Use lights and splashes of color to decorate your tropical island party.
Celebrities whisk 500 of their best friends to a South Seas location for a lavish tropical island-themed party. You, on the other hand, believe that money can't buy fun, so you're planning to transform your yard into a party paradise that's just as gorgeous as any celeb's. Save bucks by making decorations with inexpensive crafting materials and your own sense of adventure and style. Who says you need Gilligan, Mary Ann, Ginger and the Professor for authenticity? Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Make your own party invitations. Scan a flip-flop shoe or find an image of a flip-flop and use it as the background for your invitation. Typeset party details, include an R.S.V.P. and send it via the U.S. Postal Service or email. Want to make a splash? Head for the dollar store and snap up bags of pedicure-ready flip-flops. Write the invite on the sole and mail them out.
2. Identify your guests and your theme. Letter guest names on oversized sunglasses from the dollar store using acrylic paint. Hand them out at the door. Use your computer to generate signs with quirky messages--"5,000 Miles to Tahiti," "Life's a Beach" or your original puns. Print the signs on neon-colored paper stock. Glue them to cardboard and hang them in strategic places.
3. Build a bar. Make a bar tent from four poles and a brightly colored tablecloth. Slide a bridge table under the cloth, cover the table with a sheet of plastic and then decorate the poles with greenery or flowers to set up your island bar. Purchase bags of drink parasols at the dollar store. Arrange beach towels and lawn chairs on your lawn to create seating areas.
4. Light the night. Check the bulbs on your Christmas lights to make certain they work before stringing them around your yard's party area. Plant tiki torches in the yard for extra light if you happen to own them. Make cheap luminaries by filling white paper bags with sand. Nestle votive candles into the center of each and place them in areas in need of soft, romantic light.
5. Contain yourself. Purchase kids sand buckets in tropical colors from the dollar store. Use them for everything from flowerpots to ice buckets to popcorn bowls. Stick a sand shovel in the ice bucket so guests can retrieve cubes at the bar. Use the rest of the shovels as spatulas so guests can help themselves to items on your tropical buffet.
6. Feed the hungry. Set out your own plates if you're environmentally concerned about using paper products. Use big trays and serving platters lined with dollar store reed or bamboo place mats to showcase displays of mini-fish tacos, tuna wraps, fruit kabobs, colorful veggies with chunky island dips and fruity gelato stuffed into orange skins. Fill empty spaces on the table with seashells, silk flowers, greenery and luminaries so everything looks and tastes delicious.
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