This past new year's eve, went to a party of friends of friends, they said they would give the place and tables and a band, and everyone else would bring food for all to share; so my family took turkey and other 'party' dishes. We got there to find that there was no band, just a crappy stereo...and later before people started leaving they began to charge us -???- I won't say it was the worst NYE but one of them for sure.

I don't know if its the worst but the one that came up right away sucked big-time.

Once at a friend's dinner party at a restaurant I was assured that everyone would pay for what they ate/drank. I was vegetarian at the time and pretty broke so I had a plate of rice and beans and a side of tostones (Cuban place). No drinks, no appetizer, no dessert. My meal was $9.oo total. Other people at the table (like 12 people total) had appetizers, multiple drinks, desserts, big expensive meals (steaks,lobsters, roast chicken..ect). Bill comes around and suddenly someone changed the game plan. Now they were just dividing the bill up and everyone had to put in $50 (NOT including tax/tip)!!!
I put my friend aside and told her that it wasn't really fair because I didn't eat like everyone else and she then ANNOUNCES at the table that everyone is going to have to put in more cash because I didn't feel like splitting it. I got evil looks all around (which I thought was stupid considering the guy next to me at at least $75 worth of stuff he ate/drank). I was so angry! Yeah, I never eat (or do much) with those people anymore. It sucked because I was planning on leaving $20.oo (more than twice my share) but I drew the line they I'm supposed to pay $50 for a small plate of rice and beans!

Party Foul indeed!

Went to a picnic once where they made a big bowl of sangria with the following recipe:

1 big jug of red wine
1 can orange soda
1 can lemon-lime soda

^ You get bonus points if the soda was generic brand

I once went to an impromptu wedding dinner (don't ask). Once there, my best friend and I decided we would cover the tab for the bride and groom (there was no actual wedding, so we figured this would be a decent "gift"). Well, once all was said and done and the bill came around, the waiter had added 3 more meals to our tab. Turns out, the bride & groom had agreed to pay for a couple of friends they had invited--my friend and I had never even met these people. So, when we agreed to cover meals for the bride & groom, they decided to load on the other 3 tabs. When my friend pulled the bride aside to discuss the issue, the groom stepped in and made a ridiculous scene! Not the worst, but still a bit inappropriate in my book. We just paid our part of the tab and left.

Definitely having the host of the dinner party asking if everyone could chip in once the meal was done!

I went to a party at the home of friends who'd been invited to my home for parties several times before and we'd been to the same parties of other friends many, many times. The norm was to bring a bottle of wine (or other libations) and maybe some food - and the hostess always had wine already and plenty of food.

So we asked what we could bring and she said nothing. When we showed up with a bottle of wine (as a hostess gift for our pregnant friend to enjoy many months later) she asked if we wanted to open it. We were confused and said no, it was a gift for her. So then we realized she was serving mini franks in a crock pot and pretzels. (As opposed to nice spreads at all other parties our crowd threw.) My husband asked where the drinks where and she said, "Oh, I guess you can have one of my husband's beers." So she gave us one of HIS beers to split - and then we split!!

Never, ever, ever will we go back to their house for a party (which we'd left an amazing holiday party elsewhere to attend). NEVER. I'm not too thrilled about inviting her back either (because she's more a friend of a friend than anything), but I do it to be nice to the actual friend.

asinner - to be honest, you brought wine for a pregnant person, and you didn't bring any booze for yourself?
i always bring a bottle for my hostest (granted she drinks and isn't pregnant) and then bring another bottle for me and my boyfriend brings beer or rye or whatever is appropriate given the circumstance and what he feels like
sounds like you may have been the rude one...especially since you're dissing what she served you to eat.

Wow, these stories are horrible. It makes my story seem like nothing.

Basically, with me, it's my in-laws. My in-laws are very inhospitable hosts. I'm not going to go into details, but let's just say I suspect they were raised by wolves. The word "rude" doesn't begin to describe their behavior.

A bunch of friends came by and brought several bottles of wine. We opened a few of them, but two remained unopened at the end of the evening. When I was cleaning after they all left, I noticed only one of them. Where did the wine go? I wonder if it was re-appropriated since it was unopened. Hrm...

