense.
A.

Of course I completely forgot that it's summer and there is no classroom teacher involved. duh. In vite a few friends by phone and family and have a blast.

Send a reminder email or do a reminder phone call. I think that is totally appropriate when you send out invitations so far in advance.

I am sorry to hear about this. People are just rude, and this must be very stressful. I would say to give it more time if you can. You still have 10 days and for the most part, people are just very bad at RSVPing in advance for anything, so maybe some are planning to come, they just have not let yoiu know yet. Yes, its rude, but thats how it is. Are you able to do any individual follow ups? If you follow up directly with each person, it is harder for them to be rude and not reply. I would try to track down some phone numbers and call them if you can, but still leave your phone & email on messages for responses so you are giving them the "out" of not having to talk to you, it can be very akward for some people and any response is better then no response. Summer birthdays are hard to plan too with family vacations going on and the fact that the kids are not seeing each other daily at school to talk about it and get excited about it. I have a July b-day and I remember always having a tough time with this when I was a kid. Good luck, I hope everything works out.

My son got a party invite from someone who's parents I know by sight but that's it, I have met the boy before but just don't really know them. What happened to me was that bc the invite was handed to my hubby and I didn't really know the mom, I forgot. I found the invitation later and felt bad, but it was past the party date already. Also, sometimes you can give out invites to early and people really do forget bc they think they have plenty of time. Can you just do whatever you are planning at home with family and these few kids that are coming? That way if anyone does just show up it will be easy to incorporate them? I doubt that many are coming due to the fact that no-one responded, but you never know, so you could do some activity like the scavenger hunt that can adjust easily to the number of kids you have. Are there any kids in the neighborhood you could invite? Even 5 kids or so turns out to be nice when combined with family. Have you tried evites? I LOVE them! That way you just ask the parent for their email so you can shoot them a party invite, you have a way to contact them and it is so super easy for them to respond immediately. They sit in people's email inbox as a reminder. I did that for my son's last bday and it was great, so maybe next time that would be a better way to go when you don't know the people. Good luck!

If your kid gave them to the kids and not to the parents directly, it is quite possible that the invite didn't make it home. Those things get lost in the backpack or lost in general unless you give it to the parent. I would cancel the party, have a family party and next year--give her a big party when she knows the kids and has numbers, parent info etc. GL

M

When ever I have invited kids from school, that I personally aren't close with, they never respond. Your school doesn't have a school directory? I would try whitepages.com and try to find their info. Good luck!

I would cancel the party for outside people but have a great family party! I would still do the scavenger hunt and make the emeralds (maybe dye rice krispie treats green and cut to the right shape?). She still deserves a party. Tell the self inviter there has been a last minute change in plans or just tell her that no one else could make it so you are going to do something during the school year so that people will be around. Don't mention the family party or they might try to make their way in still. The other thing I would consider is having a 1/2 birthday party (6 months after her birthday). It has become a lot more popular as of late. I know several people that do it for their children who are summer birthdays and/or Xmas birthdays. I'm betting most of the school children didn't show their parents the invitations in all of the excitement of the start of summer and/or lost them! The parents will probably find them in a few weeks when they clean out the bookbags for this school year! LOL Try not to take it personally - although I do agree w/you about how rude it is not to RSVP. You have my sympathy - my oldest is a summer birthday and we don't know too many parents so it's always impossible to have school friends at his parties. Even the parents we know, the kids can never come b/c they are on vacation or have summer activities.

Non-RSVPers make party planning stressful. A month ago is a long time for a kid's party, especially being at the end of the school year with so many other things going on at the time. (I understand the convenience of handing them out at school, though.) There is a good possibility your invitations were shuffled around and misplaced. It has to be something like this, especially since there have been no replies at all.

Do you have contact information for her closest friends? Who does she play with most of the time? Give *them* a reminder call and ask. What about family? There is also the the likely possibility of guests who have not responded but will show up at your house anyway. You can't count on them, but you can't rule them out.

You really only need a few kids to make a great party. Scale it down to a sleepover or movies & pizza for her and 2 or 3 friends. This can still be a party year for her! :)

Six weeks is a long lead time for a child's party for someone they don't even know. They probably got put aside and forgot about. Also- In all the end of year chaos the invites might have never made it home either-my kids come home with a ton of paper in the last week or so. Or the people are just being rude and not responding. If it were me I would send an evite but it doesn't sound like you have their emails. Can you think of any way to get them-like from a school group email?

Unfortunately, this is extremely common. Even when a b-day party is held during the school year, most parents do not take the time to respond.