I love my family. When my brother was graduating from high school last year I said to him "William, we can do your graduation party in school colors... OR... we can do a theme. A Star Wars theme." And I received an enthusiastic green light! (I love my family)
I love my job (I am a content manager for Party411.com). When I come up with a party theme I know that the big guns here at Party411 have my back. Gotta love the inhouse artist, graphic designer, big o'l printers and color copies :)
I started off with a custom caricature invitation drawn by out resident caricature artist Larry. Larry is awesome. He had done several invites for me over the years and two of our Christmas cards. He doesn't bat an eye at anything weird I throw his way.
My brother as Han Solo, with the Millennium Falcon in background with a congratulations banner, and Admiral Akbar and Boba Fett giving the RSVP info? Done son.
(If you are interested in having Larry draw you an invitation there is a caricature invitation contact form for Graduation Caricatures you can use. Nanette will help you. She is awesome.)
Larry gave me the original art to put in a frame. I put the matte on top of the glass, which will allow people to sign, but protects the art from smudgy fingers.
This table also had a few mementos; William's graduation cap, his diploma, a thank you gift from the kids in the class he student taught for, and the favors. I did a custom design on our personalized graduation favor bags that said "Chewie Chocolate Chip Cookies" and filled the bags with yummy cookies.
Above the table I hung a "Congratulations" banner. To make this banner I downloaded a Star Wars font. In Photoshop I used an image with the same first letter of the letter in the banner to fill the hollow space (ie, C-Cloud City, O-Owen Lars, N-Nebulon-B frigate, G-Greedo, R-Rancor, A-Admiral Ackbar, T-Tauntaun, U- L, A-AT-AT, T-Tatooine, I-Imperial Star Destroyer, O-Oola, N-New Hope, S-Sarlacc). Then I cut them out and hung them on a line, flanked by pictures of my brother. This took me forever and was a pain in the tookus, but it looked great.
Guests were greeted in the front yard by a Stormtrooper with a speech bubble that read "This is the party you are looking for... move along". I purchased the cardboard stand up on eBay, and the speech bubble we made here at Party411 from foamcore.
Party411 also took the image of my brother from the caricature and made a foamcore life-sized cutout!
We also made a custom photo op for the party. This is (left to right) myself, the grad William, our sister Christine, and our brother John. It was a fun group shot of the four siblings. William is the youngest :)
We had decorations for the food too! We fired up the grill and served hot dogs and hamburgers, but the big draw was the build your own burrito bar "Greedo's Burrito Bar". We provided tortillias, beans, rice, shredded chicken and beef, grilled onions and peppers, shredded lettuce, salsas, cheese, sour cream and guacamole. It was a HUGE hit (and easy to put together... use crock pots!) Here is a picture of the custom banner that hung above the table. I photoshopped a burrito in Greedo's hand in place of his gun.
We made another banner for the float bar as well. I set up a table with a smaller cooler filled with containers of vanilla ice cream and bucket of ice and cans of root beer and cream soda. I included an ice cream scoop, plastic cups and bendy straws so guests could create ice cream floats. It was perfect for a hot party day. On the ground near the table there were several coolers; one for pop, another for water/lemonaid/fruit punch, and one more for beer. We put a sign on the lid that read "21 and over only! We will use the Force".
I also bought lightsaber picks (I think they are for cupcakes) and I used them for fruit pick in single serving fruit cups. Sorry for the bad pic, but these went fast!
Dessert was an AMAZING cake made by William's friend Dan as a graduation gift to him. It was really tasty!
We also had "Obi Wan Cannoli's" because who could resist that play on words. Not me :)
My sister carved a sweet watermelon Death Star that we used as a buffet decoration. (fyi, this is a PITA and takes forever. Or at least an hour. Plan accordingly)
Death Star craft maven that she is, Christine also made a sweet Death Star pinata (paper mache, silver spray paint, gray acrylic paint, black marker, sequins, neon green pipe cleaners). This was a huge "hit".
Here she is trying to take a whack at her creation.
Pinata bashing wasn't the only activity. We had these fun foam lightsabers for everyone to use. And they used them primarily to beat on each other throughout the party. We made them by cutting a pool noodle in half, and then wrapping one end with duct tape and electrical tape (for the grip).
We also had an outdoor screening of The Empire Strikes Back. It had cooled off by then, and we laid out blankets and passed around the popcorn.
Grandma won the costume contest for her Yoda ("It makes sense since I am the oldest person here and I already have a cane.")
Sometimes the party is made by the little touches. One of the most talked about things... this "Wash your Hans" sign in the bathroom.
It was a great party and we all had a lot of fun celebrating William's graduation. Great job Will. We love you!
I wouldn't have been able to throw such an amazing party without the help from my family, and work family as well. We excel at creating the custom party here at Party411.com. Check out the following links to see all the great graduation products we offer. Or if your looking for something completely custom (like this party was) you can email us at [email protected]
