Tips/ideas for low-stress long open house & park party to celebrate baby
September 12, 2015 1:50 PM Subscribe
Hi! Mrs ManInSuit and I are planning a party to mark the arrival of little six-month-old BabyInSuit. The plan is for an all-day causal open house, with a trip to the park.
Looking for tips on how to make this fun and nice for the guests, and minimally stressful for us.
The party is also a bit of a housewarming (we got a new place around the time of the new baby) and a chance for people from different areas of our lives to meet. (The baby-centered nature of the event means there will be more mixing of friends with family than a party might otherwise have).
The things about the party:
- The baby will be six months old. He generally enjoys parties, likes meeting people, etc. He’s a very social baby.
- We plan to do a long open-house sort of thing – like noon till 8 pm or something like that
- We plan to also have a scheduled time, probably, when we take everyone on a walk to a nearby park (about 15 min away) and hang out there for a while.
- We’ve invited around 80 people.
- One reason we’re doing an open house is that 80 people would be a lot of people to have at once in our house. Our hope is different people will come at different times, to spread out the crowd a bit.
- Our hope too, is to have lots of people hanging out outside the house as opposed to indoors, though that will depend on weather. (It’ll be the last Sunday in September, in Toronto). We have a big garage that might be a nice party space, and a bit of a front lawn-type area.
- We already sent a save-the-day to everyone saying that it is a casual open-house sort of thing.
Some things we are trying to figure out:
1) What are any tips/ideas/suggestions to make this fun for guests?
2) Any tips/suggestions to minimize the hassle of putting it together? (To give you a sense of budget and fancinness level: We are not averse to things like, say, ordering pizza for everyone or renting plates from a party company, but probably fall short of say, having the party professionally catered. I think we have a friend or two willing to help out a fair bit with cooking and setup and stuff.)
3) What are good ideas for providing food/drinks for a crowd of this size in this sort of environment?
4) What have you enjoyed/appreciated, as a guest or host, at this sort of party?
Any ideas much appreciated!
The party is also a bit of a housewarming (we got a new place around the time of the new baby) and a chance for people from different areas of our lives to meet. (The baby-centered nature of the event means there will be more mixing of friends with family than a party might otherwise have).
The things about the party:
- The baby will be six months old. He generally enjoys parties, likes meeting people, etc. He’s a very social baby.
- We plan to do a long open-house sort of thing – like noon till 8 pm or something like that
- We plan to also have a scheduled time, probably, when we take everyone on a walk to a nearby park (about 15 min away) and hang out there for a while.
- We’ve invited around 80 people.
- One reason we’re doing an open house is that 80 people would be a lot of people to have at once in our house. Our hope is different people will come at different times, to spread out the crowd a bit.
- Our hope too, is to have lots of people hanging out outside the house as opposed to indoors, though that will depend on weather. (It’ll be the last Sunday in September, in Toronto). We have a big garage that might be a nice party space, and a bit of a front lawn-type area.
- We already sent a save-the-day to everyone saying that it is a casual open-house sort of thing.
Some things we are trying to figure out:
1) What are any tips/ideas/suggestions to make this fun for guests?
2) Any tips/suggestions to minimize the hassle of putting it together? (To give you a sense of budget and fancinness level: We are not averse to things like, say, ordering pizza for everyone or renting plates from a party company, but probably fall short of say, having the party professionally catered. I think we have a friend or two willing to help out a fair bit with cooking and setup and stuff.)
3) What are good ideas for providing food/drinks for a crowd of this size in this sort of environment?
4) What have you enjoyed/appreciated, as a guest or host, at this sort of party?
Any ideas much appreciated!
I think that the walk to the park seems like a complication that you don't need and I would cut it.
I also think that noon to 8pm sounds pretty intense. I'd say noon to 4pm or something. I'm also assuming that the baby sleeps for much of the early afternoon. You guys and the baby will be so worn out being "on" for 8 hours. I cannot imagine that would be enjoyable for any of you.
