That looks like an amazing spread for a viewing party. Next time invite me over and we'll go fuckin wild

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).

cut the cheese into cubes with individual toothpicks

Jeez, next time just use a knife my dude.

You're a good host, sorry to hear this

This is why I always eat all the food I can at a party. Everyone else is being too polite and someone's gotta eat all that food.

Oh man, I did not need to read this now …..

I have people coming over today. They cancelled on a previous weekend and are hemming and hawing. The event is that I have a smoker and and want to make all kinds of new foods. I have $100 of meat, an elaborate salad and sides. Dessert also goes on the smoker. I just want someone to help eat.

This weekend’s feast is duck. Dry brined, stuffed with oranges, and smoked. Or chicken, to bribe a picky eater to come.

But it’s cold and rainy so the outdoor seating is out and I don’t really have space inside . I have an afternoon of cooking ahead that I was so excited for but have lost my motivation, dreading wasted time and money if they don’t show up

I literally could have just bought 1 bag of chips, 2 jars of queso, and saved $100 and 2 days of prep work.

Don't forget the beer, but YEAH! You way over prepared for five whole people. If you had invited 10ish, maybe 15 (because then 10 show up), then yeah, but this is waaaay too much for 5. Especially depending on your ages, they may not have expected such hospitality and ate beforehand if they weren't warned "hey come hungry and sober, there's food and libations abound," etc.

Don't give up, learn from this and adjust a little for next time! Just invite a few more, warn 'em of the full plans (food, booze, ykwim), or make less food. If you do it regularly (like say Football Sundays at your house) the event will grow and more food will be necessary, but start small! This looks like a good hang, I'd have joined for the food and I don't even like wrastlin', just needs some restructuring!

At least the booze and weed don't go bad!

I don't know if that makes you feel better, but for my 40th birthday I invited 20 people, prepared accordingly, and 3 showed up.
Not even my wife was there, cause she ate too much of the dough for the weed brownies she had made for the occasion.
She crashed half an hour before the guests showed up.

We sat around the table, emptied a couple bags of chips, I was the only one who drank beer. My friends left after 2 hours.

My fucking guy, you had free trees and booze and they still didn't show up?

Are you sure they're your friends?

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.

General rule of thumb, plan on less than half the people you invite actually showing up for any gathering.

Also... Wrestling....

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.

What you did for your friends was great. I would have absolutely appreciated you doing this if you were my friend and invited me. That said, one of the things I've noticed after covid is that a lot of people are already going to go home after gatherings. Getting baked/drinking might be an issue with that. Were your friends driving by chance?

That's still way too much food even if everyone came. And everyone never comes.

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

🔛🔛

Communication is key, and you seem to be struggling in that department.

I am sorry this was your experience, it’s an awesome and tasty spread, I would have loved to have been invited and would have eaten a lot of it haha

That said, I think some times disappointments like this happen because there’s some mismatch in people’s expectations of an event

I find that sometimes it also helps to let people know in advance that there will be food so they don’t eat beforehand. Sorry if you already mentioned this in the thread somewhere. I hope you make some more friends, but no need to officially break things off with anyone from this event. Just cool it with them for awhile I guess

Looks like a tasty spread. Aside from other comments on why people may have not partaken, I didn't see this: health. Id love to chow down on this but couldn't because of forming health conditions and weight, and that is becoming a lot more common. Every item here has a high fat content which you need to avoid if you have high cholesterol/ is high calorie which you need to avoid if trying to lose weight

Sorry man. Feels like 2024, no more no less. Friendship and willingness to be around people (in person) is an old fart thing. Nowadays I only invite or make plans with my really close friends. Friends that are more family than friends.

Those casual friends we used to have are gone for good between laziness and socializing on-line, whatever that is.

If you were my neighbor and invited me I would've totally attended and decimated those delicious quesitos!

I never understand posts like this. Someone could ask me to split a six piece nugget and I'm there. Sorry that you went through that, but it looks wonderful, and very thoughtful. They don't deserve you ❤️

You needed to invite a lot more people and at least a few people who didn’t like wrestling.

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.

I'm sorry this happened but if it makes you feel better, I'd totally love to come over there and chow down on all of that stuff.

spread + AEW sounds like a great time OP I think its possible that your friends are not pro-level friends but maybe something else is amiss?

• live in ohio
• not good at video games
• only know 4 girls, all have same name
• the guys were all white dudes with beard + glasses, couldn't tell each other apart
• invited mean guy

if not one of those try getting pro friends

You need better friends. No, seriously, you do.

That sucks, but the good news is that most of that can be refrigerated so at least you can eat it.

To be honest, a 50% attendance record sounds pretty good. I'm really sorry to hear about this though, the spread looks great, and anyone that puts a watch party on for All In is going to put on a good time.

What time was it on for you guys? I went the first year and had an amazing time, but sadly had work this year. Perhaps you should make the pilgrimage over next year for Forbidden Door?

Shit. Can you invite me next time?

Is that a tip jar on the table? Even if not, just the association is enough for people to feel like they have to contribute financially for the food. While that isn't an outrageous thought, for people who are tight on their finances, it might be an uncomfortable situation where they'd rather skip on the food than take it and not pay a share.

i don't know why but i feel strongly about this topic and the comments are not helping either, if i were to host a function and invite people over and they refused to show without previously telling me they won't be able to make it, i would hurt them so much they won't get over it and that'd be the end of whatever friendship existed between us

in my part of the world, social events are to be honored, if you can't or don't want to go, that's fine and you should say so before hand, if you can't anyways, you're expected to reach out to the person and make amends for that

I've experienced stuff like this.

I think the last time I tried being above and beyond type of host, had a bunch of people coming over for a big weekend. I thought I do something really special and make steaks. But this wasn't just going to be like any grilled steak no no no. These steaks were going to be prepped the night before and then sous vide. But before I even started this plan I reached out to everyone and said what I was planning to do and ask if there were any issues with it, any requests, etc. I describe to everyone and great detail what I was going to make. Not one person said anything other than the "sounds good".

If you're unfamiliar with sous vide the short of it is it takes a long time to cook. Generally it's measured in hours I'd say. As such I need to cook all of the steaks at the same temperature for the same amount of time I don't have the setup at home to do individual orders.

One of the individuals once they got here, asked if I could make them a hamburger instead. Like I was a fucking restaurant.

And another one slathered it with ketchup without even trying it without. Claimed it was overcooked and dry. 🤨

Thankfully everyone else thoroughly enjoyed their perfect steaks.

Other times I would buy up a bunch of stuff so we could have breakfast. Like a proper breakfast, not just a handful of carbs in calling it good. But people would wake up late despite knowing when breakfast was going to be on. And then say they weren't hungry. And not 30 minutes out the door, talking about picking up something or swinging by somewhere to quick grab a bite.

Keep trying my friend! I would have been moved out of there with a wheelbarrow.

Are those things in the middle at the back soft pretzels? They look like conkers (horse chestnuts), confused the hell out of me!