CONGRATULATIONS GRADS! You did it. All those late nights you never thought you’d get through, well you did it fam.
It’s graduation season, which means some of you are planning a graduation party. Whether it’s your own, your sisters’, a friend’s or daughter’s, I’ve got some tips to take your shindig up a notch! Last year I graduated and everyone that attended my party kept saying “this is exactly the party I’d expect you to have.” I think that was a compliment, but I’m not exactly sure what it meant. #extra
Graduation parties tend to have the same formula: eating, gifting money, taking photos and socializing. Make yours one to remember by classing up the standard party with these epic details.
location
I held my graduation party in the perfect location on what happened to be the perfect day. Blatt Beer & Table in West Omaha has a great space for smaller parties with garage doors that open up to outside and connect to more outdoor seating. It was one of the first actually nice days of the year and we opened up the garage doors on the patio area. It was just the best and so relaxing. I absolutely love being outside whenever possible.
What was so great about this space was that it was both indoor and outdoor. You didn’t have to be in the direct sun, but you could still enjoy the fresh air and nice breeze from inside. There was also tons of natural light, which was great for photos.
a snack bar
Snack bars are always lit. Whether it’s a candy bar, cookie dough bar or charcuterie board like I did. They add a little bit of extra to your food spread. I am obsessed with charcuterie and it’s so versatile to make however you want to. I kind of went all out with this one, but you don’t have to add as much. What’s great about charcuterie is you can do it so many different ways and each person can enjoy it in many different ways. I also just love cheese.
personalized M&Ms
Moving on down the food line…yes, I ordered M&Ms with my face on them and I am not sorry. I LOVE this detail and everyone was talking about them. I got them in my school colors with some that had my face on them and some that said “GRAD”. You can order these on M&Ms website and they’re super easy to create. For the one’s with my face, I used one of the pictures from my graduation shoot with Caitlin and just cut out the background in Photoshop.
Disclaimer: I didn’t get a great picture of these because in the middle of taking pictures of things people started showing up to my graduation party and I got distracted. Oops.
a cupcake display
“Mini cupcakes? As in the mini version of regular cupcakes? Which is already a mini version of cake? Honestly, where does it end with you people?!” #NameThatShow
Lastly on the food table {can you tell I take food very seriously?}, I made a display of mini cupcakes. Rows of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry from Jones Bros cupcakes. I like mini cupcakes for parties because they are so much easier to eat and don’t make a huge mess. It’s also way more cost effective to buy more of them, which I’m totally down for.
a custom Snapchat filter
Everyone is going to take pics at your party…at least that’s what I hope for, so I created this custom geotag for my friends to use during the party.
For my filter, I created it in Illustrator and tested it on a few pictures to make sure it would work across many types of snaps. I used another image from my photoshoot with Caitlin and created an outline of me throwing up my cap. Snapchat has a template available for download that gives the proper dimensions and guidelines for a filter.
On Snapchat’s website, you can schedule your filter for a length of time and an area. Snapchat will charge you based on how long and how large the area is. I think I only paid $7ish for three hours over a block radius.
You can also create a story for your party, so all of the photos taken by everyone end up in the same place!
big letter balloons
This one is already a very popular trend for parties {and for announcing how many followers you have}. I’m still obsessed with it. You can use the balloons to decorate or to create a photo wall. What I love about them is they come in gold, silver, red, blue AND rose gold to go with any party theme.
I hope everyone has THE BEST time planning and attending graduation parties this year. I love going to them and eating all the good food and seeing people I haven’t seen in a while!
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