Emily King, 30, a wife, mother, and teacher, unintentionally invited all 487 of her phone contacts to her daughter Ivy’s first birthday party.

The episode has fascinated millions of people due to a series of viral TikTok videos in which King describes the mishap in hilarious detail.

Emily King, 30, a wife, mother, and teacher, unintentionally invited all 487 of her phone contacts to her daughter Ivy’s first birthday party. The episode has fascinated millions of people, due to a series of viral TikTok videos in which King describes the mishap in hilarious detail.

Emily King, who had planned a small party at a nearby park, utilized the internet invitation tool Evite to send out digital invitations. The problem arose when she mistakenly selected the “import contacts” option in Evite.

Thinking she’d be able to choose which contacts to invite, she mistakenly included everyone on her phone, including her boss, ex-boyfriends, and individuals she’d just met once.

“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,” King stated in her first TikTok video, which has over 16 million views as of June 25, 2024.

“No—it imported all 487 of my contacts and invited them to this birthday party,” she explained, apparently worried yet amused by the error.

King playfully described the method in which she saved these contacts on her phone as the most uncomfortable aspect. “I want you to just take a second and think about everyone stored on your phone and how they’re stored,” she told me.

Her supervisor and coworkers were also included on the list, which led to an unpleasant day at work the following day. “Anyways, I need to resign or adopt a new identity,” King said. “I don’t even know.”

When King realized her error, she instantly cancelled the event on Evite. However, the harm had been done. She had already distributed the invitations, and now she had to deal with the aftermath.

In a follow-up TikTok video, King explained how the error occurred, stating that she was in the process of importing attendees from prior events when she hit the incorrect button.

“I assume there’s a section where you can filter and select your contacts.” However, there was another section labeled “Import guests from past events,” which is where I was.

She explained her confusion, saying she thought she was carefully importing contacts to the guest list but ended up sending invitations to all 487 individuals on her contacts list. Despite the shame, King’s incident sparked widespread interest, propelling her to TikTok fame.

Many found humor in the situation, entertaining and empathetic at the same time. King explained that her boss, ex-boyfriends, and other acquaintances accepted the situation in stride, finding it amusing. Even Evite reached out to her, sending a DoorDash gift card as a tiny consolation.

In another TikTok update, King demonstrated how to use Evite correctly, utilizing her newfound celebrity to promote the platform’s user-friendly features.

“So not only is Evite now helping me throw my daughter’s first birthday, but they’ve also now developed an app with teachers and moms in mind,” she informed me. “If you’re anything like me, you enjoy organizing and attending potlucks, and you always use Google Sheets to arrange your gatherings. It is not particularly effective. Also, Google Sheets isn’t cute. This is much easier than that.”

The incident also prompted Evite to make improvements to their program, offering what they called the “Emily Hotfix” to prevent such errors in the future.

Evite’s response emphasized their dedication to enhancing user experience based on input while also playfully noting King’s accidental contribution to the platform’s progress.

We meticulously planned a “Lord of the Rings”-themed extravaganza for Ivy’s birthday celebration.

Following the accident, King increased her original guest list from 50 to 70, asking additional people to attend the celebration. She was determined to make the original misstep into an unforgettable anecdote for her kid.

“It will absolutely be the books’ first birthday. “I’m really excited to tell [Ivy] the story when she’s older,” King said, her joy clear as she set up decorations in another TikTok video.

“Planning a first birthday party for your daughter now involves millions of people,” she captioned the video, reflecting on the unexpected popularity of the incident.

King’s anecdote is a hilarious reminder to double-check digital acts, particularly when utilizing new technologies. While the initial terror was real, many people found joy and learned a few life lessons by being able to laugh it off.

King’s sense of humor and Evite’s prompt response transformed a potentially disastrous situation into an uplifting and enjoyable story that millions of people could enjoy.

In an exclusive interview, King clearly described the sinking feeling she experienced when she understood the gravity of her error. “I sort of immediately knew. I was thinking, ‘Wait, something’s wrong.’ This isn’t happening,” she explained.

King claimed that she had planned to import attendees from a recent St. Patrick’s Day celebration but did not know she had imported her full contact list until it was too late.

“I started to look at the list, and it’s everyone that I had ever put in my phone,” she told me.Not only does it include everyone I’ve stored on my phone, but it also includes everyone I’ve ever emailed through my job.”

King’s detailed account emphasized the humorous elements of the incident, including the various nicknames and descriptions assigned to the contacts. “It’s like, ‘cute boy from the bar’ and… like ‘old man neighbor,’ and it’s like, ‘Derek eye-roll emoji,’ and I hit this girl’s car in a grocery store parking lot once [and] it said, ‘Jess hit car in parking lot,'” she went on.

“At first I was mortified, but I like to think I have a pretty good sense of humor,” Mr. King remarked. “I was embarrassed, but I also couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. I couldn’t stop laughing.”

King also revealed that she had planned to invite only a few people from her gender reveal party but instead invited everyone on her phone. “She told me that when she typed ‘Dad,’ it indicated that he had already received an invitation. I thought, ‘Weird.'”

That’s when King noticed the 487-person guest list. She panicked and was able to cancel the invitation within a few minutes after the blunder, but it had already been delivered. “All the blood drained from my body,” she explained.

King scanned the public guest list, many of which had emojis assigned to each name, and discovered old acquaintances dating back 15 years. The list includes a graduate school instructor who she described as “kinda annoying” and a gorgeous guy named “Justin Delta Sky Lounge”, with whom she flirted during a trip to New Zealand when she was 21.

King invited all of her ex-boyfriends, including a “cute guy from [the] bar,” as well as her high school science lab partner.

King hoped to never hear from “Jess Hit Her Car In Parking Lot,” whose car she damaged outside of Trader Joe’s, but now she’s concerned she’ll follow up.

The following day at school, King’s children—70 of whom had received invitations—were discussing the party. “There were a lot of, ‘I wasn’t invited, but you were’ conversations,” according to King.

She scrupulously excluded her coworkers, including “David, parking lot attendant,” and “New science teacher,” as well as her vice-principal.

Fortunately, many visitors did not RSVP since they either recognized the blunder or were embarrassed. However, King decided to invite hundreds more guests to the party, stating, “Why not?”

King’s massive yet amusing gaffe elicited an incredible response from netizens globally. One commentator posed the question, “But have they all arrived yet?” I need to know.”

Meanwhile, someone else commented, “Hahaha, it’s hilarious that she’s crying and laughing simultaneously.” I am very sorry, mother, but thank you for the laughter. I’d be humiliated. Another TikTok user showed curiosity, saying, “I adore this so much!” I wonder how many people came!”

One user requested a sequel, saying, “We need a follow-up to this story!” Who turned up for the party? Did Derek?? The statement “I would be so embarrassed, but it would be the best freaking party I’ve ever thrown!” was met with laughter and feelings of pity.

Another commenter shared King’s experience, stating, “I definitely would be screwed… ‘work doesn’t answer,’ ‘Cate the annoying nurse, ‘recruiter doesn’t answer,’ ‘Kacie, who literally doesn’t know how to do her job.'” I did exactly what I said. Indeed, what King did was an excellent way to make your daughter’s first birthday unique and memorable! This will go down in history (or as digital memorabilia on social media).