I still invite these folks around. I just make sure to open their wine first.

Wow, some of those stories are just shocking! I've never experienced anything like that..

university parties that didn't have ice were the worst
ice and mix are key elements
oh yah and i've been to many places without a corkscrew for my wine

Glowing- Do we have the same in-laws? =P

I had dinner with my in-laws for the first time (first time we met, too), and when they were setting the table up and passing out plates they served me last. Then, they hardly spoke the whole time, didn't ask me anything about myself, and only gave short answers to any questions I asked. It was probably the most horrible, awkward night of my life.

I used to have this friend (key word USED to) when our group of friends went out for dinner, if he was flush with cash he would order the whole works - appetizer, salad, expensive entree, drinks, dessert and then when the bill came would suggest splitting it up equally among all parties. Then when he was feeling poor he would just order 1 entree and water and then when the bill came proclaim I only owe X amount! So annoying.

The mere IDEA of splitting up a check equally makes me want to rip out all my hair.

I would never, ever, ever split a bill and I would really be irked if anyone asked me to.

speaking of splitting the bill, i went on a business trip with 9 people from my office. we always split the bill down the middle even though some people got 4 courses plus wine etc. (we were in italy so there were lots of courses and delicious antipasto and desserts)

but my boss is the only person who actually could claim for what she spent, whereas the rest of us only get a certain amount per meal, which includes the bare minimum, not a lavish amount of courses and definitely no alcohol

and she always ate the most and asked to split, and she's the boss so we couldnt say no...and then she would end up getting the waiter to draw her up a table d'hote so she could get EVEN MORE money back in expenses

that really irked me

The worst I've seen: The hostess for a friend's baby shower arrived at the shower 2 hrs late! (She basically left all the decorating and set-up to those of us guests who arrived first). Having forgotten the party favors, she then left for another 1 1/2 hrs to retrieve them! (Leaving the guests to entertain). 2 of us guests ended up picking up all the slack re decorations and party games, and we were happy to do so to salvage the party, but if the hostess was so unable to do her duties, she should have assigned them in advance so the rest of us wouldn't have to scramble. How embarrassing for the mother-to-be!

(plus she also makes about 3 times as much as the rest of us...so we got totally screwed on our menial salaries while she is making money off of every meal)

I went to a turkey fry once, but there was something wrong with the burner. It took the oil forever to come to temperature. Once we put the turkey in the oil immediatley lost all its heat and the turkey wouldn't cook. Someone eventually ran to the store and made a huge batch of mac and cheese. It was so awful.

I think splitting the bill is fine, and probably the easies thing to do, ONLY when all parties eat and drink the same (or close to the same) amount. Otherwise, it's just not fair.

I don't really have any horror stories. My best friends and I have the same party routine--whoever hosts the party does the majority of the cooking and provides the drinks (usually just beer and wine, maybe one special cocktail too), but the rest of us contributes something, whether it be an appetizer, a dessert, a side dish, etc. And we always bring a gift, such as a bottle of wine or booze.

There were only two times that I can recall, and unfortunately both were with my family.

1) While my husband and I were engaged, my in-laws-to-be invited us over for dinner and my MIL made this absolutely DISGUSTING casserole consisting of rotini noodles, a can of sauerkraut, a bottle of Thousand Island dressing, chopped up brats, and Swiss cheese...all mixed together and baked. I told her I didn't really eat food like that, so she tossed a bag of premixed salad at me and said I could eat that instead. Wow, thanks Mom. I've tried to avoid eating there ever since.

2) My mom told us that for Thanksgiving, we would be just having our family together for a small meal...just my parents, my brother, my grandma, my aunt and uncle, and my husband and I. When we got there, she told us that she had actually invited some family from their church that they were friendly with, so we spent the meal talking awkardly to these 8 people that we didn't really know...plus their kids were REALLY annoying and it was just NOT a good time.

