# Curious: When do you send invitation? Use Evite? How many people? Space issues?



## Pumpkin5 (May 17, 2012)

Everyone has their own time line. I am an early bird....I send out a "save the date" notice in August and the actual invitation the next to the last week in September. That way my victims don't have a chance to say they didn't know....wait....did I say victims??? I meant guests....


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## Killamira (Oct 14, 2009)

Good question! We try and get our invites out by the 15th of September. Far before that I start posting little titbits of projects and get the attention of my guests. Now space is an issue here, although our home is average sized, it is a tri level so it gets a little tight up front at first. I make sure I decorate all the rooms being used so that guests start to walk through and check things out. I have things for them to do in other rooms, and the food is spread out in each to help the flow of traffic. Last year I heard ppl telling others oh my, you need to go here or there and you better get down there, they have these yummies to eat! Last year we had rain, so the bonfire and outdoors was useless. It down poured! Total bummer, but we all fit and good times were had!


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## Jules17 (Aug 31, 2010)

We'll be sending out our invites the last week of Sept so everyone has a month to figure out their costumes, set up child care, etc.


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## Lisaloo (Sep 27, 2011)

I try to send out invites a month and a half in advance to allow everyone time to arrange for child care, costumes, time off work etc. I just use Facebook and make an event and invite folks that way. As far as space goes, every year it seems that I make more friends that I want to invite to the party. It started with perhaps a dozen and now I'm up to around 40. My house is on the smallish side, but I do have a large double leveled deck and side patio that help alleviate some of the crowding. I also try to set up food/drinks/desserts in their own separate areas so that guests can't just stay in one spot.


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## seattlerags (Aug 15, 2013)

I usually send my invites out in early September. They went out last weekend. I used Evite Postmark this year. This is our fourth year having the party, so our friends pretty much expect that we will be doing it and know to save the date. The guest list gets longer each year so space is an issue. We live in Seattle, so we can't count on good weather to allow people to go outside in the yard. Last year I rented the Game Truck, which holds up to 20 people, so the older kids could go to the truck and play video games. There were a lot of grown up kids out there too.  It was a hit so we will do it again this year. We also have dancing in the dungeon (ie the basement) as another area for guests. As things wind down, we can switch over to a movie and the kids usually plop down and watch while the parents are still having fun upstairs.


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## dbruner (Aug 23, 2012)

My invitations go in the mail tomorrow, and I'll pass the work and neighborhood ones out tomorrow too. I have been telling people since July when the party is though. My house isn't that big, I rely on the patio and backyard. I've been lucky in previous parties that it is cool enough to sit outside and have a fire by the end of October, I just knocked on my wooden coffee table that my luck doesn't run out. No one wants to sit outside in Florida otherwise! I'm inviting about 80 people this year, it will be crowded if they all come.


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## jtohm (Sep 14, 2005)

I post a notice on Facebook of the upcoming dates in August, another the first week of September, and the actual invitations go out on October 1st. Nothing wrong with being prepared.


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## ConversationFear (Jul 12, 2012)

We send out official evites the last week of September - even though a lot of people are asking me the date by July 5th. This gives people a month's notice. Most of our guests have learned that it is always the Saturday before Halloween.
We usually invite about 40 get about 30-35 and as far as any space issues, we have never had any. Some people are on the front porch, others on the back deck, others throughout the house. The only time it gets "squishy" is during the costume contest announcements because everyone is in the main area of the house (we have a 1500 sq. ft. house, btw to give some perspective).


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## Mz Skull (Nov 18, 2005)

We usually hand ours out the middle of Sept. although everyone is asking in the middle of summer. I always have mine the weekend before the bars have theirs, that way we get to dress up twice!!! A lot of our guest do the same so that way it doesn't interfere with other plans. Space is starting to get to be an issue, we have ours in our barn in 2 rooms. If the weather is nice though we can have a bonfire to help with the overflow of ppl.


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## bettyboop (Jul 24, 2010)

we are on the same page. ditto on the dates.


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## Erzsébet (Sep 16, 2013)

I send my invitations (sealed envelopes) out always in the first week of September. People expect them, but when I do that early, they have time to get the kids somewhere and figure out their costumes. We have pretty much the same guestlist every year, around 20, but sometimes there is few more. We definitely do not have enough space  but no one seems to mind, everyone always has a good time. Just yesterday my friend told me that his wife is very excited, she's been waiting for our party the whole year.


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## dane82 (Sep 24, 2012)

i use evite because of the ease of RSVPs--in theory. in practice, not so much. i sent out the invitations on tuesday night, and so far there are 5 confirmed on the evite site. there are a couple each of no and maybe, and 26 not yet replied. a few have viewed the invitation, and several haven't.

i don't understand those who haven't viewed it, because other than a couple of people, i sent everything to addresses that i know people check frequently. do they just not open the email?

i don't understand those who have viewed but haven't replied, because why would you not give some sort of reply? call yourself a maybe for now if you need to, but don't just ignore it. it's not that i need to know right now, it's that i have a strong hunch that if someone says, "oh i'll wait before i respond," they end up never responding.

this is a weird pet peeve of mine. i know it's easy to put off responding to something--i do it with emails all the time--but the evite system couldn't be simpler, and i'd be willing to bet that half of the people i sent invitations to (whether they come or not) will never respond.


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## scheibla (Apr 14, 2013)

I send my paper invites out on October 1. Then I create a Facebook invite about a week later for people to RSVP and to build excitement for the party!


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