Planning a Decades Party
As scene on the October 13th episode of Access Hollywoood LIVE celebrating Billy Bush’s 40th Birthday, I have created great tips and trends for throwing a Decades Party. This is a great theme party to throw for all ages: for birthdays, anniversaries, Halloween, etc.
When creating a decade’s party, you may choose one decade to focus on or encompass the decades of your choice into one event. You can build the event from one segment to the other in even time segments allowing guests to enjoy the eras one by one. You may also set up stations throughout the event with different food, music, games, and entertainment from each decade. Guests will have a chance to roam around the space enjoying the decades at their leisure.
When creating the menu, come up with creative new ways to serve your food. Take an old time classic like meat loaf and mashed potatoes and turn it into a bite sized passed hors d’ourves by altering the recipe to make a bite sized treat. Your guests will really enjoy the bite sized and single serving portion sizes. It will give them the opportunity to mingle around the party while also enjoying the mixture of sweet and savory food items.
To set the mood and tone of the event, encourage people to dress in the appropriate clothing for that decade. Be sure to set the mood with décor from that era as well. For example, if it is a 70s disco party, be sure to have a disco ball and ask the guest to wear bell bottoms, floral shirts, and platforms. Make play lists of your favorite music from that era and play them throughout the party. A great party favor would be to burn a CD with the party playlist and create a fun CD cover for the cases. It will be a great reminder for each guest about what a great time they had during the event.
Be sure when sending an invitation to your guests that you make sure that the invitation reads that it is a theme party. You do not want your guests showing up out of theme attire because they didn’t realize the logistics of the event. Be sure that the invitation fits within the theme and has design elements according to the decade. You can customize, print and send invitations from websites such as zazzle.com.
Create a multi-tier celebratory cake, dedicating each tier to a corresponding decade. The cake from Billy’s 40th Birthday Party was created using Wilton products. Wilton offers excellent products for easy cake decorating such as edible paper, pre-colored fondants, candy molds and melts, and decorative figurines. You may also add toys and small miscellaneous items to create a creative and fun dessert.
For more information on how I designed each decade, click the links below!
Billy Bush’s Decades Birthday Cake
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DIY Children’s Birthday on a Budget: Mark on The Rachael Ray Show!
Have you ever wanted to throw your child an amazing birthday party but you were on a tight budget and didn’t think you could pull it all together with limited resources? I was asked to design a DIY children’s birthday party for Gretta Monahan’s son Kai’s first birthday to be featured on The Rachael Ray Show. I have come up with some creative and fun low budget ideas you can use for any party.
Click the links below for more information regarding the tips that were featured during the show.
Invitation
Making your own invitations is a fun way to make your party announcements unique and on theme, they are something your guests will keep and even wear to the party, such as sheriff badges for a cowboy theme, crowns for a princess theme or masks for a super hero theme.
Capes
A Super Hero is not complete without his attire. By repurposing plastic tablecloths, you can create capes for each child to decorate and wear during the party. They also double as a party favor! You can incorpaorate this into any theme party from Super Hero to Pretty Princess.
Centerpieces
Repurposing old vases you have collected over the years, you can create colorful and fun centerpieces using candy and Super Hero exclamations.
Photo Booth – Action Shots/Gotham box city
A MYO photo booth is a great way to engage your guest during the party and send them home with a reminder of how much fun they had during the party. Using craft paper or poster boards make your own backdrop and wrap used boxes to great your own Gotham City.
Clothes Line Photo Décor
To highlight the past year(s) of your child’s life, make a clothes line of pictures of your child with colorful clothes pins.
MYO ball pit
Bring Discovery Zone to your home! Repurposing a kiddie pool and using balloons or balls, you can create and fun and inexpensive activity for the children a ball pit!
Table Settings
Use inexpensive party supplies in multiple colors to set a festive tone to your table setting.
Candy Bags
Using small colored candy bags, decorate them according to your theme.
This is a great way to invite the children to take home the candy from the centerpieces.
Super Treats
A great way to entertain the children during the party is to have them create their own Super Treats.
The children will be able to MYO party mix using your favorite dried food items and a creative MYO cupcake station!
Downloadables
All of the templates for all our fun and creative tips are available here!!
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MYO Colorful Kapow Centerpieces
Repurpose clear vases and bowls you have around the house to create a menagerie of glass shapes and containers. Carry through the design of the party invitations in to the décor and centerpieces such as colors, shapes and words. Fill the containers with candies and treats in monochromatic colors blocks or mix them up. Using colored paper and colored markers, crayon or pencil, replicate shapes from the invitation like I’ve done with the comic exclamations “BAM”, “KAPPOW”, and “SMACK” and cut them out into fun colorful shapes. Attach them to large rainbow whirly lollipops with double sided tape. (Be sure not to remove the wrapper before applying.) Make a single No. 1 shield for the center lollipop for the birthday boy/girl.
To download the Medium Exclamation Bursts, click here!
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DIY Super Hero Children’s Birthday Party Downloadables
Click on the images below for Super Hero Party Downloadables!!
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