Personalize a Graduation Party

We threw our son a high school graduation party a few weeks ago and I wanted to share a few tips you can use for grad parties, showers, birthday parties or even weddings.

I’m not really into “theme” parties, so I kept this one simple and used his high school colors for accents, but kept the majority of the details white and ivory.

We hosted 75 people and rented a 20 x 30 tent and 6 9′ tables. For our crowd it worked well, but because the sun was blazing hot that day I regret not putting up one of our pop up canopies to have the food and drink tables under. Live and learn. I’ll arrange things a little differently when I do this again in two years.

I ordered our tablecloths from www.premiertablelinens.com and was very happy with the service and quality of the tablecloths we ordered. Ours were poly premier in ivory and looked really nice. I ordered them large enough to hang 15″ on each side. We also had 3 cocktail tables and I ordered large square table cloths for those because I don’t like the look of the spandex table cloths everyone is using for cocktail tables. I think it looks cheap.

On our food tables I ordered these hunter green table cloths, which fit perfectly onto our folding tables from Costco. They wash easily and iron so quickly. 

In terms of silverware and plates, napkins, and cups, I kept it very simple and also ordered from Amazon. I purchased these gold-rimmed cups for cocktails and they worked well. I don’t like drinking wine out of plastic, so I bought a bunch of white and red wine glasses at the Dollar Store. They were $1.25 each, so nothing that broke the bank, but inexpensive enough that I’d be fine if a few broke, though none did. A friend gifted me a beautiful set of wine glass charms for Christmas, so I put those out as well, and it helped everyone keep track of their own glass.

This set of plates and silverware worked perfectly and really matched the colors I was going with. I did also put out real steak knives too, however, because our menu required a real knife and I don’t like my guests snapping plastic knives trying to cut a piece of meat.

One little touch I loved, but didn’t get used enough, was a set of custom coasters I had made and put out on the drink table. I have extras for the next grad party and thought these were so cute. I ordered ours from www.customcoastersnow.com and they were the second thinnest weight option, but are still substantial. 

Our party was an open house in the afternoon, but several couples and a ton of kids stayed until the next day. I put out these candle holders from Ballard Designs on the cocktail tables.

I covered our large patio table with a fabric table cloth and displayed our son’s captain’s sweater and school blazer on these great display hangers and it was a great image. I also purchased two black trifold presentation boards from Michaels and adhered an assortment of school photos on one and family and friend photos on the other. On the tabletop I displayed his diploma and academic honors, the graduation ceremony program, invitation, and party invitation as well as these adorable advice cards I had printed at Office Max. They were a big hit and I hope he appreciates the messages friends and family wrote on them for him. I set out a glass and brass card box for people to put these advice cards and their own cards in for him and it kept everything neat and organized for him. 

I purchased an embossed leather binder in our son’s high school colors from Gallery Leather and has his name and high school embossed on it in gold. I printed all of the teacher comments from middle school and high school, as well as his personal statement and some of his college essays and letters of recommendation and acceptance, which I put in plastic sleeves. These fit really nicely into the 3-ring binder as a keepsake memento from his high school days. I found guests really enjoyed paging through this during the party. Gallery Leather did a beautiful job, but I blurred his name and school name in this photo for the sake of privacy.

In order to keep the drinks cold we used a Cabela’s cooler for bottles of water, a large Frontgate drink chiller for bottles of French lemonade, sparkling wine and white wine. We have had this for years and, while it’s a splurge, it works really well and looks great. We have several of their Arctic Chill collection and always enjoy how practical they are.

I also bought this beverage cooler stand for cans. I appreciated that it had a tablecloth that adheres with velcro, as well as a shelf to put things like Tequila, Vodka, etc. for people to mix their own drinks. I intend to use this over the summer when our kids entertain (basically every weekend) so they can keep water and soda in it for easy use.

Our menu was great and we had something for everyone. I typed it out and framed it and displayed that on the food table so that I didn’t have to explain to everyone what each chafing dish contained. I also made sure to set things out in the order in which they were listed on the menu. 

We had fruit kabobs, chips and dips and salsas, chicken Romano with lemon butter sauce, steak Diane, broccoli salad with cranberries, nuts, sunflower seeds and homemade feta cheese, spring mix salad with a champagne vinaigrette, pickled onions, and cheese, sun-dried tomato and cheese penne pasta, roasted Brussels sprouts with red peppers, red onions, and a balsamic honey glaze, artisanal sandwiches with garlic aioli, two enormous trays of Romanian pastries and nut bread, a cassata cake, and two themed cakes.

From our local grocery store I ordered a marble cake with chocolate cream filling with an image of an historic landmark from our son’s high school on it and an almond and vanilla cream cake with an image from one of his college’s buildings on the others. I had a basic message put on each and we got so many compliments on them.

Our daughter put out a slip and slide, corn hole, and pickleball and each of them was used heavily, which made our party a big hit for all the teens present. 

We have built-in speakers on our patio, but our tent wasn’t very close to it, so we put out our portable speaker and it was great. We take this thing everywhere. We put another one in the front yard for the slip and slide and pickleball area, so there was music everywhere to keep the party feeling festive. 

I hope these details help you plan your next event.