Coming up is one of my favorite seasons: grad party season. Full of friends, family, fun, and bittersweet endings, graduation parties are the culmination of your social life throughout high school. Of course, with such an important event, there’s bound to be stress planning it. Who do you invite, what food do you get, what do you wear, and what do you even do when you all get there? All these questions have to be answered soon, since the first grad parties are already happening. But don’t worry, here’s your fool-proof guide to figuring out how to plan your perfect party.

First: who do you invite? This one is really tricky. It mainly depends on how big of a party you want. Do you want a close get-together with the friends you’ve grown close to throughout high school? Do you want a massive gathering inviting everyone you’ve ever met? And most importantly, how many of the people you invite will be giving grad gifts-hopefully cash? Make sure you consider all these factors, and definitely make sure you know how many people are coming so you know how much food to order.

Speaking of food, what do you get? The food is really what makes or breaks any party. It’s bad if you run out too quickly, though that does mean people liked it. It’s also bad if it’s all left there at the end, because no one liked it and you’re now stuck with a ton of food. Not saying that’s a bad thing. The type of food is also critical: italian, mexican, chicken tenders, pizza, burgers, or anything. What do the people want? Just make sure nobody spills it on their clothes.

Now, about the clothes-what is the dress code? Casual? Formal? Semi-formal? But, is that what the people want to wear? Someone might be complaining about having to wear a polo when they really wanted to just wear a t-shirt. Or a dress when they really wanted to put on some leggings and call it a day. Either way, someone will probably be complaining.

Hopefully no one’s complaining that they’re bored out of their minds at your party. Sometimes sitting around with people you kinda know can get really annoying after a while, especially if you’ve already been to ten parties with the same people. Make sure you have things for people to do: ping-pong, spikeball, cornhole, a pool maybe? Just get on it, or else no one will want to be there.

Seems harsh right? But it doesn’t have to be. The stress of planning a grad party sometimes takes away from the reason you’re having it-to celebrate you, and the years of memories you’ve made with your friends. So just pick whatever you like, it’s your party after all. Don’t worry about all the little details so much, and just have fun.