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How to Plan the Perfect Grad Party
Let’s say your child is a senior and graduation is approaching. You want to host a party in celebration of this milestone but are at a loss on how, where, when and ALL THE THINGS! You are frozen and the thought of hosting is just daunting.
I get it! It’s super overwhelming to plan a graduation party. After hosting two graduation parties, and making lots of mistakes along the way, I thought I’d share how to pull off a party that everyone will enjoy...even YOU!
When:
Although most people host graduation parties during graduation weekend, we have found that it makes that weekend even crazier than it already is. I’d suggest having a family dinner over graduation weekend and plan the graduation party for the first part of May. Not only is the weather better in Texas that time of year, it allows your party to be more relaxed. If planning the party a few weeks prior to graduation isn’t an option, then try your best to find out when your graduate’s friends are having parties and try to space them out so you aren’t having them at the same time. Also, we found that 7:30-9:30pm allows for a cooler evening as well.
Where:
A backyard venue is great for a graduation party. It’s more relaxed and fun, in my opinion. You don’t have to have a huge backyard to make it amazing. You can also opt for a fun local park. There is no need to stress about your house. All the kids care about is being invited and being with each other. Rain? It will just mean people might stay longer. Having games (indoor or outdoor) make it fun for the attendees.
Who:
It’s a lot of fun to do parties in groups. This allows for fewer overall parties to attend, a shared budget, and more options. The flip side is that this could mean a bigger guest list and a bigger party, which can be both positive and negative. Have your graduate figure out who they want to invite as soon as possible. You’ll also want to decide if you just want to invite kids or if you want to have adults there as well. Having done it both ways, I think inviting a few close adults (those that have helped raise your kids) is very special. If you are doing this with other families, you might have to limit the number of adult guests.
How:
I always start my planning with Pinterest. I gather ideas by looking to see what other people have done. From there, I create a board for the graduation party ideas and party ideas in general that I think are cool. Pinterest gets my creative juices flowing and usually a theme begins to emerge. That’s when I start to pare it down to one or two things that I really want copy. I know I can’t possibly recreate all the amazing ideas so I have to keep it realistic and stick to one or two that I love.
Having a theme helps me with all the other party planning so that’s where I start. After looking through so many photos on Pinterest, I decided I wanted to do a “pool party” theme for my son and a feminine country theme for my niece. Once I had the theme, I was ready to tackle the decorations, food, and entertainment.
Decorations (and Debacles):
You can spend a ton of money on decorations but if you are having an outdoor graduation party, you actually can do it pretty economically. For my son’s party, we spent money on giant pool inflatables and beach balls we found on Amazon. We knew we’d use them throughout the summer so it was an expense we were ok with. However, my pool is really big and I didn’t estimate correctly how many inflatables I’d actually need so it didn't come off quite as I wanted (I wanted so many that they were touching and covering the whole pool). Despite not ordering enough, it was still fun! The beach balls were for a photo wall idea I had. Kids are all about the photo op these days so I wanted to created a photo wall with the beach balls. It ended up being a Pinterest fail since I couldn’t get them to hang the way I’d hoped, so we ended up not having the photo wall after all. And you know what? It was fine!
For my son’s party, I also ordered customized cups from Two Funny Girls. They were super cute, but I ordered them in a size that was a bit too small. I ordered 12 ounce cups but 20oz would have been a better size!
We strung outdoor lights for my son’s party. My husband tried for days to figure out how to string them around the open yard. His plan was to buy plastic buckets, place a 6 -8 foot wood pole in the bucket, filling the bucket with cement, and screw a hook into the top of the pole for the lights to go through. The wood ended up not being sturdy enough to hold the lights so maybe you can come with a better plan than we did? For my niece’s’ party, we bought Tiki lights for the outdoors instead of stringing lights and it worked great. It’s a completely different look and although I prefer the strung lights, the time/effort/cost of the tiki lights is hard to beat!
We wanted to have one really long table for guest to sit down to eat. I put together several portable tables, my kitchen table, and an outdoor table then covered them all with several turkish blankets I found at the $5 store. I also found some lanterns there that had battery operated lights.
At my son’s party, we kept decorations very minimal at the food and gift tables. We had decorated cookies with each of the boys’ schools and set those out on the gift table along with a framed baby picture, and their bibles where they had people sign the front or back of the insides.
We went with a feminine, country girl theme for my niece. I envisioned burlap, pink, baby’s breath, and rustic decorations. I originally wanted Christmas light strung in the trees but we had a limited time to plan and implement so I opted for lights in the pool. I purchased these cute flowers that light up when they hit the water and have a really cool effect. I miscalculated how many to order and and misjudged my pool size AGAIN so I didn’t really get the effect I wanted, but it was still pretty! Pro tip: Order more than you think you need and you can always return them if you don’t use them.
