How far ahead to plan a party in the UK, and when to send the invitations

For most UK parties, start two to three months before. Send save the dates about three months ahead if guests must travel, send the invitations six weeks before, and ask for replies three weeks before. A milestone birthday, an anniversary or a party abroad needs four to six months, because popular venues book first.

The reasons are practical. Six weeks gives guests time to keep the evening free. A reply date three weeks before gives you a week to chase the quiet ones before the caterer needs a final number, two weeks before the day.

How far ahead should you plan a party?

Count back from the day, and let the venue set the pace. A party at home needs little more than the invitation dates. A party in a room that other people want, on a Saturday in June or a Friday in December, needs the room first, months ahead.

The first three decisions are the same for any party: the date, the budget and the number of guests. The guest number decides the room, the room decides the date, and the budget decides both. Our guide to how to plan an event, step by step puts the whole job in order, from the date to the thank-you notes.

What is the UK timeline for each kind of party?

The invitation and reply dates in this table are our guidance, and they barely change from one party to the next, because guests need the same notice for any evening out. What changes is when you must start and when the venue must be booked.

When should you send party invitations?

Six weeks before the party, for almost any party in the UK. Ask for replies three weeks before, and give the venue or the caterer the final number two weeks before. If guests must travel or book time off, send a save the date first, about three months ahead. For a party abroad, send the save the date six months ahead and the invitation ten weeks before.

Some guides give less notice. As of October 2026, Dotty About Paper, a UK stationer, suggests a fortnight to a month for a children’s party, because children’s parties fall at the same few times: after school, at the weekend or in the holidays. For adults, it suggests a couple of weeks for a small party at home or in a pub, and four to six weeks for a larger party at a restaurant or a hired venue.

Six weeks still does no harm for a children’s party when the venue charges by the child, because the number sets the price, and because the weekends of a school year fill quickly. Put the reply date on the invitation itself, as a real date. A date gets an answer. “Let me know” gets a text the night before.

A wedding runs on a longer clock. Our note on when to send save the dates in the UK has the wedding dates.

How much does a 50th birthday party cost in the UK?

We found no national survey of what a 50th birthday party costs, so start from the venue, the largest line, and build up. Venue marketplaces publish what their venues ask.

As of October 2026, Tagvenue’s London page for 50th birthday venues, on data from December 2025, puts the typical minimum spend at £500 to £1,500 per event, about £1,000 on average. Its Manchester page gives £23 to £45 per person on data from March 2026, and its Brighton page gives £16 to £49 per person on data from February 2026.

A minimum spend is the least you agree to spend on food and drink at the venue, and the room comes with it. A price per person is a package for each guest. Ask every venue what its price covers: the hours, the service charge, a DJ, a table for the cake.

Then split the rest. Our starting split for an event gives the venue 25% of the total, the food 30% and the drinks 12%. It is our guidance, a starting point for you to change. Here it is for a 50th with 60 guests and a budget of £4,000:

If your venue works on a minimum spend, the venue, the food and the drinks become one line: here £2,680, or about £45 a guest, at the top of the Manchester range. Take that sum to each venue, and ask what it buys.

How do you plan a silver, ruby or golden anniversary party, and who hosts it?

Silver is 25 years, ruby 40 and golden 50. The bigger the number, the more the guest list leans to family and old friends, and the more of them travel. Start four to six months ahead, and send a save the date at three months.

Who hosts is a family decision, and it is worth settling first, because the host pays and the host’s name goes on the invitation. When the children host, the couple are the guests of honour, and someone must find out quietly which friends the couple would miss. When the couple host, they choose the list, and the children can give the toast.

Bring the years into the room: the wedding photographs on a table by the door, the first dance played again, a toast from someone who was there the first time. Guests will spend longer at a table of old photographs than at any decoration you can buy. If the couple want no gifts, say so on the invitation in one kind line: “Your company is the only present we need.”

When should you have a baby shower, and who hosts it?

As of October 2026, Silver Cross, the British pram maker, says in its guide to planning a baby shower that most showers fall between four and eight weeks before the due date, which leaves room for a baby who arrives early.

With the shower six weeks before the due date and the invitations six weeks before the shower, the invitations go out about three months before the baby is due. If you are the friend or relative who hosts, ask the parent-to-be first about the date, the guests and whether they want a shower at all, even if the rest is a surprise.

Three hours is plenty: food as guests arrive, a game or an activity, the gifts, then the cake. Ask one guest to keep a list of who gave what as the gifts are opened, so that the thank-you notes take one evening instead of a month.

How early should you book a work Christmas party?

As early as you can agree the budget. As of October 2026, Tagvenue’s 2026 guide to booking a Christmas party venue in London suggests six to nine months ahead, ideally between March and June for a December party, and earlier for a large group or a sought-after venue. It adds that Thursdays and Fridays in December are the nights most in demand.

The same guide gives Tagvenue’s own booking figures: an average lead time of 38 days for groups under 20, 44 days for 20 to 49 guests and 64 days for 50 to 79 guests. Those figures show when teams booked. A team that books in June still has the pick of the rooms.

Agree the budget and who signs it off before you call a venue, and put the date in everyone’s diary as soon as the venue is signed. The invitation can follow six weeks before, with the menu choices and a reply date three weeks before. Ask for dietary needs and access needs in the same reply: a step-free way in, a quiet corner, a seat near the door.

When you have a date, plan yours in our event planner. It counts the invitation, the reply date and every task on the checklist back from your own day.