LOL! I was waiting for these comments to roll in. I couldn't think of any recent party fouls but Smacks83 reminded me of a situation I was in years ago. Like Smacks I was a vegetarian and out at a dinner gathering for a friend of a friend, we were going to pitch in our portions, I got a salad, too young to drink at the time, etc. My total should have been $8 and I was walloped with asking to pitch in $75. I have also seen people run up huge tabs and then stiff the server, I have been in this situation twice and dropped a $20 for tip because I am so outraged.

Oh, and another time I went over to my friend's place for a potluck thing (back when I was vegetarian). Everyone knew I was veggie so people would let me know what dishes had meat and what didn't. Her bf brought a rice dish (it was yellow) so I asked if it had chicken stock (most yellow ones do). He assured me it didn't and I had some. After my second bite, he laughs and says that it did! He then digs the serving spoon deep into the rice pot and brings up a big hunk of bird saying he hid it to see if I could taste it. Apparently he thought it would be funny to trick the veggie into eating meat. He was soon kicked out and even sooner became her ex.

i don't really have any party fouls to share, but here's a general party etiquette question for you all to answer:

if you're hosting a party and people bring a hostess gift of wine or chocolate or something similar, do you open it right away (or through the course of the night) or do you save it for later? my friend and i got in a debate about this. i almost always (if i'm able) open it to enjoy with the friends who brought it, but my friend thought doing that was rude, that it was intended just for the hostess. thoughts?

my mom raised me to "give good guest". I bring things, I ask to assist. some of these tales just sound really rude on the part of the guest -- "I don't eat that kind of food"?? if you had an allergy or a dietary restriction, speak up before you go over, but if you dont' like what's being served, don't expect the whole meal to change around your tastes.

Anything that involves splitting the bill. It's made me hate going out to dinner with a big group.

My in-laws had a wedding reception for us in my partner's home town. Two guests were unhappy with their table assignment and they switched their table number with one of my husband's uncles. My mother-in-law was quite surprised when this couple sat down at her table - but she was a "polite host" and let them stay and went and explained the situation to my uncle-in-law.

LOL, I just remembered another big foul that occurred with my in-laws. For my wedding, my in-laws agreed to pay for the rehearsal dinner, which we had catered to the church dining hall for the wedding party. The whole event was fairly fancy and the food was chic but simple (and GOOD!). Well, after the dinner, my mother in law went out to her car and brought in a cooler and a whole bunch of Tupperware. She went up to the catering staff and told them that she would be taking ALL the leftover food home, so would they kindly help her box it all up? I could have DIED. She hauled the whole cooler out her car, talking about how all that food would feed them for a month, etc. My husband and his siblings were all really embarrassed and my mom told me later that she never knew anyone who brought coolers to events to take home leftover food. It just made my in-laws come off as being EXTREME cheapskates and it really pissed me off because it made my rehearsal dinner feel incredibly tacky.

My eventually mother in law to be had a Christmas party. My man (her son) had to work for a few days while we were visiting so I said I would help for the party. She ended up sending me to the grocery but had given me the wrong card. Okay not to bad, I ended up going back about three times because of this or that or she changed her mind. Then while cooking I ended up making most of the dishes. One a chicken olive rosemary dish that was wonderful she almost snuck BBQ sauce into even though many people told her it was a bad idea, luckily she was stopped, yuck! Finally after all the fun was done she never thanked me for my two days of labor and never mentioned to any of the guests that I helped let alone made practically everything!

Wow Smacks... kudos to you for not stepping on that guy's testicles. That's probably what I would have done, and I'm not even joking.

Last month my family and I went over to our good friends' house for dinner. Another friend of mine and I both ended up with food poisoning! Truly the worst party foul ever!

Also, at my sister's first wedding reception, they ran out of food. It had been catered by a family friend, and three tables weren't able to eat.

At my sister's second wedding reception (this one she's still married to!), it was at her in-laws house, and for 80 people there was one deli tray of meat, one of cheese, and a block of cream cheese with caramel and chopped walnuts served with apple slices. Again, not enough food! And on 12 pack of beer. For 80 people! My husband and I stopped at Taco Bell on our way home! Running out of food is a major NO-NO!!!