I wanted to for sure have a photo wall this time so I put my sister in law in charge and she found some old doors someone had and we propped them up against the side of the house, added some greenery and outdoor lights. It was adorable. I’ve also seen people do something similar with 4 pallets nailed together which looks really cute.
Again, a photo wall is not totally necessary but a fun addition. I did a photo wall for prom using artificial flower strands I’ve purchased at Michael’s and Hobby Lobby when they were half off. This one took probably 20 strands. I placed small nails at the top wood of the wainscoting to attach.
Speaking of photos, the mistake I made both parties was not hiring a photographer. Although you can put family members in charge, they still won’t capture all the photos you wish you would have because they might have been distracted. Find a photographer who is starting out to get a better rate. You really will want those photos afterwards because you’ll be so busy with the party, you’ll forget to take them! Make sure that photographer has a list of Must-Have photo shots you absolutely want captured! Make a list like you would for a wedding.
We didn’t have a long table at this party but used by 7 foot outdoor table. We covered it with a burlap tablecloth (we found on Amazon $16 each). I placed some battery operated votives, mason jars with baby’s breath, and a mason jar with baby pink roses.
The gift/drink table and food table also had the burlap tablecloths. The gift/drink table had a little sign from Hobby Lobby that asked the guests to highlight their favorite verse in her bible. We had a box for cards on the table. We had two tiered stands, one for mini cupcakes that we added chalkboard signs on the tops of and the other for decorated cookies. We wrapped the water bottles with some wraps we found at Party City that said “Sip Sip Hooray”. We also had big tins that had bottles of Topo Chico, Dr Pepper, Coke, and Diet Coke on ice. Color coordinated straws were a cute addition.
On the food table and gift/drink table, we used multi-shaded pink baby roses and baby’s breath in mason jars with a little burlap ribbon and other tin decor we had around the house or borrowed from friends. We also bought rose colored “2019” helium balloons but with the wind, they didn’t want to cooperate. I found pink square plates and pink forks at Party City. Hobby Lobby had the perfect napkins to go with the feminine country girl theme!
Food:
I think the most stressful thing to me about planning any party is figuring out the menu. Especially with today’s allergies and food aversions, it’s hard to find something for everyone.
For my son’s party, since we were going to have a larger party of at least 100 people, we decided to cater. We used Chipotle since it is gluten free and one of the boys were gluten free. Plus, who doesn’t love tacos, am I right? It ended up being around $10 per person plus delivery and tax. They delivered the food along with the utensils, heating pans, and everything. It was so simple! I would suggest, however, that you use your own plates instead of the bowls they bring. This allows you a bit more control over the serving size and can stretch your food budget a bit further, especially for a party that is predominantly teenage boys. Ha! Otherwise, you will most likely run out, especially with the meat.
We decided on Steel City Pops for dessert. They were a hit!
You have to provide dry ice in order for them not to melt or they can deliver for a fee.
The timing of my niece’s party was later in the evening (7:30pm) than my son’s. I probably should have gone with my gut and just had a dessert party as we learned many had eaten before they came. Thankfully, we didn’t cater for this party otherwise we would have had way too much leftover food we would have had to throw away. She invited 75 and we planned for about 50 people.
We decided to do flautas, quesadillas, and chips with queso so that it would be easy for people to pick up and eat while walking around. Costco has some amazing chicken flautas in the refrigerated section. I also bought fresh salsa, green avocado salsa, and white queso in the refrigerated section. Bottled drinks, shredded cheese, veggies, water bottles, chips (the Costco organic tortilla chips are SO good) and ranch dressing were also all there, too! I went to Kroger for their fresh tortillas. All we had to do was heat up the flautas, cook the quesadillas (I cut them in quarters), and heat up the queso (we served in a mini crockpot). Easy peasy! Although we had leftovers, most things were still packaged and we can freeze to use at a later date.
For dessert we did mini cupcakes from Flour Shop (the BEST around) and my friend, Christa, made the adorable cookies which were the biggest hit of the party!
Entertainment:
Since your graduate might know people from different parts of their life, it’s likely that not everyone at your party will know each other. Having some games on hand is a great way to get people to interact. We had two sets of the “bags” game, a hammock, we brought our ping pong table out in the grass, and more! These are great ways to have people mingle.
I wanted to have a DJ/Line Dance instructor for my niece’s party but we didn’t plan far enough ahead and couldn’t find one that was available on our party date. So, we had a great country playlist playing that my son created.
We had Dawson Neal sing at my son’s party and it was fabulous. In hindsight, I wish I would have had a stage and had his music a little louder so the kids could hear him better. He was awesome!
Conclusion:
Obviously from sharing my experiences, you know I’m not the perfect party planner. I’m a complete amatuer, but, hopefully from sharing the wins and failures of the two grad parties I’ve hosted, you’ll have the confidence to know you’ll be able to plan a GREAT party for your grad.
The most important part is just taking it all in and being present because it all goes by too quickly. It doesn’t have to be pinterest worthy, just make the memories count!
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Dating in the empty-nest season.
