<p>We’re having a open house/grad party for my son and want to invite some of the teachers who’ve meant a lot to him over the years – and he to them! Should we invite a) just the teacher, b) teacher and spouse, c)teacher and family? (I know some of them have kids.)</p>
<p>If it’s teacher and spouse, and the teacher is female and I don’t know the spouses name, how I address the envelope? Mrs. Sally Teacher and Husband, Mrs. Sally Teacher and Guest? Mrs. Sally Teacher and Mr. Teacher? I don’t think Mr. & Mrs. Sally Teacher would be the thing, but maybe . . . Or how about Mr. and Mrs. Teacher with a note on the inside, “Sally, I hope you and your husband are able to attend”? </p>
<p>So many ways to do it wrong! Anyway, I certainly don’t expect most of them even to show up – these are the kind of teachers that no doubt get handfuls of such invitations – but we’d certainly love to see them.</p>
<p>We’ll also be inviting family friends, his close school friends, and the relatives, two of whom live close enough to attend. Should be a good, intergenerational party.</p>
<p>It really depends on what kind of a party you are having. We just had a very informal Memorial Day get together on Sunday that went over the top. All I served were hot dogs, condiments, iced tea, and lemonade, and just sent out flyers to some friends, acquaintances, neighbors, relatives. My kids also gave out a bunch of flyers (fortunately not to passerbys) and we ended up grilling over 350 hotdogs, and I have no idea what the body count was. Some teachers came as well with their families even though this is not a grad party–there is not going to be a grad party, and more teenagers came than I wanted. The flyer was very vague as to who was invited but each one was hand delivered directly to the recipient. </p>
<p>I’m astonished that you had 350 hot dogs on hand to grill! Congratulations on surviving the day, and go get some more rest:)</p>
<p>Our party will be more limited. I’ll be sure to tell my son to let the friends know this isn’t a “pass the word, party at so-and-so’s” event. Invitations will be on card stock, with a photo of the grad. For teacher invitations, I’ll be mailing them or putting invites for the current teachers in their in box at school. So I’m still looking for advice on how to address those pesky envelopes!</p>
<p>jamimom - you’re my hero! - we had the grad party open house on Sat. with DD and her best friend…at one point I turned around in my kitchen and I literally did not recognize a single face - and there were plenty of them! Throw in friends and fams for 2 girls - and what looked like way more kids than were in the class - add a couple quick thunderstorms to send everyone scurrying to tent and inside house - sprinkle some food, bevvies and a lot of laughter - stir in volleyball, bocce and basketball - all in all a good time was had by all…I had to come back to work today to get some rest!</p>
<p>Moomi - I’d go with the last choice - Mr. and Mrs. XXX with a little note inside - seems more personal, and still not inviting 2 or 3 generations of their family.</p>
<p>We invited one of my son’s teachers - his band director of 7 years. He and his wife are a team, so it was natural for us to invite them both. But I would have invited her anyway. I gave them an official graduation announcement with an open house invite on the inside. I put Dr. & Mrs. on the outside envelope and Doc (his nickname) and Janet on the inside. This is what the kids call them. Hope it helps!</p>
<p>350 hot dogs!! I can’t get a straight answer from my son as to how many of his classmates he has invited ~ you’re scaring me :)</p>
<p>Same happened here. S had two parties: one that “he ran” (not at our house, but we were there to keep watch over things) and one that the parents gave (several of us together). Both had LOTS more attendees than expected. The one he did was supposed to be a small occasion at the house of a friend of ours (who has lots more “toys” to play with: pool, hot tub, raquetball court, home theater, pinball machines, billiards table, even a full frisbee golf course on the property). S gave out about 15 invitations and at one point I think there were almost 60 people there. The second was a huge affair and over 150 hamburgers and 150 hot dogs disappeared. I cannot believe the number of parties this last week and the amount of party-hopping the grads did.</p>
<p>I would put put “Sally and Robert Teacher” on the envelope only if I know they’re married and his name. If I don’t know Sally well, I’d put only “Ms. Sally Teacher” on the evelope and on the invitation I would write: “Please feel free to bring your spouse or other guest! Hope to see you!” This leaves the choice up to her. If there is no spouse or one isn’t available that day, this lets her know she can come with a significant other, family member or friend. If it was me, I wouldn’t specifically include kids. There will be plenty of those already.</p>
