PUN Party = Fun Party

Who doesn't love a good pun?  Puns -- play on words - make small jokes exploiting the various definitions of words we have in the English language.  As an English teacher, I love a good pun...gets me giggling every time!  So January's monthly dinner theme was all about puns, and I had so much fun coming up with puns for the decor, the food, the place cards, the favors, and anything else I could think of for this party.

Invite:  I wanted to incorporate as many puns into my invitation as possible. I think I got 4 in this one.  I chose the blue shades and burgundy as a color scheme because these were colors used in the toasting plates image and the "Pun Party" banner images I found online, but any color scheme would work perfectly for this party.

Entry Decor:  The night of the party it was raining, so I had to bring most of my outside decor inside. If you follow my blog, you know that our last party was a HO HO HOme Depot party where guests made a wooden Santa or a Snowman.  This is the snowman I made at that dinner party.  I just added a pun to it.

On the door, I used my Cricut to cut letters to spell Dumble (as in Dumbledoor from the Harry Potter series).  I put the his symbol from the novel as well.

This sign would have been outside as well.  To "whale"-come or welcome guests to the party.

Table Decor:  I had a lot of fun with the puns for the table.  I started with a centerpiece of four different puns.  I created speech bubbles with the puns to attach to each item so guests could understand the pun.

My favorite was the loaves of french bread that I cut to look like slippers/loafers.  These were super easy to create.  Just cut off half for the back of each loafer, and then scrape away the inside where the toes would go and a bit of the entire bottom. It's true...I love "loaf-ering" around with these ladies.

Also in the centerpiece was a bouquet of "carnation" flowers. I bought Carnation instant breakfast packets and some fake flowers.  I took off the flowers and replaced them with Carnation packets.  A pun with the French thank you - merci beaucoup became Merci Bouquet.

I also bought a small watermelon and a bottle of Heinz ketchup.  The watermelon for the pun "You're one in a melon (million)" and the ketchup for "Great to Ketchup (catch-up) with you."

On each plate, I made a small insert that I printed and placed in the center.  It encouraged guests to "eat your heart out."

For placecards, I wanted to come up with a pun with each guest's name.  This is a huge challenge.  I only had 6 ladies able to attend this party, so it was easier than trying to do it for a huge crowd.  Here's some of the ones I came up with for my friend's names:

When thinking of puns to go with guest names, you may need to try both first and last names.  I even had to do one friend's nickname because I couldn't think of any good puns for her first or last name.

For napkin rings, I used ring pops and carrots to create "one carrot (diamond) rings."  My kiddos enjoyed eating the ring pop suckers.  Then I washed the rings, carved a hole in a carrot with a screwdriver, and then put the carrot onto the ring.  You could add a diamond cut out of card stock under the carrot which might make the pun even easier to understand.

I made this small sign on PhotoShop to put on the drink table.  Parties are great chances to "wine (wind) down and (gopher) a drink".  I had a little clock next to the sign, but it kept disappearing...gotta love my kiddos!

I designed these wine labels for the three wines I served.  The red wine one "well red (read)" has open books designed behind it.  The chardonnay one is lyrics from a popular song right now.  "Now watch me Sip on Chardon-NAY NAY" instead of "Now watch me Whip; now watch me NAE NAE" song.

For wine charms, I made FACEcards.  A facecard is the Jack, Queen, and King in a deck of cards.  To make the pun, I just used Photoshop to put a photo of each guest's face in place of the queen's on each card.

Menu:  There are so many puns that go with food, so coming up with my menu was pretty easy.  I made menu tags to match the invites and other party decor.  For food, we started with a simple salad - romaine lettuce, cucumber, corn, bacon, and shredded cheese.  I used a "salad (solid) gold" pun as well as a "lettuce romaine (let us remain) friends forever" pun.

I made Cool Ranch Chicken for the main dish.  This is super easy to make and yummy (even my kids like it).  Alongside the chicken, I had a bottle of Ranch dressing that I added sunglasses to make it "cool".

For sides, I served green beans and cilantro lime rice.  "Thanks for bean-ing (being) great friends" and "Lime (I'm) glad we're friends."

For dessert I made a fruit tart with strawberries, kiwis, and blueberries.  It's Nilla wafers and butter for the crust, vanilla pudding and whipped cream for the middle, and fruit for the top.

Favor: Each guest took home a cheese grater I found at Dollar Tree.  I used a cookie cutter to cut a slice of cheese into a heart to attach to each grater.  I attached a tag to the front that read "I know it's CHEESY, but I am GRATE-ful for you!"  The girls loved them.

All in all, we had a PUN (fun) night.  Most of the guests came dressed up as a pun.  Pictured here from left to right:  Hawaiian punch, baking soda, chip on your shoulder, Freudian Slip, and Sugar Mama (she's got a bag of sugar wrapped in that baby blanket).

Hope you enjoyed this post!  Would love to hear your comments!