Graduating high school is such a momentous occasion for your senior. So it’s no surprise that people want to celebrate! If you’re feeling overwhelmed at the thought of such a big party, you are in the right place! Today, I’m breaking down your party planning into manageable steps. Make planning a graduation party simple with these tips!
6 Steps for Planning a Graduation Party
1. Choose a date and location
You’ll want to be sure to check in with out-of-town family and friends when scheduling your party to find a date that works for everyone. (Or just about everyone, anyway.) And it’s also a good idea to find out when family and friends who also have seniors are having their open houses so that you don’t end up with a conflict. I have known of best friends or cousins having a combined graduation party which works really well, especially when the families are close. Going in together helps the seniors’ families save a bit on rental fees and family travelling from out of town will only need to make one trip.
Once you’ve figured out which date works, you can begin thinking about the location for your party. Will you host the party at home, rent a hall or picnic pavillion, or maybe reserve a private room at a local restaraunt? This largely depends on your budget, and there definite advantages to each.
Home – Deciding to host the party at your home needs to take into account more than just where to set up the tables and chairs in the backyard. You need to think about where people will park, bathroom facilities and what you’ll do if the weather doesn’t cooperate.
As much as I would have loved to have my daughter’s graduation party outside, I knew that the temperatures in May fluctuate from freezing to balmy and it rains often. So right away, I knew that if we hosted the party in our backyard, I would need to rent a tent, table and chairs. And that cost ended up being more than the fee to rent our local community hall. As it turns out, I would definitely rent the community hall again. Once I made the decision not to host it at my house, the stress of planning her party was instantly gone.
Rental Hall or Pavillion – Check with your local parks department for availability of community rooms or picnic pavillions. You could even rent a church hall. You’ll want to ask about kitchen facilities, bathrooms, and decoration policies. If you’re using a park pavillion, be sure to ask if they have electricity to keep your crock pots and roasters going. Our community room has a kitchen with a refrigerator, but no working stove or oven. So we used roasters and crock pots to keep the food warm. You’ll also want to ask about their decoration policy. Many places are fine with decorations as long as you don’t tape anything to the walls.
Restaraunt Private Room – This works best if you have a set meal time, but it can also work for open house style parties. Often the room will be free as long as you make a purchase of food above a certain dollar amount. Upside – you don’t have to do any cooking or clean-up. The downside? It can be more costly and you might not be able to bring in any outside food (i.e. the Cake).
2. Send invitations
You’ll want to send invitations to out-of-town family and friends about 6 weeks before and include directions to the party as well as information for local hotels, if needed.
For your local guests, aim to send those invitations about 3-4 weeks before your party.
You need to decide whether you want people to RSVP or just offer regrets if they can’t come. Either way, it can be difficult to get people to respond these days. But it does help you to get a rough idea how much food will be needed. You can also try creating an “Event” on Facebook.
3. Plan your menu
If your budget allows, you might want to hire a caterer. But cooking the food yourself can definitely cut down on costs and you have the freedom to make a very customized menu. Choose foods that are easy to eat, and easy to keep warm or cold. The one thing that I kept hearing from my friends was not to buy too much food. During the height of grad party season, it’s quite common to attend 2-3 open houses in one day, and so people eat lighter than they would normally. And even knowing this, I still had a TON of food left over.
4. Make decorations
A sign outside will help guests know they are in the right place when they arrive. Hopefully, you’ve been gathering mementos, photos and scrapbooks to display. You might also want to show off some of the artwork from their senior pictures. Keep the decorations simple if you are renting the space. You’ll be surprised at how quickly that half hour of set-up time goes before your guests begin to arrive. And if you are using centerpieces, make sure they don’t obstruct your view when seated which can make conversation at the table difficult.
5. Plan some activities
Guests will stay a little longer if you provide them with something to do. Depending on the space available, you could set up some lawn games (cornhole works inside, too.) Consider having a photo booth area with cute props. For my daughter’s party, I had a book on a table and asked everyone to write a favorite scripture or messages of encouragment on its pages. Think about having something for young guests to do, too such a coloring station indoors or some chalk or bottles of bubble solution for outside.
6. Enlist help
No one wants to be so exhausted from cooking that she can’t enjoy the party. Ask some friends to come over a few days prior to help with food prep. This is also the time to ask to borrow crock pots and roasters, if needed.
My one regret from my daughter’s party is that I didn’t take enough photos. Which is weird because I am a photographer! But I got busy chatting with guests, and I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked. I recommend asking a friend or other family member that will be there the whole time to take photos for you.
Oh, and don’t forget to ask for help with serving the food and clean-up, too.
Bonus Free Grad Party Checklist Printable
Want to make things even easier? I created a free printable party checklist to make planning a graduation party super simple. Click the button below to join my Seniors Insiders list and I’ll send you the download link. (Don’t worry–I hate junk mail as much as you do and will only send you updates a few times during the year.)
Join our Facebook Group
Do you have another teen in high school or going into high school? I don’t know about you, but my first experience as a parent of a high schooler was a little stressful. When she started her Freshman year, I had the attitude that “Oh, graduation is a long way off! We have plenty of time to think about college.” I wasn’t as on top of things as I should have been, and that made it hard on my daughter, too. If you’re a busy parent like me, then you know how frustrating it is to be doing things at the last minute because your student forgot to tell you about it. And that’s not to say that they are irresponsible–it’s just that they have a lot going on, too.
I decided to start a Facebook group for high school parents because I hear similar comments from my clients about their seniors. And I know there are more busy moms and dads out there just like us. So would you like to get your student through high school with more success and less stress? Then this group is for you! Join us for encouragement and support. We have some parents in there who are veterans of this and will be a great resource for you.
🎓 Join the group here: Collaborating for Success or copy and paste this address into your search bar: https://www.facebook.com/groups/284120882120780/