So as you can see in the picture, I threw a party last year. AEW is a pro wrestling company, much like WWE. They had this big outdoor show at Wembley Stadium in London. Sold something like 80,000 tickets. We watched live on PPV.
It’s the first time I ever threw a wrestling watch party. I invited 4 people. I bought cheese, soft pretzels, bought chips/queso. I had vodka, whiskey, beer, and 3 different THC vape pens along with edible gummies. I also had coke (the soda), barqs root beer, and one of the special novelty mountain dew flavors.
I cooked chicken, and cut the cheese into cubes with individual toothpicks. I got out my good plates. And used the projector to make the screen 90 inches.
Only 2 people showed up. Nobody ate hardly anything. Nobody drank anything. Hardly anything was said. This picture was taken AFTER the party. We went through 1 bag of chips, and 1 1/2 jars of queso.
I literally could have just bought 1 bag of chips, 2 jars of queso, and saved $100 and 2 days of prep work.
I even had 2 different styles of BBQ sauce for the chicken.
Yes, it’s a year later, and I’m still mildly infuriated over it!
That’s still way too much food even if everyone came. And everyone never comes.
Drop the alcool and I might join you. You could be in charge of some sort of Lemmy meeting.
invite me and I’ll bring my own alcohol. spread looks delicious!
Shit. Can you invite me next time?
Same. Me too.
Communication is key, and you seem to be struggling in that department.
Two things:
- Did your friends know you were going to have a bunch of food and they were expected to eat it?
- Was your party at a time that people normally eat?
I find that if it’s too early/late or if you didn’t tell them what was expected, your results are suboptimal. Could just be your friends, though.
Started at noon, ended about 7pm.
That’s a long-ass party. I would have eaten all of your cheese in that timeframe. All of it. Do you have anymore?
Ugh sorry bro.
But this reminds me of that reddit post from forever ago about the same thing. Cups, drinks, food. Nobody showed
Bro I’m not into wrestling, but definitely invite me to your D&D sessions.
You need better friends. No, seriously, you do.
Well I’m no longer friends with the two that didn’t show, and no longer friends with one of the two that did show.
Unrelated to this specifically, but I don’t keep people in my life that make life harder.
Sign me up too pls
I need friends like you. I would have eaten so much I felt ill. Then helped clean. (I love cleaning, I know I’m weird.)
In reverse, I’d never throw a party like that because my anxiety is exactly afraid it’ll turn out like you said.
Gotta invite more than 4 people
I didn’t know more than 4 adults that like pro-wrestling.
I would say 8, if you want 4 to show up.
I generally plan on 50% turn out for informal events
I feel your pain.
Years ago I threw a party for work friends and acquaintances where I had 30 confirmed and 10 tentative (from calendar invite). I bought a variety of drinks (alcoholic and non) and bought/cooked food for about 50 to ensure there was plenty.
… 4 people showed up.
That was the instant that I stopped giving a fuck. Ever since then I’ve adopted the approach of “I’m going to do something, you can come if you want, but I’m not planning for you”. Or, more commonly, I just don’t organize anything :)
EDIT: I should note that this was a recurring yearly party that got bigger and bigger over 5 years until it just died. Pre COVID.
There’s a tough lesson I learned about trying to get my friends into board games: It’s easier to turn gamers into your friends than it is to turn your friends into gamers. I’ve learned that some of my friends are never going to share my interests as much as I’d like, but that just means I needed to find people who were already in whatever hobby and start hanging out with them and some of them will eventually be your real friends.
Making and keeping friends as an adult is way more difficult than it seems it should be, but it’s a painful reality.
Don’t be discouraged. This may not have worked out like you hoped and planned, but keep doing awesome things. Somebody will love you for it and you’ll have a lot of fun.
Absolutely this. Can confirm from experience. I got it from my Ma, whenever family was hosting growing up she was doing the most. Flexing at every opportunity. Obviously good to play with a budget you wouldn’t mind burning so you don’t chew off too much, but keep being extra.
That’s…. A lot of chicken. Even for four peeps.
I’m sorry you went to all that trouble, though.
I’d drop a few recipes for what to do with it… but uhm, I hope that chicken is long gone by now, heh.
Side note, you need better friends! Pro wrestling isn’t my jam, at least I’d hang out. Maybe shout insults at the heel or something.
Hang out, vape the THC, devour that chicken! OP, this is amazing hosting!
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Them’s legs not arms
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Forced perspective? Look at the plates, the jars, the chips! It’s so clearly a pile of drumsticks, and not small ones.
Yeah. So for a watch party, people are going to be hitting the finger food, right? Grazing is how people eat at these kinds of things.
Keep in mind recommended serving size would be 4-6 ounces- about one drumstick; but again, it’s kinda hard to graze a drumstick. That’s full on entree material. Two, if they’re small (these look large.)
I’d suggest something like buffalo wings, set out in a crock pot or slow cooker, so they’re ready to be grazed on their terms. (If you do go for drumsticks, well, they’re gonna have to be kept warm. If you don’t have something like a giant slow cooker, or a catering warming pan, that means the oven, which means they’re liable to be over looked.)
Well now you don’t have to cook for a couple days. Also, my rule of thumb is that 50% of invitees ever show, and of those only 50% will participate fully (i.e. not leave early, show up really late, have already eaten, etc.). It’s good to have more stuff on hand in the freezer or pantry, in case that equation isn’t exact. Then, you can prep some quickly to meet demand.