{Entertaining} 80's Themed High School Grad Party-THE END!

We are at the end of my 80's Themed Graduation Party posts! Yay! This is Part 3 and the final installment of all the details from the party.

Part 1 (Decor)

Part 2 (Food)

Music

We Mr. Click created an upbeat 80's themed playlist on Spotify and played it through speakers (see them on the left of this photo) so everyone could hear it.

Photo Booth/Activities

I don't have any photos of the actual photo booth but we did have one and it took a lot of the pressure off of me for taking photos at the party.  I received digital copies of all of the photos too.

 We borrowed a corn hole game which is always popular....

and set up our volley ball net. We had badminton and volleyball available. My niece got all of the big kids to play a game with her (in her pjs).

 Weather

The weather was absolutely perfect, especially after all of the rainy weekends we'd been having.

 It even got a little chilly as the sun went down so I'm glad we set up our chiminea.

 As well as our fire pit on the deck (see Part 2 for s'mores being made).

I ordered disposable trash cans from Amazon in trellis print and recycle print to place around the tent for easier clean up.

Here's a link to them.

I think this girl was happy with her party!

Of course I had to have sparklers to end the night! Thanks for sticking with me through all of the party details!

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{Entertaining} 80's Inspired High School Grad Party-Part 2 The Food!

Here we are at Part 2 of the graduation party, are you still with me after Part 1 and my slight blog hiatus (oh, hey Boston I'm looking at you!)? If so, let's proceed with the many details from my daughter's party.

Food/Drink

I try and plan the menu as early as possible and then see what we can make ahead of time or purchase early. We decided to have some of the food catered (from the chicken parm to the rolls and butter) to alleviate some of the stress. The rest of the menu we made. I wish I had more photos of the food but I prepared some of our favorites so I have old photos that I can insert here.

{Vegan Spicy Thai Noodles}

I got/get so many compliments and comments about these noodles, they've become a party staple. In the recipe, I give adjustments for making them less spicy which is what I did and I doubled the recipe.  They can be made a day or two ahead and keep getting better!

{Oh She Glows Crowd Pleasing Vegan Caesar Salad}

This is another proven party winner. I doubled the recipe for this yummy salad. The dressing, vegan parmesan and roasted chickpea croutons can be made ahead of time and the salad can then be assembled right before the party.

{source}

We also had Black Bean Salad with Corn, Red Peppers and Avocado with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette. 

My friend G made the Curry Lentil Quinoa Salad and it was so good!

For the appetizers I tried to keep it simple. We purchased a tomato pie that was cut up into party sized slices.

We tried a new recipe called Mediterranean Dip which was a thick layer of hummus covered with tiny chopped up veggies, herbs, pine nuts and Kalamata olives. 

I made another old standby that is always a hit, Buffalo Chickpea Dip.  

I whipped up two batches of my Restaurant Style Salsa In a Flash and served that with tortilla chips.  We also had popcorn and potato chips.

This was the beverage area set up in our garage.  I had another large dispenser of pink lemonade. We purchased pre made pink lemonade and added lemon slices to it.  It sure looked pretty!

This was the drink menu and we also had beer and soda in a mini fridge.

I made this Blackberry Mojito Punch again (we'd had it at the last grad party) and it was still as delicious as I'd remembered.

Once it was time for dessert we consolidated the dinner items and created this sweet table.

I didn't get a photo before people started digging in but here's what we made. The banner is from Etsy.

Chocolate Ganache Pretzel Tarts

Mixed Berry Vanilla Cheesecakes

Using the basis of that recipe, I also made an Oreo version of the cheesecakes with a cookie crust.

My daughter made Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes and Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes from the Oh She Glows Cookbook.

I veganized the recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Ritz Bars and there were no leftovers, so good!

There was also fruit salad and some oatmeal cookies from Ikea as well as some party colored candies and gum balls to round out the sweets table.

I made sure we had all the fixings for s'mores and they were used later in the evening by the Grad and her friends.

 A magical night it was!
To catch up on Part 1, click here.

To Be Continued..Part 3

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{Entertaining} 80's Inspired High School Graduation Party

I haven't meant to leave you hanging about the grad party details but I have so many photos and I wanted to make some sense of it all. Inspired by Carla From The River's graduation post, I am breaking the party down into manageable details. Let's start with my favorite part...decor!

Decor

{Grad Party Sneak Peek}

I gave you this sneak peek of the color story we were using for the party back in May.   We were inspired by the bright, neon colors of the 80's.

For flowers, we went out the day before to a flower market and picked out what she liked.   The selection wasn't great but we found bright yellow mums and filler, blue delphiniums, pink roses, daisies, white mums and green spider mums.

She put all of the bouquets together. We ended up not wrapping the vases with ribbon after trying it and not loving how it looked. I got these little photo flags made with her invitations and we popped them in some of the vases.

Some had her name on them, others had her photos on them, 2018 or GRAD.

 We rented a tent, tables, chairs and linens. We went with white linens to set off the other bright colors.

The little Dollar Tree mason jar lanterns looked adorable and we did (belatedly) remember to light them once it got dark.  I was gifted the 2018 photo holders from a fellow mom who'd already thrown her party so of course I had to print out some photos of the graduate.  

 I had enough to print out each first day of school photo and a few extra fun photos that she added.

Speaking of photos, I also made a photo banner of each of her school photos from preschool through graduation. I did the same for her sister. I scanned them and printed in black and white to keep it consistent looking

 We had an entry table for the guests to visit when they arrived. There were fun 80's themed sunglasses for them to take if they wanted.  I found the tray they are in on a thrifting trip. It actually was a very sunny day and a bit hard to photograph so shades were helpful.

The table became a central location for dropping off cards for her and seeing her scrapbook as well as other mementos of her school years.

When City Girl got home, I asked her to make a sign for the party. She did not disappoint! I love the funky 80's font she used and check out the cute robot in the graduation cap. It went perfectly with our theme. We used her easel to display the chalkboard.

Remember this thrifted basket? 

 We used that to hold these words of wisdom cards for the graduate.  I found them on etsy.

Balloons! They were my big decorating splurge.  I purchased large 2018 numerical balloons and also the huge colored balloons in blue, yellow and pink.

 I actually ordered 36 inch balloons but the party store convinced me to only fill them to 24 inches. They were still huge and much easier to get home!

Of course I had to do a photo shoot with the grad before we decorated with the balloons.

This is getting long so I will continue the details in future posts. Thanks for sticking with me this long!

to be continued...Part 2

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