Yep, and they were locally sourced from a bakery. I think they cost about $25, and I put them in the convection oven at a low tempature. Not enough to cook them, but enough for them to be always warm, with melty cheese inside.

Edit: oh, and that stack of 2 plates? It was 3 plates. I used a plate for the chicken, and cheeses. I also had a few beers, and some jack n cokes.

The other 2 plates, their plates, you can see were unused. Everybody just ate chips off the orange serving platter.

Also, having been on the other side of such a situation: it's not cool to pressure or guilt trip your guests. Either be hospitable and let them do whatever they want, or don't invite them.

If people aren't hungry, then they aren't hungry. Maybe they are on a diet, maybe they misunderstood OP's intention and ate beforehand. Maybe they are recovering from something and don't want to eat too much.

And as for the two that did not showed up. It's a good practice to reconfirm the night before. Sometimes people forget. Sometimes life gets in the way.

If they did reconfirm and still didn't show up and did not have a good excuse, then I would start looking for better friends.

Hope OP has better success next time. I do understand that the situation sucks.

But it's also a situation that, in my opinion, is preventable.

So I have a friend that sounds a bit like OP.

He plans some event and invites a few people (including myself). I said I already had plans, but would try and make it if my other plans ended early.

Weekend comes around and he prepares a preposterous amount of food for everyone. Like enough to feed a family for an entire month.

My other plans don’t end up ending early, so I wasn’t able to make it. He then sends me pics of all the food that hadn’t been eaten and does this little guilt trippy dance he always does: “my friends and I were really excited to have you join us, guess I gotta throw all this away now”

Like bro…I never said I could go in the first place! And even if I was there, there is no WAY I’d be eating all that food lmao.

I really don’t understand this behavior. It’s like they get a pleasure out of playing the victim constantly.

Not saying this is you, OP. Just wanted to vent a little bit haha

Ah, that sucks too. At least you can take solace in the knowledge that it was unsafe to drive. Still sucks, but it's a bit less insulting. My thing was on a sunny August day.