Maybe even ask Grandma to be primary baby keeper for the event so that you two can spend time greeting guests.
I would have at least 2 helpers (grandmas or something) that can be delegated tasks like "change the baby" "get more ice" at the drop of a hat. And then another friend or two that can be keeping an eye on food running out.
I would have a bunch of cheap wine and beer. I'd have multiple trays of veggies with dip and chips with dip. I would not go any more extensive than this for food. Ordering pizza sounds difficult.
Disposable everything for plates and cups and stuff.
Have lots of trash cans around.
This sounds doable but, to me at least, needs a big shot in the arm of practicality.
posted by k8t at 2:05 PM on September 12, 2015 [14 favorites]
I also think that noon to 8pm sounds pretty intense. I'd say noon to 4pm or something. I'm also assuming that the baby sleeps for much of the early afternoon. You guys and the baby will be so worn out being "on" for 8 hours. I cannot imagine that would be enjoyable for any of you.
Maybe even ask Grandma to be primary baby keeper for the event so that you two can spend time greeting guests.
I would have at least 2 helpers (grandmas or something) that can be delegated tasks like "change the baby" "get more ice" at the drop of a hat. And then another friend or two that can be keeping an eye on food running out.
I would have a bunch of cheap wine and beer. I'd have multiple trays of veggies with dip and chips with dip. I would not go any more extensive than this for food. Ordering pizza sounds difficult.
Disposable everything for plates and cups and stuff.
Have lots of trash cans around.
This sounds doable but, to me at least, needs a big shot in the arm of practicality.
posted by k8t at 2:05 PM on September 12, 2015 [14 favorites]
Park parties can take a lot of work as can house parties. Putting both together sounds like a recipe for a ton of extra work and logistical problems as you're going to be essentially hosting two parties during park time as not everyone will want to go to the park and if guests are arriving in a staggered manner, some people have to stay behind at home and host. Your timeline is also super long. Why not 2-5 at your home only? This avoids the need for a major meal and will also give you the best weather for indoor/outdoor distribution of your guests.
Disposable plates and finger foods will be the best food approach.
posted by quince at 2:15 PM on September 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
Disposable plates and finger foods will be the best food approach.
posted by quince at 2:15 PM on September 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
So I think music and booze are key elements of fun, casual parties. I would plan to have snack foods all the time, a specific time for lunch, and a specific time to eat lunch leftovers for dinner. If there are no leftovers, order pizza.
You don't need to get it catered but you can bring food in at a reasonable cost. I no longer speak fluent Toronto but will Loblaws or something not let you order trays of sandwiches, potato salad, greens, chips etc to pick them up that morning? Then you can focus on making a single snazzy salad and some kind of neato cocktail fixin'. There will be more than enough to do food-wise all day without having to make all of it.
Also just FYI I had catering from Daniel et Daniel for lunch and I think we ordered for X and fed 2X with it. Allotments are generous.
I would go disposable. Grub up for 80 is more dishes to wash than you can really imagine.
The park thing sounds like a nightmare. Lead a field trip to the park at some point if you want but I wouldn't relocate the whole thing there.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:32 PM on September 12, 2015
You don't need to get it catered but you can bring food in at a reasonable cost. I no longer speak fluent Toronto but will Loblaws or something not let you order trays of sandwiches, potato salad, greens, chips etc to pick them up that morning? Then you can focus on making a single snazzy salad and some kind of neato cocktail fixin'. There will be more than enough to do food-wise all day without having to make all of it.
Also just FYI I had catering from Daniel et Daniel for lunch and I think we ordered for X and fed 2X with it. Allotments are generous.
I would go disposable. Grub up for 80 is more dishes to wash than you can really imagine.
