Create My Event - Event & Party Ideas Blog

Graduation Toasts

It's that time of year again where we wish all of our graduates good luck and much success.
While you may be attending some Graduation dinners, here are a few suggestions on a simple and encouraging toast to your Grad.

*“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”-Emerson

*“I hope your dreams take you... to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known.”-unknown

*“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”-Eleanor Roosevelt

*“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”-Henry David Thoreau

*“All our dreams can come true...if we have the courage to pursue them.”-Walt Disney

*“School's out, Memories past, Don't ever doubt, Our friendship will last.”-unknown

*“The human spirit needs to accomplish, to achieve, to triumph to be happy.”-Ben Stein

Grad Gifts

This time of year, there are a lot of graduations, both High School and College. Gifts for grads are often times on the boring side, usually gift certificates or cash. While these are safe gifts, here are some ideas to give your graduate what they really want on this life-changing day.

- Personalized Gifts: These can really only be successfully done if you've known the graduate for at least a few years, but most likely if you are going to their graduation, you've known them for a while. Personalized gifts would include anything with personal photos, engraved names/messages (like in jewelry), or even video montages.

- Vacations: This is more for the parents, who generally spend a LOT more money on graduation gifts. Vacations to your grad's favorite city is an excellent gift, especially after the stress of completing school. There can't really be an element of surprise for this one; be sure to ask your grad where they'd like to go!

- Tech Gifts: I don't know a single grad that wouldn't love to get a laptop, a new iPod, or that hot new cellular phone. The great thing about these gifts is that they are useful for both work and play, so aside from being cool gadgets, they can help your young adult excel in the real world.

- The Essentials: As boring as it sounds, if your grad is moving into a dorm or their first apartment, there are several essential things that graduates might not have the dough for right away. While they may not be extravagant, buying things like microwaves, bedsheet sets, bookshelves, and small TVs can be very useful to a new grad.

- Sentimental Letter: This costs no money at all (well, except for maybe the paper), and can make the biggest impact of all. Writing a sentimental letter to the grad about your years spent together, how proud you are of them, and how well you wish them in the future can be the most treasured gift out of the whole pile.

End of School Year Thank You Gifts

The school year is rapidly approaching the end. For some lucky kids, summer is in full swing already.
Many teachers still have a few days of clean up and winding down before their school year is officially over. Don't let the year slip away without thanking those who make an impact on your child's life everyday during the school year.

Here is an easy and inexpensive way to thank the special people in your kids life:

Take a digital photo of your child. Print multiple copies and then paste them to a sheet of construction paper. Depending on the age of your child, have your son or daughter help with the gluing.
Next instruct your child to write something nice to each person or draw a picture that represents what this person means to them. For example your child can write 'my bus driver, Mr Hansen gets me to school safely everyday, thank you Mr Hansen!'
They can draw a nice picture next to their picture.
This little project should not take too long and it will teach your children to appreciate what people do for a living and how many people care about them on a daily basis!

Here are some people to consider thanking:
The Teacher
The Bus-driver
The School Nurse
The Principle
The Teacher's Aide
The Janitor

You don't need to spend a lot of money on an 'end of school year gift'. Thanking these people with something from the heart will surely put a smile on their face.

Happy Summer everyone!

Backyard Bashes

It might only be May, but who says it has to be blistering hot to enjoy the outdoors? This would actually be a great time to throw a backyard bash, which can be for really any occasion. I personally will be having at least two in the next month, one for my brother's graduation and one for my parents' housewarming party.

Here are some delicious recipes for any outdoors event!

      

Deviled Eggs
6 eggs, hard boiled, cooled, and peeled
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon finely chopped chives
Hot pepper sauce
Paprika
Salt and pepper
Variation: add 1 teaspoon chopped canned jalapeno peppers
Place the cooked egg yolks in a bowl. Using a fork, work the mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, chives, and salt and pepper into the yolks to form a smooth paste. Taste. Place 1/2 of this mixture in a small pastry bag with a large star tip. To the remaining mixture, add the jalapenos and season with Hot pepper sauce. Fill 6 of the egg halves with the basic filling. Fill the pastry bag with the jalapeno filling. Fill the remaining egg white halves. Top with paprika.

