Do you have a graduate this year? If your throwing a graduation party this summer, I have lots of budget friendly ideas and inspiration for your use! One thing I always try to keep in mind when creating my content for you all is to keep things affordable and easy! Lets jump into some great ideas for your 2023 grad!
Pick a theme first:
If you have seen any of my blog posts- I am constantly reminding you all that you need to pick a theme before even starting to think about decor for your parties. In this case- I went with a very classic black and gold color scheme. But a few other ideas I love for a graduation party theme would be to use school colors, use your grads favorite things, or even a fresh take on a grad party with a "peace out" theme- think 70's flower power inspired with daisies, peace signs, and disco balls- I really love this one for a young girl!
Purchase Decor Centered Around Theme & Color Scheme:
I purchased most of my decor from Dollar Tree- crazy right!? They have really come a long way with their party decor selection. I do put my own personal touch on things (more on that later), but I was able to score all the balloons you see, the "Congrats Grad" banner, gold star plates, cups, cutlery, napkins, scatter, graduation cap decor, and the gold foil tissue paper that I used as a runner. I also created an entire graduation party printable pack that includes pieces like graduation cake toppers, cupcake toppers, place cards, pennants, and signs. You can check that out by clicking here.
Balloon Galrand:
I used all Dollar Tree balloons for this garland, and I was really surprised by how it held up in the hot sun the day I shot this set up. They also had these larger 24" balloon with gold confetti in them that I added in as well. A PRO TIP: do not over inflate balloons when blowing them up- by slightly under inflating them there will be room inside the balloon for expansion when in the heat, meaning a lower chance of balloons popping. I have a tutorial on balloon garlands on my Tik Tok if you want to check it out here and a list of all my favorite balloon garland supplies here on Amazon.
Place Settings:
For each place setting, I used a black plastic plate from Party City layered with the gold star plate. The star plate is a perfect appetizer or dessert plate. I paired the plates with a gold sparkly plastic cup and plastic cutlery that matched. I then added napkins from the Dollar Tree. I also used napkins from Michael's too, because I loved them and couldn't turn them down, lol! I may be the definition of extra with two napkins, but anyway, I digress. Moving on to the cutest little place cards- these are from my printable pack. I also used little wavy flag from that pack to glue to paper straws for a fun extra touch.
Table Decor:
I wanted something easy and fun to run down the middle of the table, and I purchased this gold foil tissue paper from the Dollar Tree without a plan for it. I decided it would make a great runner. I folded it to the width I wanted, and then just used double sided tape to tape other pieces together and attached it to the tablecloth with double sided tape as well. I used these graduation caps from Dollar Tree and just dolled them up to a more updated version. I removed the words "Grad" and removed the small yellow tassel. I added my own tassel from Michael's and added some gold eyelash yarn. Check out my quick tutorial on Instagram here. I used some star scatter from the Dollar Tree sprinkled along the runner and graduation caps.
I also cut out some pennants from my graduation printable pack, and glued them to dowels with ribbon for an added centerpiece. These would look awesome tucked into a floral arrangement, or even for your party guests to use as photo props.
I also printed out some signs from the printable pack and framed them in white Dollar Tree frames.
Favor Ideas:
Keeping with the gold theme, I used these adorable mini champagne bottles from Amazon filled with chocolate as a simple favor. I added a wavy flag from our graduation party printable pack with my favorite gold eyelash yarn and that was it. Super simple and cute!
Dessert Display:
I love a good dessert, it's my favorite part of any party or gathering. In fact, if I had it my way, I'd have dessert before dinner. To help your dessert become graduation party ready I've used cupcake toppers from our party pack. I cut them out and glued them to plastic food picks.
I added a place card labeled with the desserts as well. I love doing this for all my dessert table set-ups. I love how it pulls all the small details together and helps me be cohesive through my dessert table.
I used that same table scatter as an addition to my graduation hat cake topper on my cake. I simply just inserted these gold lollipop sticks from Hobby Lobby into the foam stars.
For the cupcakes I added cute little toppers from my party pack that I just cut out and glued to picks. I also added in the place card labeled.
xoxo Cait