I must confess, I am a party fouler--especially when it comes to my husband's family or his friends. They always give my husband the information about the party, which he promptly forgets and never tells me. So, we end up in awkward situations like coming in jeans to a nice dinner or empty handed to a potluck. So embarrassing!

Foxie, I was thinking the same thing. It must have taken a lot of will power not to slap a guy who thinks it's funny to serve meat to a vegetarian.

Spectra, it seems like you're the one being rude in your stories. It is not 'cheap' to save leftover food. To simply throw it away would be wasteful. You sound ungrateful.

I agree with Foxie too; I would have been SO furious! What a person chooses to eat or not eat is their own business, and it's just common courtesy to respect that. I would never think it was a "joke" to trick someone with religious beliefs into eating pork, for instance, and I don't believe there's any difference in not eating meat for ethical reasons and not eating a food for religious reasons. Besides, what if Smacks had been a vegetarian because she was allergic to meat?

I've have an aunt who is a fabulous cook and loves to entertain. I'll always ask what she wants me to bring sometimes a bottle of wine, or nibbles or sweets. After making some chocolate truffles for a family Christmas party, which all the guests loved, I make sure if I am asked to prepare something it isn't too good. She reacts badly if other guests ask for recipes or say they've enjoyed what I've bought.

Foxie & Michelann, I was being restrained. My bf and two friends had to rush me into another room to cool off. Trust me it was not easy not to knock this guy in the adam's apple till it crunched. I think it was evil (not even rude, just evil). Maybe I should have had you two in my corner,lol.

And Wild, I agree completly. I think he tried to explain to my friend (when she was breaking up with him 10 minutes later) that he thinks veggies are just prissy and whiney and blah blah blah and don't do it for any real reason. I found out that last part bout a week later. What the hell is a "real" reason? Religious isn't the only real reason. I swear if I ever saw that guy again I will end up on the 11pm news.

i agree that Spectra's stories always seem like she's the rude one ...

the only story i have was when my boyfriends "friend" had a "party" which usually consists of poker game, bring your own booze, theres no food to feed you kinda thing.. which is fine, but the funny part was when my bf brought booze for himself and the "host" because i dont drink, and that night i suddenly choked on my gum, so i was coughing away and my bf goes to his friend and asks if he could grab a drink for me because i was choking and i dont drink alcohol and i was driving so i didnt want to, so his friend says ya, and my bf grabs a juice box out of the fridge and his friend freaks out because thats his kids juice box! my bf's like "theres a dozen!" and his friend is like still freaking out and im here coughing to my death, and im like.. could you just get me tap water? and my bf did, and he was more mad than i was about it that he wanted to leave afterwards.. errrr..

My husband and I threw a Christmas party for a church group. We had it catered plus I made a few things. It was supposed to be a really nice evening (with no kids around for once)! We were both looking forward to getting to know some of the people better because we were fairly new to the group, etc. Well, one of the couples showed up with their karaoke machine, walked themselves over to our television, helped themselves to hooking it up and starting doing karaoke. They kept pulling people into it to do songs before and after dinner. I was furious! At one point I even said that this party was supposed to be so we could get to know people better...not listen to someone mangle "Brown-Eyed Girl". To no avail...the horror continued.

Hmmm can't say I have one...

@Michaelann and skigurl--I wasn't upset that my mother in law wanted to save the leftover food, I was just embarrassed at how she dealt with it. If she had been a little more discreet about it, it would've been fine. It was just that we were enjoying a nice, formal dinner and my mother in law was making a huge scene (she didn't want to risk the caterers throwing ANYTHING out early). Trust me, I was trying to handle everything with as much poise as I could. I wouldn't have wanted the food to go to waste, either, but there was a fridge there...she could have asked them quietly to put the leftovers in the fridge and she could have gotten them later on after everyone had left.

Spectra, I apologize, I got the impression from your story that everybody had already left

Spectra - you still sound rude:

1) You snub your MIL's casserole? "I don't really eat food like that". Wow. Nice of her to offer you somthing else. It's not her fault if she's not a good cook.