The park thing sounds like a nightmare. Lead a field trip to the park at some point if you want but I wouldn't relocate the whole thing there.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:32 PM on September 12, 2015
I have had problems hosting open house type things in multiple venues. Either you have a firm time to be at alternate venue and you have to hustle out of the house when people are just arriving or you have a loosey goosey time to arrive and people go to meet you there and you miss them because you are at home. You guys know your own schedules and abilities and depending on how you're feeling it might make sense to have each of you sort of "host" a venue at least for part of it so you don't wind up leaving your house empty (can people still congregate there if you are not there?) while you go to the park. Otherwise it's not quite an open house at your place from 12-8, it's more like an Open House from 12-3 and then another open house from 4:30-8. Alternatively you can have a friend who is close who could host people at your place while you are at the park. I figure you will have some guests who would love to be at your house and not the park and vice versa. Alternately alternately you might want a chunk of time at your house and a chunk at the park and have it be start/finish sort of thing "Come see our house from 12-3 and have pizza and beer and then we're going to the park for kickball and ice cream sandwiches until five"
I also think you should think ahead of time about how much to make the house a party space and how much you want to not have everyone in the house. Set those expectations early and stick to them. I don't think people mind "Hey swing by for a drink in the garage and some snacks on the lawn" but they might want to know that ahead of time. Housewarming and open house both strongly imply that people will be in the house. If you're not certain of weather you're going to sort of have to plan for an indoor event (meaning tidying up common spaces, etc) no matter what. Is the reason you are having part of this at the park because you are worried about capacity at your house? Other consideration is if the people coming have kids and how kid-friendly/safe to make your house/yard. If you're kid's not mobile yet but theirs' are you might need to put up some baby gates or be clear on what is off-limits if the party winds up being indoors.
And yeah I'd focus on disposable for dishes and if you're okay with a little extra cost you could go with compostable stuff which will minimize the trash footprint assuming there is somewhere you can compost. Make sure you know the rules for the park ahead of time (like whether you can have drinks etc) so you can set expectations.
As a guest, I just like to know what is going on and when. So if there's a park adventure and I want to either go or not go, I'd like to plan my visit to your place to figure that in. And if I want to meet the baby, I'd want to go while the baby is there and awake, which might be a little tough to determine at an eight hour party in two venues. I'd also consider signing up a good friend or two to help with setup and particularly with take down. That's a long time for a party and hang out time and if you have friends who are helpful and "clean as you go" types it's not bad but if you have a lot of family who expect you to sort of wait on them, you might have a lot of clean-up ahead of you.
posted by jessamyn at 2:41 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
I also think you should think ahead of time about how much to make the house a party space and how much you want to not have everyone in the house. Set those expectations early and stick to them. I don't think people mind "Hey swing by for a drink in the garage and some snacks on the lawn" but they might want to know that ahead of time. Housewarming and open house both strongly imply that people will be in the house. If you're not certain of weather you're going to sort of have to plan for an indoor event (meaning tidying up common spaces, etc) no matter what. Is the reason you are having part of this at the park because you are worried about capacity at your house? Other consideration is if the people coming have kids and how kid-friendly/safe to make your house/yard. If you're kid's not mobile yet but theirs' are you might need to put up some baby gates or be clear on what is off-limits if the party winds up being indoors.
And yeah I'd focus on disposable for dishes and if you're okay with a little extra cost you could go with compostable stuff which will minimize the trash footprint assuming there is somewhere you can compost. Make sure you know the rules for the park ahead of time (like whether you can have drinks etc) so you can set expectations.
As a guest, I just like to know what is going on and when. So if there's a park adventure and I want to either go or not go, I'd like to plan my visit to your place to figure that in. And if I want to meet the baby, I'd want to go while the baby is there and awake, which might be a little tough to determine at an eight hour party in two venues. I'd also consider signing up a good friend or two to help with setup and particularly with take down. That's a long time for a party and hang out time and if you have friends who are helpful and "clean as you go" types it's not bad but if you have a lot of family who expect you to sort of wait on them, you might have a lot of clean-up ahead of you.
posted by jessamyn at 2:41 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
If the weather cooperates you can have horseshoes, croquet, bocce etc. If there will be lots of kids, a bag of balloons for them to hit around and bubbles go along way. Get sidewalk chalk and have then decorate the front walk for you. The last time I had a big house party I had tons of soda and beer left over but had to send out for more bottled water.