Potato Salad
4 potatoes
4 eggs
1/2 stalk celery, chopped
1/4 cup sweet relish
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1/2 cup mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes; drain and chop. Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil; cover, remove from heat, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water; peel and chop. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, eggs, celery, sweet relish, garlic, mustard, mayonnaise and salt and pepper. Gently mix together and serve warm.

Baby Back Ribs
2 pounds pork baby back ribs
1 (18 ounce) bottle barbecue sauce
Tear off 4 pieces of aluminum foil big enough to enclose each portion of ribs. Spray each piece of foil with vegetable cooking spray. Brush the ribs liberally with barbeque sauce and place each portion in its own piece of foil. Wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or overnight. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Bake ribs wrapped tightly in the foil at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 2 1/2 hours. Remove from foil and add more sauce, if desired.

Whatever foods you make, be sure to check the weather ahead of time, wear plenty of sunscreen, and most of all, enjoy each other's company - which is what any party is all about!

Spa Party

Everybody loves to be pampered, so here is a fun and inexpensive party (especially for young girls).   Set up spa stations - if your doing it for your daughter, enlist some other mom's to help.   Have one station for pedicures, one for facials, manicures, hair styling, and make up.   Each participant spends 15 minutes at each station, then rotates. 

Be sure to provide spa fare, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, possibly some healthy tea sandwiches, fresh lemonade, and water infused with cucumber slices.  For party favors, give little bags of lip gloss, pedicure supplies, lotion, bubble bath, etc.

For this spa event, my Sendomatic.com favorites are the Glitz, Girls, and Ballet invitations.  Don't forget to light scented candles and play soft, relaxing music.  Even though the spa patrons will be busy chatting, a spa trip is just not the same without a People or Us magazine to read. 

Your guests will LOVE this party, so start planning for the next one now!

Toasting Tips

You know what spring and summer mean right? CELEBRATIONS! This seems to be the most popular time of year for people to throw big parties. Weddings, Baby showers, Graduation...
Just in case you are expected to declare your joy at the next party by giving a toast, here are some simple suggestions for meaningful and light nod's to the guest of honor.

With the advent of every techie's dream, your sure to have your toast captured by every digital means out there. Unless you want to end up on YouTube or Funniest Home Videos, keep to these simple rules:
1. Keep it Simple- Get to the toast quick. Don't linger on things that others have no prior knowledge or interest in.
2. Keep it Sweet- Remember to be gracious to your guest of honor. There's a time and place for crude humor. Grandpa's 80th is not always the best place for the bathroom jokes...
3. Keep it Sober- Need I say more?? Who hasn't witnessed the awful mess of a bridesmaid or best man as they stumble their way through their train wreck of a toast? Too much alcohol before the toast, and your sure to spill the beans on something much too juicy for this crowd.

Some quick and easy toasts to help get your creative juices flowing.

LOVE & MARRIAGE TOASTS:
"Marriage is not a ritual or an end. It is a long, intricate, intimate dance together and nothing matters more than your own sense of balance and your choice of partner."-Amy Bloom
"Happy marriages begin when we marry the one we love, and they blossom when we love the one we married."-Sam Levenson

IRISH WEDDING TOASTS:
"May your home always be too small to hold all your friends."
"May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings, slow to make enemies and quick to make friends. And may you know nothing but happiness from this day forward.

GRADUATION TOASTS:
"As you leave the world of academia and enter the world of reality, remember the best way to change the world is to set an example for others to follow."
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined."-Henry David Thoreau

ANNIVERSARY TOASTS:
"Here's to you both, a beautiful pair, on the birthday of your love affair"
"Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century."~Mark Twain

Creating Memorable Party Favors

My sister is turning 40 this Spring. What a milestone. While our concerns may be different, I think our stress levels are about the same as this event creeps up. While she worries about the wrinkles that are beginning to appear, I worry about whether chocolate or guava will be a better choice for her birthday cake. I have never thrown a birthday party of this magnitude before and since this is such a memorable birthday for her, I want it to be special from the moment she arrives.

