PreviewThe Box Pass is $1.95 a month or $19.50 a year and is free during preview. Nothing is charged. Pricing

For anyone hosting a cookout, birthday, dinner or holiday open house

Plan the party. Print the kit.

Tell it how many people are coming, what kind of food you are serving, how long it runs and what you can spend. Get back how much food, drinks, ice and tableware to buy, how to split the budget, what to do on which day, and when the food has to go back in the fridge. Then print it all as one host kit.

Plan a gathering See how it counts

Box Pass $1.95 a month or $19.50 a year · Free during preview · what it buys

Example plan

Backyard cookout, 20 adults and 6 children, 4 hours from 3:00 PM, a full meal, alcohol served, $400 budget.

  • Main dish, cooked weight: 8.7 lb
  • Dessert: 33 servings
  • Drinks other than water, non-alcoholic: 80 servings
  • Alcoholic drinks: 50 standard drinks
  • Ice: 26 lb (3 bags of 10 lb)
  • Budget: $15.38 a person
  • Starters back in the cooler by 5:00 PM
  • Meal back in the cooler by 6:00 PM

Worked out live by the same rules as the planner.

What the planner serves

Three things every host asks

  1. How much to buy

    Food by serving style and length, drinks by the hour, water, ice, plates, cups, napkins, trash bags and seats, for adults and children. Potlucks get a sign-up count of mains, sides and desserts.

  2. When to do what

    A timeline from the invitations three weeks out to setting up, picking up ice, serving and packing up, with clock times from your start time.

  3. Keep everyone well

    The USDA's 2-hour rule (1 hour above 90 °F) turned into a clock time, hot and cold holding temperatures, the FDA's nine major allergens to label, and standard drink sizes. Each with its source.

Plan a gathering

The Gathering Box

Keep every gathering in one Gathering Box

A private Gathering Box holds each gathering's plan and its invitation list: who is coming, how many adults and children, and who is bringing what. One tap turns the confirmed replies into the headcount, and each gathering prints as a host kit. No account and no email: you keep a private link.

Open the Gathering Box

Two place settings

Pricing

Free

$0

  • The Gathering Planner: quantities, shopping list, budget split, timeline and food-safety times, as often as you like (nothing is stored)
  • A private Gathering Box with 1 gathering and up to 25 invitations, with its printable host kit

Box Pass

$1.95 a month

or $19.50 a year (two months free)

  • Up to 12 gatherings in one box: every birthday, holiday and cookout of the year
  • Up to 250 invitations on each gathering, with replies, headcount and who brings what
  • A printable host kit for each one: shopping checklist, timeline, guest list and food-safety card

Free during preview: every Box Pass feature is on for everyone and nothing is charged.

Gathering in a Box sells nothing but the Box Pass. It ships no boxes, has no shop, no affiliate links and no sponsors. Its public pages show one banner ad from WeldonPC's own ad network, described under Privacy.