Hosting a Graduation Open House

Our daughter and her best friend wanted to have a joint graduation open house party, and it was so nice to collaborate with another family- while the party naturally had a larger guest list, there were many hands to share the work, not to mention the highly engaged graduates themselves. As you would expect, the project manager in me decided we would benefit from a detailed plan and schedule. I searched online and didn't find much, so I created my own in Excel, a summary of major tasks are listed here:

Task	Suggested time
Develop preliminary list of attendees, including the number who will be receiving printed invitations	4 months
Determine location- your house/elsewhere	4 months
Pick date and time, discuss and set budget	4 months
If applicable, order tables, chairs, tent (we rented from Midway Party Rental and paid for them to deliver, set up, and pick up)	2-4 months
Determine party theme and preliminary food options	3 months
Develop preliminary list of attendees who are likely to attend (drives initial food planning and budgeting).  Try to estimate the number of the graduate's friends who will attend from the inevitable Facebook invites	3 months
Finalize menu, estimated food amounts, sources and costs.  Place orders for food items at more popular venues	2.5 months
Order printed invitations	2 months
Plan any gifts for your graduate	6 weeks
Prepare venue- prep yard, clean house, straighten up garage, etc	6 through 1 weeks
Send invites	1 month
Plan decorations and determine sources and costs	1 month
Prepare picture boards and other "memory table" items (we rented a photo booth)	2-4 weeks
Order customized items, such as customized M & Ms	3-4 weeks
Collect any yard games you'll want to use	3 weeks
Identify serving ware you will use for each type of food, and ways to keep hot food hot and cold food cold, borrow or buy any missing items	2 weeks
Shop for decorations, plates, napkins, cups, etc.  Line up "volunteer" kitchen staff if you can	2 weeks
Finalize backup plan for inclement weather based on early weather predictions	1-2 weeks
Prep camera, assign someone to take frequent pictures	1 week
Clean bathrooms, provide extra TP, soap, towels	day before
Set up food serving areas, arranging serving dishes to ensure good flow	day before
Put up decorations	day before
Cook and/or pick up food	day before/day of

Have your graduate start writing thank you notes- the next day Invitations Wow that's a lot of bottled water Plus a ton of milk, fruit and other supplies Ready for guests! Scones, bakewell tartlets, cupcakes Grandpa's "crack" brownies, cookie dough bars, lemon bars, raspberry bars, chocolate peanut butter bars Homemade fruit arrangement Candy buffet The "shrine" included the travel pillow (see Here) and graduation photo book (see Here) I'd made her.
Customized M&Ms- Cute, but pricey- $60 for 2 lbs. The party was so much fun, and everyone had a great time.
Fabulous T-shirt quilt made by Grandma Pam