posted by BoscosMom at 2:55 PM on September 12, 2015
posted by BoscosMom at 2:55 PM on September 12, 2015
I would suggest you go with 1-6pm, instead of noon-8pm, so that everyone plans to eat their full meal either before the party or after, making your catering needs a happy "bonus" vs. a needed "keep the grumpiness at bay" requirement. Late-stayers can always stay later if they want.
posted by samthemander at 3:00 PM on September 12, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by samthemander at 3:00 PM on September 12, 2015 [7 favorites]
I'm stumped at how to make the walk to the park work within an open house. Is someone going to stay at the house to greet guests who show up during "park time." Is there something super special about the park?
Noon to 8 pm spans lunch and dinner time. Think about food in stages. Even though most people won't stay the entire 8 hours, you can think about the food as moving the party forward.
- Early in the party think lunch - maybe a baked strata or something super easy like a charcuterie.
- From 2-6 it's snacks and appetizers. This doesn't need to be super elaborate, but keep rotating stock.
- At 6:00 take a look at the crowd and place an order for pizza (or whatever delivers to your house) for people who seem to be hanging until the end. At 6:30 put out pizzas, a big salad and some crusty bread.
For big parties we usually do a house cocktail: sangria, royal Pimm's, side car. That way when you greet people you don't need to be overly fussy about getting them a specific drink. You have sangria (or whatever) to pour or they can help themselves to something specific.
posted by 26.2 at 3:04 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Noon to 8 pm spans lunch and dinner time. Think about food in stages. Even though most people won't stay the entire 8 hours, you can think about the food as moving the party forward.
- Early in the party think lunch - maybe a baked strata or something super easy like a charcuterie.
- From 2-6 it's snacks and appetizers. This doesn't need to be super elaborate, but keep rotating stock.
- At 6:00 take a look at the crowd and place an order for pizza (or whatever delivers to your house) for people who seem to be hanging until the end. At 6:30 put out pizzas, a big salad and some crusty bread.
For big parties we usually do a house cocktail: sangria, royal Pimm's, side car. That way when you greet people you don't need to be overly fussy about getting them a specific drink. You have sangria (or whatever) to pour or they can help themselves to something specific.
posted by 26.2 at 3:04 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Add me to the list of people confused about what the point of going to the park is and how that will work with an open house.
Also to the list of people saying it is too long. That sort of window is a bit of a 'Mr & Mrs Maninsuit couldn't care less if I show up or not' suggestion to many, I think. You will get half-assed RSVPs because people are not going to book off noon to 8 of their Sunday, and will think, well, if I'm still up for it after I've mucked out the cat box and taken the books back to the library, maybe I'll go by, but what about my dinner, etc... You are hoping for "a chance for people from different areas of our lives to meet" but you are more likely to end up with your family gossiping amongst themselves and your co-workers and your friends ditto about when they are going to pop round, and coming in waves.
(I would also expect a substantial whack of it to involve either the baby napping or the baby and a parent being out of the crowd while the baby feeds, has a fuss, needs changing, etc.)
Inviting 80 people does not mean getting 80 people, even for weddings. I would simplify and invite everybody over for a pizza dinner or afternoon cocktails. I think a long thing will mean people flaking (in part by accident -- if they have eight possible hours during which to attend, many people will tend to their cat boxes etc first and be too tired), awkward periods in which you are left entertaining just two people who don't get on at all, etc. Just throw everybody in in one excitingly busy party of normal length and be done with it. No walks to the park. Put some fairy lights up in the garage.
posted by kmennie at 3:41 PM on September 12, 2015 [5 favorites]
Also to the list of people saying it is too long. That sort of window is a bit of a 'Mr & Mrs Maninsuit couldn't care less if I show up or not' suggestion to many, I think. You will get half-assed RSVPs because people are not going to book off noon to 8 of their Sunday, and will think, well, if I'm still up for it after I've mucked out the cat box and taken the books back to the library, maybe I'll go by, but what about my dinner, etc... You are hoping for "a chance for people from different areas of our lives to meet" but you are more likely to end up with your family gossiping amongst themselves and your co-workers and your friends ditto about when they are going to pop round, and coming in waves.
