4 Sign Up Tips for Planning a Cookout

The summer season is the perfect time to gather friends and family for a fun backyard cookout. Cookouts do involve a little planning and coordinating, but it doesn't take much time to make your event a success. 

Online sign ups are perfect for planning and organizing cookouts. Simply list some of the side dishes you'd like for people to bring or require people to list a dish in the comment field for others to see. Either way, you'll avoid the snafu of having 20 bags of chips and no other sides at your party. This way, you can focus on enjoying time with others and not having to worry about last minute details or a quick trip to the grocery store.  

To help you prepare, we have four tips to help you execute a fun and well-organized cookout for you and your guests.

Invite your guests

Once you've decided on a date and time, you'll want to make your guest list and send out your invites. Sending a sign up out is a great way to gauge how many people will be attending and allows you simplify meal planning by organizing a potluck. 

An RSVP formatted sign up is an easy way to get a head count of everyone who plans to come, and you can require that people comment when signing up to share what food item they plan to bring.  

Knowing who can attend also helps ensure you've planned accordingly. It takes a lot more planning and preparation if 30 people decide to attend, versus only 10.

Plan the food

The main event of every cookout is obviously the food! It's important to think through what type of meal you want to serve, and we've got 30 ideas to get you inspired! Add a custom question field to your sign up to see if you need to consider dietary restrictions for grill items. This way, you can learn if any of your guests need a veggie burger option for the grill. 

Even if you have the food covered, you need to be sure you have the adequate supplies and condiments for the party. If you are providing the food on the grill, you might want to ask your guests for help with other food and supplies for your summer bash.  

An online sign up relieves the stress of having to coordinate multiple people and food items and simplifies the process for you and your participants. Create specific food slots with a limit to how many people can sign up, guaranteeing you will have just the right amount of each item. 

Send updates

Now that you've spread the word about your cookout and what is needed, you can remind your guests ahead of the big day! It's easy for events and commitments to slip people's minds, especially during the busy summer when everyone is planning other events and get-togethers.  

To help ensure people don't forget about your cookout, you can make sure your guests are prepared by sending reminder emails. Need to communicate additional information in the reminder or send text messages? With our premium plans, you can send custom reminder messages to relay any details you want to share with your group. We recommend reminding your guests about the time, location and any items they need to bring!  

Connect at the cookout

Now that you have everyone together and food on the grill, it's time to enjoy each other's company! Since there may be new faces who don't know each other, try out some of these conversation starters to get people talking. 

If you have kids attending, try to incorporate some of these backyard games into the event to keep them entertained! 

We hope these tips help you plan a cookout that you and your friends won't forget. Maybe you'll even decide to start planning monthly get-togethers to keep the fun going throughout the rest of the summer.

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