Do you have someone celebrating a milestone graduation this year? Want to throw them a party to celebrate their achievements? Try out a few of these suggestions below and let us know how it goes and what you think!
Also, if you’re looking for some printable images that go along with this party, feel free to head over to our Graduation Printable Images page. We’ve also got a few more articles around the graduation theme: Click here to check them out.
INVITATIONS
For parties, get your guests in the mood with an invitation rolled up as a diploma!
DECOR
Tons of store-bought graduation decorations come in black, white, and gold, but you can also use school colors if you’d prefer.
Chalkboards (and whiteboards) are a quick decorative piece as well to add to that ‘classroom’ feel.
ARRIVAL
Most guests will trickle in a few minutes before or after the actual start time of the party. To keep everyone in theme, have a few activities in an area of the party.
Instead of a guest book, we actually asked guests to sign two things:
- An inflated globe – though you could use a paper one or a real globe as well. Our idea was to pair this gift with the Oh the Places You’ll Go book by Dr. Seuss.
- Advice for the Grad cards – we invited guests to fill out some advice/well wishes cards but also had a few blank ones on hand if they wanted to go off script 🙂
FOOD & DRINKS
Appetizers:
- Cheese & Cracker Mortarboards – these are small cheese blocks with square crackers at the top (again we went tassel-less but most guests could tell what we were going for 😉 )
Main Course:
- For the main course, we opted for the grad’s favorite foods vs. doing anything ‘graduation’ themed.
Dessert:
- “One Smart Cookie” table – this is just a collection of the grad’s favorite cookies
- Smarties – regular smarties 🙂
- Class Rings – regular ring pops
- Chocolate Mortarboards – we used tassel-less mortarboards (though you could add a licorice as a tassel if you wanted). The bottom portion is a small chocolate brownie and the top is a Ghirardelli square
GAMES
- Know Your Grad: We created a set of questions about the grad that most people would know but thought it’d be fun to set up as an extra activity. If you’ve got the time and want specific questions, you can type them up into a doc or just print ours out from here: Graduation Printable Images.
- Inspirational Quotes: Give everyone a few pieces of paper. Have them jot down their favorite inspirational quotes (or create one of their own on the fly). Fold them up, mix them in a bucket/hat/mortarboard, etc. Then have the grad try to figure out who wrote the quote down AND who said it. Repeat for the group. Collect the quotes and add them to a canvas, poster board, or empty journal. At the end, your grad will have a collection of inspirational quotes and well-wishes! Optionally have a few on hand in case your guests can’t think of any on the spot 🙂
GOODIE BAGS
We kept the goodie bags fairly simple this time around. We rolled up a few candy bars / rolls of hard candy with a “Thank You” label and wrapped it around with a ribbon. Instant diploma 🙂
We also had the grad’s hot air balloon present next to the rest of the diploma favors. If you want to hand out a fancier DIY gift, you can also make mini-hot air balloons using actual balloons vs. lanterns. (Tutorial coming soon).
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you so much for checking out our article on a Simple Graduation Party. We hope that this was helpful and maybe even inspired more ideas for you! If you tried out any of our ideas, we’d love to hear from you! Add in a comment below and/or follow us on Pinterest!
Also, if you haven’t already and are looking for other graduation ideas, please feel free to check out our other articles: Graduation Ideas.
Happy Party Planning and CONGRATULATIONS to your Graduate!!! :):):)