(I would also expect a substantial whack of it to involve either the baby napping or the baby and a parent being out of the crowd while the baby feeds, has a fuss, needs changing, etc.)
Inviting 80 people does not mean getting 80 people, even for weddings. I would simplify and invite everybody over for a pizza dinner or afternoon cocktails. I think a long thing will mean people flaking (in part by accident -- if they have eight possible hours during which to attend, many people will tend to their cat boxes etc first and be too tired), awkward periods in which you are left entertaining just two people who don't get on at all, etc. Just throw everybody in in one excitingly busy party of normal length and be done with it. No walks to the park. Put some fairy lights up in the garage.
posted by kmennie at 3:41 PM on September 12, 2015 [5 favorites]
Honestly? Three hours max for a baby party. Max.
Cupcakes, sheet cake, coffee cake, pizza, deli platters from deli/supermarket, bagels/cream cheese, submarine sandwiches. Pick three things from this list. Those are your food options and you will have everything brought in. You will not cook.
Coffee, ice tea, water, beer, wine. Those are your drink options and you will have those brought in; coffee can be purchased in boxes from coffee chain.
No walking to the park. Have the get-together in the park or at your house. Anything else confuses things for your guests.
Invite fewer people.
Minimize your effort, don't plan anything but decent music to be playing, don't overthink it. You don't owe your guests activities. It's a casual get together.
posted by TryTheTilapia at 4:31 PM on September 12, 2015 [10 favorites]
Cupcakes, sheet cake, coffee cake, pizza, deli platters from deli/supermarket, bagels/cream cheese, submarine sandwiches. Pick three things from this list. Those are your food options and you will have everything brought in. You will not cook.
Coffee, ice tea, water, beer, wine. Those are your drink options and you will have those brought in; coffee can be purchased in boxes from coffee chain.
No walking to the park. Have the get-together in the park or at your house. Anything else confuses things for your guests.
Invite fewer people.
Minimize your effort, don't plan anything but decent music to be playing, don't overthink it. You don't owe your guests activities. It's a casual get together.
posted by TryTheTilapia at 4:31 PM on September 12, 2015 [10 favorites]
we are big open housers around here, and the last time we hosted a brunch was for about 60 people from 12-7. our takeaways were:
1) too long! even though we had a lot of people come, because it was a long period of time it never really felt enough like a party.
2) nothing says "fun party" to me like a chocolate fountain. we had one, and cut up lots of fruit and sponge cake for it. A+ would do again.
3) coffee is surprisingly hard to make (deliciously) in big batches. we are a bunch of coffee snobs here and i ended up making a bajillion aeropress coffees one at a time. hopefully you don't have these ridiculous standards because that was a huge pain in my butt. the containers of coffee from Tim Hortons or something sounds like the right plan.
4) We had too many carbs for our open house. It was a brunch-y thing and anyone who brought anything brought bread. Definitely err on the side of greens, if you ask me.
The fact that you have a bit of lawn and front garage space is a total winner for outside time. i love the sidewalk chalk idea listed. If you have a nice day you could have build your own ice cream sundaes outside?
We have a baby now and having been to long-ish parties hosted by parents with young kids, I would expect that one of you is on full-time sleep and feeding duty for the kid. It's a lot of work to host and take care of a kid at the same time. A shorter party time could take care of this; you would put the kid down for a nap a bit before the party is about to start, so they could join in late, then you muscle them through the party hours and the million different people who want to hold the baby, then you put them down for a nap near the end of the party.
Enjoy the party - i think a few modifications will make it fun for you! And congrats on the baby and the house. A banner year.
posted by andreapandrea at 4:41 PM on September 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
1) too long! even though we had a lot of people come, because it was a long period of time it never really felt enough like a party.
