small is beautiful...but only to me and my roommates, apparently.

me and my roommates are having a party tonight. two of my roommates are celebrating their birthday, and im having a goodbye party (officially titled: its not goodbye, its just see you later).

we all had differnet conceptions for how the party is going to work (i think one of my roommates is going to take her friends to a club later in the evening, but thats open), but we all agreed on one thing: the party is going to be small and cozy. personally thats ideal for me - large parties are fun, but small parties are nice, too. plus our parties have specific goals, and we dont want a lot of randoms running around at our birthday/goodbye parties.

some of my guests feel differently, though. one (who is helping plan) mentioned last night "well if we have four rooms open and only 50 people show up, then it'll be kind of sad." i dont really understand why. 50 people means a few more than ten people per room. to me, that sounds kind of ideal. enough people to rove around, but you still have your space. someone else had a different take: "unless the party is huge and overflowing with people, then to me its not a good party. if you want a small party, thats fine, but for me this party can never be better than just 'ok.'" great. at least one other guest thought the party was going to be big, and i have no idea how many others feel the same way.

i feel like only me and my fellow hosts are the ones that see the merits of a small party, and specifically dont WANT a big party. which is fine, i just dont want my guests to be dissappointed or think that im some kind of loser who cant throw a good party, even if they are the ones who are dogmatic in their beliefs of what that is.
parties are stressful enough as a hostess (answering the door, greeting people, making sure you get a chance to talk to everyone, making sure the food gets distributed if people migrate away from the kitchen, making sure theres enough to drink, answering questions people have, answering the phone, giving people directions on the phone, and trying not to look frazzled while doing all this at once) and i hate the idea that im putting myself under stress for guests who are secretly thinking that it is actually lame.