The 5-Minute Invite: Stop Overthinking the Text

Author: The Pepur Team
Category: Lazy Host
Reading Time: 3 min

The single biggest bottleneck in the event planning industry is not venue availability or catering costs. It is the twenty minutes you spend staring at your phone, trying to draft a text that sounds "chill but not too chill, organized but not bossy, cool but not desperate."

You type. You delete. You add an emoji. You delete the emoji. You decide to do it later. You never do it.

The invite is not a piece of literature. It is a functional document. It needs to convey data, not emotion.

The Anatomy of a Perfect Invite

A good invite answers three questions: Who, What, and When. Anything else is fluff.

You do not need to justify the party ("I felt like we haven't hung out in a while...").
You do not need to sell the party ("It's going to be super fun...").

You just need to state the facts.

Templates You Can Steal

Do not write. Copy and paste.

The "Low Stakes" Hang (Good for Tuesdays)

"Hey everyone. ordering pizza and drinking wine at my place this Tuesday around 7. low key, done by 10. let me know if you can make it so I buy enough wine."

The "Activity" Hang

"Hosting a Mario Kart tournament this Friday. 8pm. I have the snacks, bring whatever you want to drink. Winner gets a trophy I found at Goodwill."

The "Last Minute" Hail Mary

"I have entirely too much cheese. Come over in an hour and help me eat it. bring nothing."

The "B-List" Strategy

Here is a cold truth: Not everyone can come.
If you invite 10 people, 6 will say yes, and 4 will actually show up. This is the math.

Do not wait for the "No"s to invite the next wave. Send the invite to your core group. Wait 24 hours. If the response is tepid, widen the circle.

Use a tool that handles this for you. (We are biased, but Pepur does this well. You can set a "Waitlist" or "Tier 2" group that gets auto-invited if spots open up).

Summary

The longer you spend drafting the invite, the less likely you are to send it. Perfectionism is the enemy of connection. Send the bad text. Send the typo. Just get it out.

A Few Questions You Were Probably Going To Google

Q: How far in advance should I invite people?
A: For a casual hang? 3-5 days. Any longer and they forget. Any shorter and they have plans. For a "Real Party" (birthdays, etc.), 2-3 weeks.

Q: Group text or individual texts?
A: Group text for close friends. Individual for acquaintances. Being added to a group chat with 15 strangers is a form of violence. Don't do it. Use a broadcast list or a tool like Pepur that hides the recipients.

Q: What if nobody replies?
A: Follow up once. "Gonna buy food soon, let me know today." If they still don't reply, they are dead to you (for this weekend). Move on.