2) nothing says "fun party" to me like a chocolate fountain. we had one, and cut up lots of fruit and sponge cake for it. A+ would do again.
3) coffee is surprisingly hard to make (deliciously) in big batches. we are a bunch of coffee snobs here and i ended up making a bajillion aeropress coffees one at a time. hopefully you don't have these ridiculous standards because that was a huge pain in my butt. the containers of coffee from Tim Hortons or something sounds like the right plan.
4) We had too many carbs for our open house. It was a brunch-y thing and anyone who brought anything brought bread. Definitely err on the side of greens, if you ask me.
The fact that you have a bit of lawn and front garage space is a total winner for outside time. i love the sidewalk chalk idea listed. If you have a nice day you could have build your own ice cream sundaes outside?
We have a baby now and having been to long-ish parties hosted by parents with young kids, I would expect that one of you is on full-time sleep and feeding duty for the kid. It's a lot of work to host and take care of a kid at the same time. A shorter party time could take care of this; you would put the kid down for a nap a bit before the party is about to start, so they could join in late, then you muscle them through the party hours and the million different people who want to hold the baby, then you put them down for a nap near the end of the party.
Enjoy the party - i think a few modifications will make it fun for you! And congrats on the baby and the house. A banner year.
posted by andreapandrea at 4:41 PM on September 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
I agree. Drop the park and make it three or four hours. Buy everything disposable. I did this for our last party and it was so much easier. You can have some veggie trays or something easy but don't plan any food you have to prepare. You could also just do coffee and dessert. We get big containers of brewed coffee from a local place and they also provide milk, sugar, etc. Basically you want to minimize the amount of work you have to do. You never know, the baby could just decide not to sleep the night before.
Don't worry too much about entertaining your guests. They just want to see the baby. Much better to be relaxed and happy.
posted by betsybetsy at 5:54 PM on September 12, 2015
Don't worry too much about entertaining your guests. They just want to see the baby. Much better to be relaxed and happy.
posted by betsybetsy at 5:54 PM on September 12, 2015
The park part sounds hard to do, I think I'd skip that.
We just had a similar party for my twins' first birthday. They were really sick and we wanted to have everyone over who had helped take care of them and take care of us, to celebrate that we all made it, and it was a lot of people! We did it open house style, like you are doing.
We had tacos, which worked out great for people coming and going at different times. We made chicken, pork, and bean fillings in crock pots and then refilled the fixings throughout the day. We didn't do anything at all fancy with beverages -- a couple of drink dispensers of lemonade and iced tea and then beer and wine and sodas and things in coolers.
We have older kids and most of our friends do as well, so we set up kid activities in the yard. It was hot, so we had like a slip and slide and water guns and all of that sort of thing. Spending a lot of time outside is really nice if you can do it.
Have fun!
posted by gerstle at 8:38 PM on September 12, 2015
We just had a similar party for my twins' first birthday. They were really sick and we wanted to have everyone over who had helped take care of them and take care of us, to celebrate that we all made it, and it was a lot of people! We did it open house style, like you are doing.
We had tacos, which worked out great for people coming and going at different times. We made chicken, pork, and bean fillings in crock pots and then refilled the fixings throughout the day. We didn't do anything at all fancy with beverages -- a couple of drink dispensers of lemonade and iced tea and then beer and wine and sodas and things in coolers.
We have older kids and most of our friends do as well, so we set up kid activities in the yard. It was hot, so we had like a slip and slide and water guns and all of that sort of thing. Spending a lot of time outside is really nice if you can do it.
Have fun!
posted by gerstle at 8:38 PM on September 12, 2015
One thing that can be an issue with a long "drop-in" period is that there could be times when it's just you and someone shows up and it's kind of awkward because it reads less as "party" than your guests were expecting. Consider asking a few friends or family members to stay for the entire period to prevent this.
posted by metasarah at 4:11 AM on September 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by metasarah at 4:11 AM on September 13, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by cooker girl at 2:00 PM on September 12, 2015 [2 favorites]