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!
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.