Invite: I designed the invite with clipart images of various parties - ugly sweater, pajama, graduation, toga, disco, etc. Other than these I kept the invite text simple.
Decorations: I pulled out of few of the many holiday decorations I own for this dinner. I didn't have to buy anything as I already had most everything. At the front door, I had a Halloween pumpkin bucket, my Santa happy holidays sign, and my 4th of July sign I already had up from the weekend. I lined my mantle with various party-related items and mixed up holiday banners throughout the party area.
For the main table centerpiece, I set out decorations like a table runner. These included a graduation plate with grad announcements from two of my guest's children, a witch hat/candle/sign, a disco ball, Santa/wrapped present/bell wreath, birthday hat/glasses, football jersey/football, 4th of July hat/flags, and a mascarade mask.
I mixed up my napkins too which took some creativity. My mom keeps everything, so I went through her napkin stash to find some holiday napkins. I created the others with various ribbon from my own staff and just items I could find around my house to dress them up.
The wine labels I designed for this party were based on a Retirement Party (off the clock cabernet) and Super Bowl Party (championship chardonnay).
To keep it easy for the wine charms, I printed out logos representing various parties and taped them to the front of the glass stems.
Menu: I had so much fun coming up with a menu for this dinner! The possibilities are endless! Personally, I decided to design menu items for parties that guests were NOT coming dressed as just to keep the variety, but if you have a bigger guest list, that might not be possible. For the appetizer, I borrowed my mom's Haviland tea cups and saucers and made individual charcuterie cups for each guest. I called these Charcuter-TEA cups to represent a tea party. In each cup were almonds, grapes, cubed gouda cheese, cubed mozzarella cheese, an Italian salami flower. A few crackers were placed on the saucer before serving.
To make the salami flower, I made them using the rim of a shot glass to keep them tight and compact.
The main dish was Drunken BBQ chicken wings that we grilled on the barbeque. These represented a Frat Party, so I served the side of BBQ sauce in a red solo cup shot glass!
We had mashed potatoes as a side dish, but added a little surprise to the center of each one to represent a Gender Reveal Party. Much like a gender reveal cake, we piped in blue or pink dyed potatoes into the center, so that when guest's cut into them, it would "reveal" the pink or blue.
My plate revealed "It's a Boy!"
To represent Toga Party, we had a simple Caesar Salad.
I made a fruit cookie pizza for dessert to represent a Pizza Party. I bought a large pizza box from a local pizza place to use as a serving tray. For this recipe, I did not have to make my own cookie dough. It called for Pillsbury sugar cookie dough already made! You can put any fruit you want on this pizza, but I kept it simple with only strawberries, blueberries, and kiwi.
Favor: The parting gift for the guests represented Slumber Party. I tied together a sleep mask from the dollar store, an individual box of cereal, and a spoon. For the tag, it read, "You came dressed for another party...but everyone loves a slumber party." Then under that text I added, "Cereal-sly, Thanks for Coming!" My serving "tray" for these was a pillow for added fun.
This is the perfect party for a random occasion or a birthday party. It was so fun and easy to put together without costing a lot of money. Hope you throw a party like this soon!
