We’ll take another quick break for some snapshots of Little CC’s b-day party this past weekend. How is this wedding-relevant, some of you out there might ask? Well, technically, it’s not. But in a round-about way, it IS. You see, little CC’s 7th birthday party taught me a thing or two about RSVPing for parties. And that includes weddings.
Let me back-track one quick moment. Last year, little CC’s party stunk. I did it where she wanted (Chuck E Cheese, and yes, I deserve a medal) but I didn’t let her invite all of her friends from school. I can’t remember my reasoning at the time, but I just didn’t. Instead, Mr. CC and I opted to go the safe route and just invited some of our friends that have kids. What we didn’t realize is that all of our friends with kids have boys. So, yes, the party was what she wanted and where she wanted, but there were no girls at her party. (There was actually one girl present, but as she was barely walking, little CC didn’t count her!) Needless to say, the party was a bit of a disappointment to little CC. And I vowed to do better this year.
This year, I pulled out all the stops. Found a cool place, let little CC pick the theme (Scooby-Doo), and sent out about 30 invitations to both her school classmates and her day care classmates. And then waited…
The Tuesday night before her Saturday party I was wide awake at 4am. (If you’re wondering if this is normal, YOU try to plan a wedding while working full-time and then throw into the mix a birthday party and tell me how much sleep YOU get!) So there I am, trying my darndest to get back to sleep, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It’s Tuesday…and not ONE SINGLE PERSON has called in for her party. Oh no. Do you mean to tell me that out of 30 people, NO ONE is coming?!?!?!? Oh, the horrors…the nightmares…I just didn’t think that I could face another bad birthday party on my shoulders.
So the next day, amid a full blown panic, I set about trying to somehow solve the problem. In comes BM Britney to the rescue. She comes up with the sweet idea to send a reminder “flyer” to little CC’s school the next day (which was the last day of school, thus making coordinating all of this a bit harder) to remind the parents and kids about the party on the weekend. Excellent idea, love you much BM Britney!
In about 10 minutes, I had designed, written and printed out a rough draft of something that would work. I sized it down so that 4 reminders printed per sheet of paper, and I took advantage of our color copies at work to run a few extras. I trimmed the papers down to size and the next day when I delivered the cupcakes to little CC’s class, we put one in each mailbox.
Being not-so-sneaky, I also tried to talk with the kids that were sitting around us while I was there and ask them if they were planning on coming to little CC’s party. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long…as I got responses anywhere from yes, to no, to “I have to go to the library that day.” I kid you not, a little girl actually told me the one about the library. So, with strict instructions to little CC to pass out the remaining reminders at day care, I left it up to the fates.
And I’ll be honest here. On Thursday night, when I got the first RSVP phone call, I did a funky-monkey happy dance. If you don’t know what that is…then I can’t help you at all. I literally did a dance of joy around the kitchen. Probably looked like a freak, but I didn’t care. A little girl WOULD be at the party on Saturday. Over the next day or so, I got 4 more such calls, and was very comfortable with 5 confirmed attendees for the party. My mom’s rule of thumb (while comforting me about all of this) was that twice as many who call will show up, so I was prepared for 10 kids all together. And we had 9. Of course, 2 of them were little brothers, but that’s ok. I’ll count them too.
Here’s some pics of the festivities…
Let me back-track one quick moment. Last year, little CC’s party stunk. I did it where she wanted (Chuck E Cheese, and yes, I deserve a medal) but I didn’t let her invite all of her friends from school. I can’t remember my reasoning at the time, but I just didn’t. Instead, Mr. CC and I opted to go the safe route and just invited some of our friends that have kids. What we didn’t realize is that all of our friends with kids have boys. So, yes, the party was what she wanted and where she wanted, but there were no girls at her party. (There was actually one girl present, but as she was barely walking, little CC didn’t count her!) Needless to say, the party was a bit of a disappointment to little CC. And I vowed to do better this year.
This year, I pulled out all the stops. Found a cool place, let little CC pick the theme (Scooby-Doo), and sent out about 30 invitations to both her school classmates and her day care classmates. And then waited…
The Tuesday night before her Saturday party I was wide awake at 4am. (If you’re wondering if this is normal, YOU try to plan a wedding while working full-time and then throw into the mix a birthday party and tell me how much sleep YOU get!) So there I am, trying my darndest to get back to sleep, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It’s Tuesday…and not ONE SINGLE PERSON has called in for her party. Oh no. Do you mean to tell me that out of 30 people, NO ONE is coming?!?!?!? Oh, the horrors…the nightmares…I just didn’t think that I could face another bad birthday party on my shoulders.
So the next day, amid a full blown panic, I set about trying to somehow solve the problem. In comes BM Britney to the rescue. She comes up with the sweet idea to send a reminder “flyer” to little CC’s school the next day (which was the last day of school, thus making coordinating all of this a bit harder) to remind the parents and kids about the party on the weekend. Excellent idea, love you much BM Britney!
In about 10 minutes, I had designed, written and printed out a rough draft of something that would work. I sized it down so that 4 reminders printed per sheet of paper, and I took advantage of our color copies at work to run a few extras. I trimmed the papers down to size and the next day when I delivered the cupcakes to little CC’s class, we put one in each mailbox.
Being not-so-sneaky, I also tried to talk with the kids that were sitting around us while I was there and ask them if they were planning on coming to little CC’s party. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long…as I got responses anywhere from yes, to no, to “I have to go to the library that day.” I kid you not, a little girl actually told me the one about the library. So, with strict instructions to little CC to pass out the remaining reminders at day care, I left it up to the fates.
And I’ll be honest here. On Thursday night, when I got the first RSVP phone call, I did a funky-monkey happy dance. If you don’t know what that is…then I can’t help you at all. I literally did a dance of joy around the kitchen. Probably looked like a freak, but I didn’t care. A little girl WOULD be at the party on Saturday. Over the next day or so, I got 4 more such calls, and was very comfortable with 5 confirmed attendees for the party. My mom’s rule of thumb (while comforting me about all of this) was that twice as many who call will show up, so I was prepared for 10 kids all together. And we had 9. Of course, 2 of them were little brothers, but that’s ok. I’ll count them too.
Here’s some pics of the festivities…
I'm not sure about her smile here...kinda scary!
I could NOT get her to give me a "real" smile...
So what does all of this have to do with my wedding? I have learned how important it is to call and say you’ll be there and mean it. I learned this lesson so well, that I had a wedding RSVP on my kitchen table waiting for a decision from Mr. CC and I on it. That card that some bride sweated over and addressed and stamped went in the mail this morning. Yes, it was two days late. But hopefully she followed the standard rule of thumb and put the deadline for a response a week before she actually needed it.
It’s important for the person planning the even to know what to plan for. I get that now. Yes, it’s taken 32…nearly 33 years…but once the lesson’s learned, hopefully it’s here to stay. So I vow right now to not ever not RSVP again…
I’ll leave you with this cute picture of Mr. CC and little making fruit faces…just too cute to not include!
Do you appreciate it when people RSVP to you? Or are you able to stay sane and plan your shindig without relying on that little phone card/postcard response? If you are, please be ok with the fact that I hate you just a teensy bit…LOL!
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