04/14/2026
I've been building this guide for years. It's been tweaked every year. Especially during the pandemic. I will try and add the pdf in the comments if it says the post is too long.
As a caterer who has done a ton of open houses, pre during and post covid, and a mom of a 2018 and 2024 FHS grad, I offer this advice to every client.
START HERE… The first three weeks there are NO fewer than 30 open houses per day. Keep that in mind when selecting the date and time. AND Set your expectations accordingly if you host during those first couple of weekends. We see Success on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Don’t count those out.
1. Figure out your audience.
If it will be family mostly, you can go all out on the food and decorations. They will be hanging around the entire time and will eat more. If your child is popular and it will be mostly friends ESPECIALLY ON THE FIRST FEW WEEKENDS, don't order a ton of hot food.
Invite family to come an hour earlier than the friends. To guarantee quality time with the grandparents.
The kids go to up to a DOZEN a day!! They only stay a few minutes at each. Grabbing a snack or a drink. If you are doing it later in the summer, that dynamic changes. But you may have lower ‘friends’ attendance because they scatter with travel and early admissions.
100 guests… 30 family and 70 friends… plan food for 50.
**There are always exceptions. If you have a student with a small friend group, a tight 20, they may all come and just stay. But a lot of the bigger ones have a revolving door.
Fluff out your spread with grab and go items that you can pack up to go with them to college. Water, Can soda, Gatorade/power-aid, snack sized chips, cookies and bars.
Add a cute Candy Bar. Again something they can grab and if there are leftovers you won’t have to toss it. You might even be able to share it with a friend who has an open house after you.
2. To chain or NOT TO CHAIN
Stay away from chain catering if it's not family. Or don't order a ton. I've seen so many Chick Fil’a nuggets left over because four open houses had them on the same day. We have had families order a small amount of a student’s favorite, like nuggets and then make the main food something else. The student should have what they want BUT you shouldn’t have to eat it until August.
3. Stand Out…
Consider a specialty food bar and or a niche time. If you choose 10am to 1pm, people are coming to your house first. They may eat more since you are first. A coffee bar could be super cute. If you choose 6-10pm, you will likely be last and they may stay for a longer time/eat more. You could also be the dessert stop.
Specialty menus could include: a salad bar, Build Your Own sandwiches, desserts only, an ice cream bar, pancakes (saw that earlier), brunch (really BIG last year), giant charcuterie or a theme... like carnival food. Think hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, funnel cakes.
For my son’s, we did food stations with all his favorite things. A cookie bar, root beer floats (with coke, orange, root beer and 7up vanilla ice cream and sherbert), popcorn bar, a nacho bar and a lemonade/ice tea bar with different add ins.
4. Don't be afraid to go against the grain.
We have seen pink and orange, Kate Spade themed, unicorn and rainbows. Think wedding... it's THEIR day. Some people don’t know what’s next so college colors don’t matter. We’ve also done teacher themed, pilot themed, biology themed. We did an airplane themed party for an HSE student going to flight school. (He a pilot now so cool). Same family two years later, teacher themed for their daughter.
5. Decide if you are celebrating where they’ve been or where they are going.
This will help narrow down colors, decorations and themes. We've done all flash back high school highlight parties for athletes or show choir. We’ve also had students who wanted nothing to do with the high school.
Also, don’t get frustrated or overwhelmed if your child isn’t as invested. They don’t look at this as a once in a lifetime event. You have that perspective. They don’t yet. Boys are NOTORIOUS for not caring about anything. LOL Combining for boys is the easy money route. Then you and the other mom can bounce ideas off each other and share in the excitement.
I truly think the whole time can be overwhelming… so much change, anxiety, anticipation and excitement. There’s a LOT going on! Grace will carry you both through it.
Lastly, try to make it a MIRROR not a WINDOW moment. Don’t worry about who else is doing what, having what… Comparison is really the thief of joy.
