Mother accidentally invites all of her phone contacts to daughter’s birthday party

A mother has shared her embarrassment after making a large mistake when inviting people to her daughter’s first birthday party.

Emily King took to TikTok to share her experience, explaining that she was using an electronic invitation or Evite. “I just made an Evite for my daughter’s first birthday party and on Evite it says, ‘Import contacts’ and I thought it meant import to select through [the names],” her video began.

“No — it imported all 487 of my contacts and invited them to this birthday party,” King continued. “Not only did it invite my boss, all of my coworkers [and] all of the people that have ever been stored in my phone but it sent invitations based [on] how they are stored in my phone.”

The mother explained that some of the contacts in her phone aren’t listed as just their first and last name. “I want you to just take a second and think about everyone stored in your phone and how they’re stored in your phone,” King said.

“And then imagine someone receiving an invitation… ‘Derek Eye Roll.’ He received an invitation [and] ‘Jess Hit Her Car In Parking Lot.’”

“Anyways, I have to quit or get a new identity,” said King. “I don’t even know.”

After posting, her video went on to receive over 12 million views, with many people admitting they shared in her embarrassment.

“This should qualify you for witness protection,” one comment read.

Another commenter agreed, writing: “How did Evite create that feature and think ‘yeah this is what people want as a result!’”

Other commenters joked about the bad contact names in their own phones and what would have happened had they been in King’s situation.

“I would die if ‘Mark STILL OWES ME 100’ came to my son’s bday,” one person wrote in the comments.

“Oh my god I haven’t deleted a number since 2011. I’d be inviting exes and their whole families,” another commenter pointed out.

King later posted a follow-up video on TikTok to answer some commonly asked questions, such as how exactly the mistake was made in the first place.

The mother revealed that there was an option on the Evite website to “import guests from previous parties”. From there she intended to individually select contacts from her phone to invite, so she clicked the “import contacts” button thinking that would lead to another window, but instead it invited all 487 of her phone contacts.

“When I typed ‘Dad’ it showed he was already invited,” King later recalled in an interview with Today. “I thought: ‘Weird.’”

She panicked and was able to delete the invite within several minutes of the error — but it was sent. “All the blood drained from my body,” she said.

Scanning the public guest list, many with emojis she had selected for each name, King saw old contacts stretching back 15 years.

She explained that she was lucky enough to not have all 487 people RSVP to the party, assuming her phone contacts either were aware of her mistake or were too embarrassed to do anything.

As their way of apologising, Evite sent King and her family a $250 gift card to DoorDash to cater food for the party.

“I have a pretty good sense of humour ... I’m glad I could bring joy to people,” King told Today about her viral TikTok, adding: “My second daughter’s birthday party will be just as cool.”