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 looks like an amazing spread for a viewing party. Next time invite me over and we’ll go fuckin wild
It happens my dude. I have hosted a lot of parties and we used to do a 3-4 day campout with about 20-50 people depending on the year. Some years we would go though almost all the food other years I came back with 40 lbs of pulled pork that I smoked out of the 60 lbs I made. Next year ran out of it 2 days into the 4 day camp out
🔛🔛
I have the wrong friends.
Jokes aside, that’s way too much food for 5 people.
Secondly, from a guy’s standpoint, that’s way too much prep work for a guys gathering/sport watching, it’s almost weird. It’s not a house party, all you need is something casual like chips and beers, then if anyone feels hungry you order some pizza or wings delivered (based on what everyone preferred at the time).
That sucks, but the good news is that most of that can be refrigerated so at least you can eat it.
When planning a party, I assume about 1/3 of the people I invite will RSVP and only 3/4 of them will show. I plan with that in mind. I also explicitly state the plans around food, drink, etc., and if they should come hungry or just expect snacks. And I make sure that I understand what other events or competing parties might be going on to help adjust expectations. Also, planning an annual/regular thing so that people get used to it being something they do every year helps, but it takes a couple of times to get it kickstarted.
Since I started doing that, I’ve had a lot fewer disappointing events. Event planning is a lot of work.