In the chaos of last year’s grad party season, I pulled together a great party, but didn’t feel like it was worthwhile sharing everything after the fact, since I figured it wouldn’t be very helpful so late in the season. So, I’m here to share it with you now, in the hopes that someone will be able to make use of it. This was my first grad party for a daughter, and suffice to say, the experience was dramatically different than what I had with my older sons (whose party ideas are here and here). My daughter had definite ideas of what she wanted, and she was also very hands on in the process, which I appreciated. We pulled together some great ideas, and I think they’re great graduation party ideas for girls (or even guys!). Let’s get to it! This post contains some affiliate links.
Photo Backdrop
One of the things that seems to be really popular right now is the whole idea of a boxwood hedge or backdrop for photos. Especially for girls. You can rent them, but they can be hard to find, and on the spendy side. We borrowed a couple of boxwood photo backdrops that had been taped together, and let me tell you – brilliant.
We also pulled together a balloon arch on our own, without professional help. It’s a bonus that my future daughter-in-law is a queen when it comes to pulling one together, so between the three of us, we pulled off an awesome backdrop on a budget. Take the balloons you get with the balloon arch kit and add in some other sizes and colors as you like. So cute and fun.
Photo Display
We always do a poster board of the kids with each of their school photos over the years, but my daughter had a more extensive amount of photos of friends, events and activities that she wanted to display. Again, girls are definitely more extra in the grad party department. To display all of her photos, we got creative with the help of wood trellises. I bought a couple of them and then strung them up with some twine and small little craft clothespins. You can pack a lot of photos in a small space this way, and you can put them wherever works with the party flow.
Smart Serving Ware
I got so many compliments on the serving ware set up for this party, I’m excited to share it! These palm leaf plates are environmentally friendly and I got lots of compliments on how nice they were. Plus, I bought some cute pre-wrapped utensils that give you everything all pulled together, and they look great with the plates. It’s not only a nice look, it’s also super-functional. I also found these cute disposable wine glasses that I really prefer to just your standard issue plastic cup. Call me crazy, but there is something to be said for drinking wine out of what at least looks like a proper wine glass.
Beautiful Desserts
If you’re going to buy anything now, I suggest it’s this. Only because the longer you wait, the harder it will be to find. I love the look of using the graduation year as part of the decor in a way that’s fun and interesting. One of my friends is a cupcake master, and she made beautifully decorated cupcakes that we displayed in these “2024” forms. Honestly, you could use the forms for charcuterie, snacks, candy – but they were perfect for the cupcakes. Really pretty and whimsical for a girl’s graduation party.
Decorations
We kept the rest of the decorations relatively simple, with mason jar flower arrangements and “Class of 2024” cut outs on them. They looked great with the cupcakes! We added some outdoor paper lanterns too, just to give some extra interest and light. They make battery powered lights for lanterns, which I love (although the ones I got were too dim). I’m sure there has to be some decent ones out there though, because it’s a great idea.
We have a local place called The Flowerman where you can get flowers for cheap, so we pulled the flowers together ourselves without breaking the bank. (Pay no mind to the mess in the column back there – that’s remnants of our bee invasion shortly before her party).
We also had a tent with tables and some games in the backyard as well. We catered in some pulled pork and sides that rounded everything out well. I can tell you that I was absolutely exhausted by the time it was all said and done, but the party was a success! I can only imagine how I’ll feel after my son’s wedding!
Good luck to all of you who are embarking on the graduation season – I have to say, even though it’s a fun exciting time, I’m glad to be done with it!
Jenny
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