My husband and I invited a couple who just started dating over to our apartment for New Year’s Eve and we decided to also ask another couple (friend of mine and her husband) to make it 6 people. My friend just texted me and asked if she could bring a friend (someone I have never met and have never heard of) as well, besides her husband. I feel like I would not care too much if it was a larger gathering and/or if it was someone I knew, but I think asking to bring someone to a 6-person get-together is kinda odd.
My initial reaction was to politely say “we are trying to keep it small but would love to meet him another time” but my husband thinks we are put in the place of having to say yes to be hospitable and to not be rude. Now I don’t know what to do— we specifically wanted to keep it small to make buying food and drink less stressful and I did not invite any of my other friends because we did not want it to become party-sized with like 10-15 people or more. But I also feel like the phrase “the more the merrier” exists for a reason. I also get the feeling my friend will be miffed if I say no and might even politely decline if they were counting on hanging out with this person on New Year’s. What is the best thing to do here?
6 comments
1 more does not really affect anything. And maybe you like her/him so I would say yes. Been there and only positive experiences
Saying no is perfectly fine, 6 people is a nice and you’re fully justified in wanting to keep it at that
You’re justified to say no but there’s a good chance that couple won’t come either. Maybe they’re trying to prevent their friend from being alone.
Happened to me once. A number of years ago we were having around six couples over and a friend asked if we would invite another couple who we knew but were not friends with. I didn’t want to invite them since we were not friends and I felt we were maxed out. In the end, we invited them and they are now one of our closest friends.
For a small gathering I think it’s way out of line for your friend to ask to bring one more person. I agree with you. Just rude to ask because whatyre you supposed to say? Maybe best that couple doesn’t come.
Personally I am always excited about meeting new friends of my friends because usually they are interesting and cool people. I automatically feel like we can connect quickly because there’s always a level of trust. How do you feel about this?
I think your “we wanted to keep it small” statement is a bit of an excuse because whether it’s 6 or 7 doesn’t really matter to be honest – BUT! that doesn’t mean that your FEELINGS don’t matter. For some reason you’re not too happy about it and that’s okay.
You’re free to say no but yes, people could be a bit miffed. My personal – just my own, personal – opinion would be to open up to the experience and see if you’ll enjoy it even if your head only wanted those two couples.