<p>The grad party thread has me wondering about this!</p>
<p>I’m a junior (i.e., not graduating until next year), and I was curious: What is the proper protocol for sending out graduation invitations, announcements, and party invitations? Obviously I can’t invite ALL my friends to the ceremony, so clearly some people would get actual invitations while others would just get announcements. But if I have a party (at which both “invitation” and “announcement” people would be invited), do I send out yet another invitation for the party? Or would that make the announcement redundant? Would I send the party invitation separately from invitations/announcements? How far in advance?</p>
<p>Every graduate’s situation is different, depending on finances, number of friends, relatives, type of event planned, etc. </p>
<ul>
<li>some seniors will just send out a graduation announcement.</li>
<li>some seniors might actually invite selected people
to the hs graduation.</li>
<li>others might invite only certain relatives and close friends
to a formal graduation dinner.</li>
<li>still others might send an invitation to everyone to
attend an “open house” kind of graduation party.</li>
</ul>
<p>It all depends on your social schedule (if you have a party or dinner),
of how many tickets you get for the actual hs graduation ceremony
(some schools limit the number of tickets).</p>
<p>You would have to be very specific about who you invite to a dinner party (seating is usually limited), but anyone could be invited to an “open house” kind of graduation party where people just come and go and pay their respects to you, drop off a card and/or gift, etc.</p>
<p>You might have a private dinner party for very close relatives and friends plus an open house for everyone.</p>
<p>It’s really your call, or your parent’s financial call.</p>
<p>This brings up some excellent questions. Let’s just focus on the graduation ceremony for instance. Yes most schools limit the number of tickets, and in our case it’s 10. That means we can invite 4 couples besides ourselves. However our D has 5 doting uncle/aunt pairs and her very close godparents–makes 6 couples. I don’t care how many kinds of parties/dinners/receptions you have afterwards, how do you allocate the grad ceremony tickets? Base it on seniority–oldest relatives? Direct bloodline? Give the ones coming from out of town preference? Alphabetical?</p>
<p>With each couple submitting a list of activities in which they participated over the years that directly contributed to your child’s betterment. jk</p>
<p>Realistically, check with other families to see if they are using all of their tickets. Be honest and open with your relatives about having only 10 tickets available and that everyone can’t go. The relative with the camcorder gets highest priority. Some of the time, relatives will be understanding about these matters. Other times, there will be a lot of pressure placed on you to make the unpopular decision of leaving someone out.</p>
<p>Probelm solved easily for us - only 4 tickets allotted per family: that means mom, dad, sister, brother. Everyone else just comes for the party the next day!</p>