Graduation party help...?

Question

I just had a family graduation party but my mom basically made it "the graduation party she never had." I had no say in the planning and it sucked.

I'm now planning a separate party for my friends and I want to make it fun. I'm pretty much on my own for the planning and I don't have a large budget.

Its going to be in my backyard. I'm inviting 60 people and anticipating about 30 to show up. I don't have a huge yard but I have a patio and a small tent which will probably seat about 15 around the tables I have. I have a small above ground pool which can hold about 10 comfortably.

Any fun activities to keep people entertained?

Suggestions for music when I like classic rock and my friends like everything else?

Creative decorations or things to do, maybe with food?

I just don't want anybody to be sitting around. I want my yard to look amazing!!!

Answer 1

For my sister's surprise graduation party, which everyone said that they had a good time, we went with a luau theme.  It's always a popular theme so there's a lot of items you can get to decorate with at party stores like Party City or online party supply stores.  Check out all the inexpensive decorations and things here:

http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse...

We strung up lights around the tent and deck, lit citronella torches around the yard, put up a net for beach ball volleyball and had tons of food.  We just told everyone that was coming to bring a favorite CD or two.  You could put little strips of paper with their name and put this inside the CDs to keep them straight.

You can also have a limbo contest and hula hoop contest. I went and bought a few really silly prizes at the dollar store for these and they were the envy of the evening.  You can go to the library and check out Hawaiian music CDs.  You could also get a couple of NOW CDs and browse through their newer CDs too to have on hand to play.  I don't think anyone really danced that much though, but it's nice to have in the background.

If you really want to get into the theme you can give everyone a name tag with their Hawaiian name.  You can look these up at:

http://www.alohafriendsluau.com/names_tr...

Hope you have fun.  Congratulations on your graduation.