<p>ok, you guys are making me nervous. D invited about 150 people to her party this coming Sunday afternoon - there are atleast 10 other parties that day so we figured hers would not be too well attended. However, the invitations asked for regrets and we have yet to receive a single one. How many hamburgers and hotdogs should I plan on? Oh, and prayers for “no rain” would be appreciated!</p>
<p>Having been through this before, I doubt most of the ones who aren’t coming will bother with “regrets”. For my son’s graduation party three years ago, the teens who showed up didn’t eat too much. I had WAY too much food. Maybe you can figure out some foods which can be frozen if they are not used that day (like the hamburgers and hotdogs you mentioned). I had hoagie trays and I ended up throwing some away. As far as rain, can you rent or borrow a canopy for your lawn. It is an expense but it is worth the peace of mind. Also, our yard is very sunny in the pm to the point of being unpleasant, and the canopy makes it much nicer for people to stay outside.</p>
<p>scma - Here’s the way it worked for our area. A week ago Saturday, there were 11 different parties that I knew of, but not all kids run around in the same group. So what happened here was that the party-hopping (for S and his “group”) was confined to about 3 parties or so. One was scheduled from 12:30 to 4:00, one was scheduled from 1:00 to 4:00, and one was scheduled for about 3:00 on. And that was the order they went to them, spending about 2 hours at each one. Of course those later in the day had more food left over.</p>
<p>So, who knows how many hamburgers and hot dogs… I thought the person buying the ones for our party was nuts for buying so many. I shouldn’t have worried, but we could have had a LOT of food left over. And of course EVERYBODY had cakes. I’m so sick of cake.</p>
<p>Didn’t have 350 hotdogs. No fishes and loaves story here. H had to run to Costco and then to the local grocery store to replenish. Neighbors joined us with whatever they had at hand as well. The kids all showed up with friends which was a surprise as well. Ended the evening with an “American Idol” style karoke show. We did not have burgers–just the hotdogs, and no sodas, no beer, no desert, no salads,though lot of bags of chips and stuff did show up. This really threw me for a loop because I wasn’t really even going to do a flyer–it was just word of mouth and we did not expect it to be a big deal. I was really more than a little embarrassed about the lack of food. We had plates as I hold the stock for the some of the sports that do tail gates and I used their stuff–will replenish this week. But a good time was had by all even with the lack of variety in menu. I was shocked that teachers and parents showed up. Just one of those things when no one had anything to do and it sounded like a good idea to grab some hot dogs for a impromptu picnic–oh yes, no seating, no tent–just quilts and towels on the ground.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input…the grocery store is less than a mile away so I guess I can always restock. And if they really aren’t eating, we’ll freeze the leftovers and eat burgers and hotdogs all summer long! Right now the forecast is for partly cloudy/high 70’s and I am just hoping that is what we get.</p>
<p>Wow…these party stories are really something. When DS graduated he invited 20 of his close friends to his party. We invited some family friends (had a separate event for the grandparents and the rest of the family lives far away). At the party, we had about 40 people for a cook out. It was very managable. About 14 of DS’s friends came and that was perfect. They were able to go out on the boats at the lake and just have fun. DS just wanted his good friends, and those are the ones who came. It was just right.</p>
<p>At our school the invitations are handed out on slips of paper made by the kids. People usually invite a lot of classmates, but there are so many parties at the same time that it is unpredictable how many will come to any one party.</p>
<p>Hmm…if I were you, I would address the invitation to the teachers only and say verbally (or include a slip of paper inside) that they’re welcome to bring a spouse/significant other.</p>
<p>Thanks to beachy, TaraMom, and AFAMom for addressing etiquette suggestions, and everyone else for fun stories about parties! I think I’ll go with “Mrs. Sally Teacher” and a handwritten addendum inviting spouse/guest.</p>
<p>Spent the morning finalizing the layout for the invitations and started printing them. Spent an hour yesterday combing through Paper Zone, looking at every single product – I hadn’t been there for a few years, and there’s <em>so</em> much cool stuff!</p>