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XP: Housewarming Etiquette
Just a little background... My husband and I got married January 31st with a small, family only, wedding. We moved into our house February 26th. We have been asked countless times when we are going to have a housewarming party. I kinda thought it would fall off, but it seems to be a persistent question, and the house is finally at a point where we can have people over proudly.
Now, I would prefer people not feel obligated to bring gifts. We want this to be more of a casual barbecue than anything else. However, I also know that a majority of our friends feel that this is them coming to celebrate the marriage and new home, since they weren't invited to the wedding or reception. I also know that putting "Please, no gifts." Can be recieved as rude. Should I just not mention it at all, and let everyone do as they see fit?
I toyed around with the idea of putting different times on invites. Like putting 2pm on family invites, and 3 or 4pm on friends invites, but hubby felt that this was weird. No one from the 2 circles have contact with each other so I don't think anyone would notice, and I think it will just help the flow of traffic. What do you guys think?
Etiquette-wise, I'm not entirely sure how everything works for housewarming parties. How far in advance do we need to send out invites? Does anyone have any wording suggestions? Do people need to RSVP?
Re: XP: Housewarming Etiquette
I had a housewarming party. It was a BBQ like you said. I did not mention anything about gifts. Some people brought gifts and some didn't. I was cool with that.
I think you could just call it a BBQ, and not mention anything about a housewarming regarding the gift thing. Of course, a lot of people will still bring you something small, but just accept it graciously. It's just of token of how much they care about you.
You will most likely get the majority of people there together. I wouldn't do the different time thing. You can say on the invites a start time and a time when food will be served. Something like 1pm with food coming off the grill at 4pm. Some people will come earlier, and others will come later.
The other option is calling it an Open House from 1-5 or whatever times. But, I think more people will be inclined to bring gifts for that; it's more obviously about showing the new house to everyone that way.
ETA: I think you definitely need an RSVP if you are doing main entrees on a BBQ. You'll need some sort of idea of how many people you'll be serving. I would think 3 weeks ahead is good, unless you know a lot of people in your circle book up their summer weekends early.
We moved into our house last July, tore out the kitchen, and then got married mid-august. So we never really had a housewarming either (although we did do tours for some out-of town family that came to the wedding....but we had no kitchen!)
we just had an open house day last weekend. I didnt want a formal housewarming party, but i didnt want to have to set aside 10+ weekends throughout the summer to entertain guests separately, so we decided on an 'open house gathering'. I sent out invitations via email and simply said "a lot of friends and family have been asking to see our home, and now that the renovations are complete - we'd like to host a gathering at our place!" We knew nice-weather weekends are people's time to go have fun and garden and do all sorts of things, so we simply said 'stop by anytime after 11am in between errands, or for a few hours for lunch or dinner - we'll be here!"
we had food and drinks available all day. we had most people stop between 11am and 3pm. we did receive a few gifts -- probably 1/2 our guests brought a little something for us. in hindsight i wish i sent an RSVP date.... we had a LOT of food left over...but everything is edible and freezable, so it's not a problem
Long story short - have an 'open house gathering' or 'summer bbq'. don't mention anything about gifts. don't worry about times on invites. if it's an all day event, people will come and go as they need to.
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