Pay once · No ads · Built for the four-hour trickle

Eighteen years got them here. You get one afternoon — the graduation party — to celebrate it.

A graduation open house is the strangest party you will ever throw — guests arriving in waves over four hours, three other parties the same Saturday, and a guest of honor who leaves for good in August. This plankit runs it the way it actually flows: RSVPs per wave, food that flips at 3:00 sharp, the card box with a keeper, and a page that answers every "when should we swing by?"

RSVPs per wave — "we'll swing by around 2" is finally a number
The tray flip, pinned: 3:00 sharp — fresh fruit in, cookie platters out
The gift & card box inside the door, with a keeper assigned
The slideshow task: export it, test the clubhouse TV, then breathe

Start planning How it works

Founder price $59 (list $79) — first 25 gradsApplied automatically at checkout. Less than the cap, gown, and tassel.

The PlanFlow graduation cockpit — 45-day countdown, all eight RSVPs in, the tray-count and slideshow tasks, and the wave-flip note

Built for this party

An open house is not a dinner party. The plan knows the difference.

Nobody RSVPs "yes" to a graduation party — they RSVP "we'll swing by around 2." So the party below is built as waves: Setup, Wave 1, Wave 2, Cake & Toast — with every guest tracked against every wave, and a live headcount per hour. The screenshots are the proof.

RSVP by wave

Build the afternoon as waves and track every guest against each one — yes to Wave 1, no to Wave 2, back for the toast. Real headcounts per hour, live and captured below. Guests picking their waves from their own RSVP link is coming — today their link takes one tap for the whole party. SELF-SERVE WAVE PICKS — COMING SOON

Food for a four-hour trickle

Pulled pork for 85 arriving in waves is math, not vibes. On this party it's already done: trays priced per wave on the budget, the caterer's tray-count task, and the 3:00 flip pinned so it happens whether or not anyone remembers.

Eighteen years of photos

Photo Drop is live on the party page: guests post photos for weeks before the party, every one held for your approval. His playlist lives here too — must-play, do-not-play, paste it straight out of Spotify — and prints for whoever runs the speaker. The plan still carries the slideshow as real work — collect, export, test the clubhouse TV. It's a task on the list below.

The card table, covered

The gift & card box sits inside the door with a keeper assigned — that's on the plan, checkbox and setup task both. And the send-the-thank-yous task lands ten days after the party, so the graduate writes the notes before move-in day, if it's the last thing you enforce.

Don't take our word for it

One real open house, in pictures.

These are unretouched screenshots from the real product. Jenna Thompson's graduation open house is a sample plan we built end to end to show you exactly what it does — 85 guests in two waves at the Summit Ridge clubhouse. Click any of them to look closer.

Guest list with per-wave RSVPs — Yes to Wave 1. Yes to Wave 2.Caleb's card: every wave answered separately — and he's wrangling the Class of 2026 group photo

Run of show with the tray flip pinned — The flip, pinned3:00 sharp in the banquet room — "swap fruit & veggie; cookie platters out" — a key moment that stays put

Graduation party budget, planned versus paid — Feeding 85, in wavesThe taco bar + wave trays, half paid — with the tent, the yard signs, and the red & black balloons

The afternoon in waves — The afternoon, in wavesSetup, Wave 1, Wave 2, Cake & Toast — each with its own time, notes, and headcount

Check-in by wave — Arrivals, wave by waveWho's actually here, per wave — search a name, check them in, no clipboard

Graduation open house page with RSVPs by wave — The page the whole town can openSummit Ridge, get-directions, the countdown — one link, no app, no account

Before the suit stops fitting

The card box, kept honest. The thank-yous, dated.

The box is on the plan — inside the door, keeper assigned, exactly as the screenshots show — with the guest book beside it and the thank-you task dated ten days after the party. One keeper, one box, no envelope walks off; and the graduate runs out of excuses before move-in day.

Jenna's Card Box — the Plan

Inside the door · Zoe keeps it honest

Set up the gift & card box by the doorday before ✓

Set out the guest book by the card boxday before ✓

Zoe — keeper, all afternoonassigned

Cash envelopes → the locked officeon Zoe's card

Send thank-you notesday 10 · on the list

RECREATION WITH SAMPLE DATA

Side by side

The invite apps vs. the group text vs. this.

Feature	Evite / Punchbowl (free)	The group text + a spreadsheet	PlanFlow Graduation
What it really is	An invitation with ads — your guest list is the product	The plan, scattered across three threads	The whole open house — waves, food, the box, the budget, one page
Open-house time windows	✗ one yes/no	"we'll try to swing by!"	✓ per-wave headcounts, live in the screenshots · guest self-RSVP per wave COMING SOON
Photo drop → slideshow	✗	an AirDrop pile the night before	✓ Photo Drop on the party page + the slideshow tasks
Food & refill planning	✗	a guess and a Costco run	✓ trays per wave, the flip pinned
The card box & thank-yous	✗	a shoebox of cards	✓ box + keeper on the plan · the thank-you task, dated
Budget	✗	the spreadsheet, maybe	✓ planned vs. paid, line by line
Ads shown to your guests	yes — that is the business model	n/a	never — you are the customer, not the product
Price	free	free — plus the chaos	$79 once · founder $59

Comparison covers free and paid alternatives using published pricing and official documentation as of July 2026. Evite and Punchbowl are trademarks of their respective owners; PlanFlow Planner is not affiliated with them.

Ask the party anything. It drafts — you approve.

Names are scrubbed before anything leaves the Service, and every action is logged.

They graduate once.
Throw the party that says you noticed. $79.

Founder price $59 for the first 25 grads — or through September 1, 2026, whichever comes first. 30-day money-back. One plankit plans one graduation party, start to finish. Yours through your event + 12 months after.

Start the party — $59

Founder pricing applied at checkout · a scoped link for your co-host · guests never need an app

Same event on repeat? A Track is $19/mo · planning all year, Celebration from $39/mo — see the whole ladder

Fair questions

What graduation hosts ask.

People don't really RSVP to open houses. Does this still help?

That is exactly the problem it solves. Build the afternoon as waves and log every "we'll swing by around 2" against its wave — real wave headcounts instead of a guess. Guests answering wave-by-wave from their own link is coming soon; today their link takes one yes/no for the whole party. And even with zero RSVPs, the food plan, budget, and day-of timeline carry the party.

Three parties, same Saturday. Can it handle the conflicts?

Waves were designed for graduation-season Saturdays — guests tell you which window they can make between the other parties, you log it against the wave, and your trays and seating flex around the waves instead of pretending everyone arrives at once.

High school and college in the same family?

One plankit plans one party. Two grads, one combined open house — one plankit. Two separate parties — that is two plankits, or Celebration Lite at $39/mo if your family runs a lot of events.

Where does the slideshow live on party day?

On the Thompson plan it's a real task with a real deadline: "Export the slideshow & test the clubhouse TV." Collect the photos, cut the show, test the screen — the plan enforces the boring parts. And Photo Drop is live on the party page — guests post photos there for weeks ahead, every one held for your approval.

What does "founder price" mean?

$59 instead of $79 for the first 25 graduation plankits, or through September 1, 2026 — whichever comes first. After that, list price. Founder or list, it is one payment for the whole party — never a subscription.