Annivesary party help

[supertrooper1]

My parents' 50th anniversary party is in 3 weeks. I need ideas or suggestions for things that I may have forgotten about or tips for throwing a big party.  I sent out all of the invitations and I'm starting to get RSVP's.  The guest list was about 100 people, and I'm expecting 60ish people to show up.  it will be in my parents' yard and the parking will be in the field next to the yard.  If it rains, they have the local elementary school as a back up.  A couple of my mom's friends, my SIL and myself will make the food.    

Food:

Crock pot pulled pork

Crock pot meatballs

Sandwich fixings 

Fruit

Potato Salad

Coleslaw 

Cake

Drinks:

Pop

Beer

Lemonade

Water

Set up and decorations

Several tents

Chairs and tables being borrowed

Black and gold tablecloths

Small Ikea lanterns with battery tea lights

Gold votive with battery tea lights

Confetti for the tables

Banner from Costco

Guest book

Plastic utensils to be wrapped in a napkin and sealed with a paper napkin ring

Other:

Sunscreen and bug spray

Black pens to mark drink cups

 

[waverly]

Maybe another dessert besides cake. Will there be a lot of kids there? Is it at night? Is it more formal or informal? I only ask because if it is during the day then maybe lawn games/ yard games for kids. If it is at night and more formal and not a lot of kids, then don't worry about it.

[mustardseed2007]

I noticed the bug spray. you might want to get some citronella candles if that's a big concern. We've done that at back yard parties before as well. They have some pretty ones out there.

Your list sounds great!

[rere]

Trash cans, a lot, with extra bags.

[supertrooper1]

It will be very informal. It's at 2pm. Most of the people invited are my parent's age. I'll have to see what we can do about yard games. I had wondered about that.

Citronella candles are a good idea too.

I think I'll add cookies to the list.

[supertrooper1]

Trash bags ordered.
My mom also ordered a port o potty. Eww, but it will keep their guest bathroom from having a line.

[ilovelucyvv]

Yes the first thing that came to mind was the bathroom situation. You might need a second porta potty depending on number and location of bathrooms in the house.

[greenmonkey1]

Separate trash cans for recycling? When my sister had my niece's big first communion party people kept asking where to put cans/bottles.

[mellym]

Plastic cups and disposable plates. Coolers and ice to keep beverages cold.

[campermom]

Who was it that gave me such a great list of things to remember to do the day before the party? Stuff like charging the outdoor speaker. Putting trash cans with extra bags around.

I just had my parents party a couple weeks ago. We had 75 yes’s.

We had 18 lbs of pulled pork, 125 pieces of fried chicken, a big thing of potato salad, Cole slaw, huge fruit salad, veggies and dip, was there a pasta salad? I can’t rememeber. a big sheet cake and those frozen eclairs. 2 cookie platters from bJs. Some we made, some we bought. We put the meat in crockpots at 6 am and it shredded beautifully for the party at 5pm. All the food was inside. We had 2 different drink dispensers-one inside and one outside that both held lemonade and tea. We had a quarter keg of yingling and a quarter keg of miller lite. Also 3 boxes of wine which barely a dent was made in those. The kegs went over well though.

Yes, we had tons of food and drinks leftover.

We were afraid of rain and it was calling for storms up until that day. We had a 20x20 tent with 4 8ft tables which seats 40. Then I had 4 6ft tables in my garage for seating. I have seating for 16 on the patio but we had extra chairs brought in. We also rented 3 pub tables. People totally made use of the patio bc the weather turned out to be perfect. We didn’t need a porta potty but I made sure there was plenty of TP and extra towels.

My sister got a cute inflatable photo frame with props from Amazon. We had paper lanterns from ORiental trading. Table cloths from the dollar store and cutlery/plates from BJs. Centerpieces were succulents in a small buckets with bright tissue paper.

Yes-sunscreen and bug spray.
We have a playground for the kids, our regular outdoor toys like a middle launcher and rocket copters, bubbles etc, cornhole, and a basketball hoop and lots of people (including adults) played. My sister used a digital photo album and since all my pics are on google photos I just used facial recognition and all the pics of my parent popped up, so we saved those to a flash drive. We had a little advice card thing that was like a Bucket List my sister found on Pinterest.



ETA: have tape for the table clothes-it was windy.
Also-even with buying a lot of that food catered, and the tent came to $700 the whole party only cost my 2 sistera and I a total of $500 each after we all settled up the $.

[mommyatty]

Do you have enough drinks coolers? And ice?

[supertrooper1]

Yes, we have drink coolers. Ice will be from the store down the road.
Bubbles...Yes. I should have added them to my Target order.

[186momx]

Veggie tray with dip or hummus
Chips/pretzels
Recycling bin

[supertrooper1]

campermom and everyone else...

How much pulled pork do we need? I got 62 yes's from adults and a handful of young kids (5 and under). I went to Costco today with my mom and she seems to think the 4 pack of pork roasts is enough for all of these people. It's about 8 pounds of meat cooked. We also have meatballs, sandwich stuff and lots of salads. Google tells me 3-4 servings per cooked pound when it's the main course.

I'm thinking I need another 4 pack of pork from Costco.

[waverly]

I haven’t thrown a party like that with pulled pork. But based on your math I would say better get more.

[twinmomma]

I'd get more. You can always freeze leftovers.

[mae0111]

Jul 25, 2018 18:49:18 GMT -5 twinmomma said:

I'd get more. You can always freeze leftovers.

This. Pulled pork freezes really well.

[campermom]

I think we got 18 lbs for 75 people, but 125 pieces of fried chicken too.

Of course we had too much food but I love freezer pulled pork on a week night!