2) Were you invited to you parent's house for thanksgiving? Be grateful to be invited and someone else do all the cooking and stop b*tching about the company. I hardly think inviting some people from CHURCH to share THANKSGIVING qualifies as a party foul.

spectra - i, too, was talking about the casserole and the thanksgiving thing

you weren't rude in the leftovers story, but your MIL was kinda over the top

wow most of mine involve my MIL:

*At my wedding rehearsal, she told me she had it covered and we were just going to order a bunch of Pizzas and hang out and decorate. I had asked her to have it at the church because my parents were divorced, and my father and mother werent getting along at the time and by having it at the church they could avoid having to really be in the same room together (plus we needed to decorate and no one wanted to travel the hour to her house and back and then decorate till the wee hours of the morning!) . We have the rehearsal and she tells everyone that she is having the dinner AT HER HOUSE, oops last minute change!! so my dad didnt go (he didnt want to sit at the table with my mom and grandmother glaring at him) My mom decided to stay to decorate as did my great aunts and grandmother because they didnt want to be there really late, we went to my MIL house , and she had invited total strangers over...and then there wasnt enough food.....

* thanksgiving at the MIL house two years ago, told us it was at 1:00, that she had all the food taken care of, we went for a bike ride that morning, then onto her house at 12:30 we thought 1/2 hour early right? get there...whole house is full halfway with people we dont even know (a reoccuring theme cant you tell?) and she says "you are late" and we say "you said 1:00" and she said "well i changed my mind and tried to call you but no one picked up" there was NO FOOD LEFT. so i said "see you" and we went home and then they told everyone that WE WERE RUDE for leaving....

My cousin and I went to visit a friend out of town that we had spoken to extensively about our itinerary for the visit, because we were excited. She mentioned that she did want to take us out to a nice dinner. When we got the bill at her chosen place, she collected some money from her boyfriend, then looked at me with her eyebrows raised. I went into my wallet and said "I only have thirty dollars," and gave it to her. She added it to her pile without saying thank you, obviously not finding it to be a large enough donation, and repeatedly counted the money out loud. I offered quietly that I would 'pay for the next one' and felt horribly awkward. I was baffled by her behavior and still keep her on my mental list of crappy hostesses.

So, every year my boyfriend and I have a Super Bowl Party. We usually smoke baby back ribs which is a pretty expensive main dish. We tell everyone a week before hand that it is $10 a rack and they can also take home as much as they want. There is never anything left and no one ever has problems with it and if they did then they just wouldn't come. My boyfriend usually gets up at the crack of dawn to start it and I usually do a really good dip and some kind of soup in the crock pot. Everyone else brings a dish and their own beer. This year people brought potato salads, caesar salad, deviled eggs, homemade ice cream, brownies, pies, etc. except for our one guy friend. He is a wine salesman so he decides like usual to bring three to four open bottles of wine and some ruffle potato chips. He is sick so he is rude the whole party and when he leaves he leaves with extra ribs and takes all the wine and the chips with him without giving us a dime for the ribs. We were all betting on the game and he won a stack of cash so it is not like he did not have it with him and if you are sick just stay at home and don't bring the misery to a party. He was the last to get there and the first to leave. My boyfriend was working on the ribs most of the party and when he was finally finished with everything he wanted to sit down and have a glass of wine that our friend had brought. But no he had already left and took his used wine with him!

Worst dinner party I ever went to was a baby shower last year for a coworkers granddaughter. When my friend and I showed up, we were the only ones that bought food (dessert) and waited hungrily for the guest of honor to arrive. When she didn't show after 2 hours, someone was sent out for chips, soda etc. since the food wouldn't be opened until she came. For roughly 80 people, we had 3 liters of soda and 3 bags of cheez puffs and potato chips to share.
When she arrived a whopping 3 hours later, the hostess decided to have her paster say a long prayer and have people give her well wishes first. Finally, it was announced that the food would be served and by the time we made it to the front of the line (we were in the first quarter of the line) the group started buzzing that there was already empty chafing dishes that weren't being refilled. After waiting almost 4 hours to eat, I only got a spoonful of rice and salad before we left in disgust.