I am sure that many of you have been introduced to Shutterfly by now as a resource for printing your treasured digital photos. This online site also offers a ton of different ideas for party favors such as mugs, playing cards and apparel which can all be customized with your choice of personal pictures.
What I really want to touch on is the Photo Books.

The Shutterfly site allows you to easily download digital pictures into a pre-made template using a drag and drop method. In addition, you can customize your book with titles, backgrounds and page layouts. This is a great way to create something a little extra special for your guest of honor. Shutterfly offers various size books ranging from 12x12 to 8x8.

Since my sister's birthday is such a milestone, I have many pictures that I would like to include in her book. I am going to be using images which were taken looooong before the invention of a digital camera. For the pictures taken some time ago, I will take my prints to my local digital photo shop and have the images scanned onto a disc. Most photo shops today are familiar with this process and make it both easy and affordable. Once I have my disc, I can download my digital images onto my home computer and use them to drag and drop into the Shutterfly website. This way, I can be sure to include some of the classic black and white images that will make this Photo Book truly memorable.

Another gift idea that I will be using for the 40th birthday bash is an 8x8 Recipe book that can also be created on the Shutterfly website. Since this party is all about creating memories for the birthday girl, I thought it would be fun to rediscover some classic dishes which always make my sister feel at home. I have asked her to think back to the days of mom's cooking and recall her favorite home cooked meals. With this information, I will create a fun recipe book for her to take home to her family so that she can carry on the kitchen traditions that we grew up with. What I really love about this idea is that not only will this book be filled with her favorite recipes from Mom, it will also have pictures that she can gaze at while she prepares her meals for her children.

I have used Shutterfly for a few of my photo needs. The prices are always reasonable and the time that it takes for me to create my memories is very reasonable with my busy schedule. I can't wait to get started on the upcoming birthday gifts for my sisters special day. Look for future entries as the plans get underway...

Rock Lobster Graduation

A couple years ago, my husband graduated from college and a couple of other spouses and I wanted to throw a party to celebrate. The goal was to have a place where my husband, his fellow graduate friends and their families could spend the afternoon and evening after the ceremony. We knew it had to be something special and suitable for the visiting family members. They graduated from a New Englandschool, so we decided on a quintessential New Englandtheme- a Lobster Feast!

Since we were poor college kids, we knew we couldn’t foot the whole bill for a party that we expect would be over a hundred people. We also wanted each graduate to feel free to invite as many people as they wanted, so we knew the only solution was for each graduate to contribute. The invitation was vital to set the scene for this event.  Sendomatic.com has a “Seafood” invitation that is perfect. In the invitation, we described the party (catered feast, bar, and live band) and stated the cost ($65 per person). We requested that they reply with the number of guests and each guest’s menu choice (we offered chicken and vegetarian for the non-seafood eaters). Although I was a little nervous for the response to this unorthodox party, the response was fantastic!!!  People were so excited to have a place to go where they could hang out with their friends AND family on their big day. There were 150 RSVPs! 

Since the party was going to be big and we were serving lobster ($$$), we knew the cost was going to get out of hand fairly quickly.  So, we had to be very careful with our planning to be able to pull it off. The caterers brought round tables and tablecloths (white), so we had a blank slate to work with for decorating the tables. We picked up some red & white plastic checkerboard tablecloth at the party store and cut it into squares and placed them over the cloth table cloths. Then we poured sand in the center of the table. This kept the table cloths from blowing around and provided a beachy feel.  We picked up one four-wick candle (WalMart) for each table and pushed it into the sand pile. Then we found some packages of shells at the dollar store and sprinkled them around the sand. Finally, we placed a plastic lobster next to each candle to really solidify the theme. The end result was a cheap, but classy, Lobster Feast décor that impressed the graduates (and our wallets!).

The party was a hit! The food was great, the decorations looked great, and we danced until about 2am. We received comments like “that was the best party we’ve ever been to” and “thank you so much for organizing it”.