6. GET MOVING! LOL
They plan grad parties like weddings up here. Jump on venue, rental equipment and outside deco TODAY! A lot of tent, sign, balloon, table/chair places are already booked most weekends right around graduation. We even have parties before graduation weekend because that's all they could get.
7. Making a LIST, checking it TWICE…
You NEED to have a central, running CHECKLIST so you don't have notes everywhere. One everyone can see and keep up with. Assign tasks and keep track. If you will be using vendors, create an email like “[email protected]”. That way it’s a single look and location for all things party related.
8. Start tedious tasks yesterday...
You think there is time. However, the little things will get you! Plus between now and the party there are finals, prom, shopping, last, last and last time events. Also some things just take time. Especially photo collecting and APPROVAL. I had to pull SO many pictures out of my collage. My daughter threatened my life!! Plus things like printing and coordinated decorations become more scare as we move into summer. College graduations are first and they start in two weeks,
9. HELP WANTED
Solicit friends or family for DAY OFF tasks like keeping trash moving, refilling coolers, dumping water when ice melts... ooo.... BRINGING ICE on the way in. (Lots of fights over going to get ice last minute) Rotate these rolls with other friends if you don't do joint parties.
We had a group of customers who did this. It was great! They tag teamed for everyone's open house. They didn’t combine but three of the four helped at the other’s open houses. Deco, extra trash cans, tables, tents, chairs and leftover plates etc went too.
10. Practical tips
If you have the open house at home, buy disposable trash cans. Or use my favorite hack… large moving boxes from Home Depot/Walmart/Uhaul with contractor’s bags inside. When the party is over, you tie up the bag, fold the box closed and the whole thing goes to the curb.
Always put a trash bag in the container with ice and a rug/towel/cardboard box under. We’ve seen slip and falls, permanent damage to laminate/wood floors and very stressed out parents over a totally preventable thing.
Pool resources and share with friends. Folding tables, chairs, tents even. Coolers, ice buckets.
Keep things like parking in mind also. We were in Geist last year on the tightest street EVER! The newer/younger drivers had me scared to death! Also, out of courtesy to your neighbors, share when your party will be held. Even if you aren’t close friends. It will go a long way in managing the day.
Get to go containers/boxes to help move leftovers at the end of the night. We also had small ones out all day at my son’s in case one of his friends just wanted to take something to go because they had other parties.
Designate a place early on for cards and gifts AND a person to be responsible for it. Unfortunately, at my daughter’s we had a basket near the entrance of the venue. We found a couple of her cards in the women’s restroom…. empty. We believe it was one of the grandchildren of a guest. It was a sour note on a great day. One that was preventable. You always think no one would ever. But….
If you aren’t gifting deco to a friend, post it for sale or in buy nothing groups to help the next party.
11. To serve or not to serve
Alcohol at most venues is not allowed without a licensed/insured bartender AND a one day permit from the county. Plan ahead for the process. It takes a couple of days.
If you are at home, remember there is some liability for allowing underage drinking or unsupervised alcohol if someone gets into an accident.
12. Consider how YOU want to experience the day.
I'm a caterer and I now have my own parties catered by someone else. In every picture for years, I looked road hard and put away wet IYKYK I decided for the Sweet 16 and every party after I wanted to be cute, freshly showered and made up too.
You can cut cost by preparing snack trays, fruit, & veggie trays and any crock pot dishes ahead of time. But don't spend all morning the day of cooking. It's not worth the cost of the memories.
ASK AND ACCEPT the help offered to you. There will only be one time for the celebration. This is no time for the super hero cape. PUT IT AWAY. Aunt Susan can absolutely bring something or buy something if she wants. Your mom can help get things cleaned up if she wants to help.
Lastly.... HAVE FUN! remember it should be a day of celebration.
We get to a LOT of these where you can cut the tension with a spoon! Don't get divorced or ruin the day over streamers or shoes left out in the hall. Nobody will remember that. But they will remember being mad or sad. YOU will be the only person who knows the balloons were on the right in your vision. Nobody else will know… or care, Be KIND to your plan and yourself!
Hope this helped!!
