Need frugal party ideas

[mom-from-missouri]

DD college graduation and party are May 10. She wants finger foods and dips. I'm getting a handle on that.

Her colors are black and gold. Any ideas what I can do with that other than the table cloths??

We are planning for 40, but I am padding everything for up to 60.

Don't laugh but I found a big peice of styrofoam in the ditch and YES I picked it up. Its thick, and I thought maybe I could cut an "08" out of it, and spray paint it black and gold for a table centerpeice... (How frugal is that--trash to treasure...)

I am making a display of photos of her, from various stages of her life to display.

I want to make this an event she will never forget (for good reasons!). In a nut shell, her real mom died when she was 11. Her twin sister was hurt in the accident that her mom was killed in, and still has some issues from that. This one is a trooper. She finished high school a semester early, jumped into college, and is getting 2 majors and a minor in 3 years time with a 3.9 average. She went on the Missouri Bright Flight Scholarship plan, which is awarded to those who scored a 30 or more on their entrance exams. She has also worked full time while in school, and has a ton of cash saved up and invested. Her majors are all in advanced math and she will be an actuarary (which I can't even spell) for an insuance company starting in June. She was already offered the job after she did an internship there last summer.

Any great party ideas???

[cschin4]

Lots of balloons, black and gold to make things festive. I really love the pictures and photo display. I do think you need to know if you are going to have 4 or 60!
As finger foods, I make chicken wings, assorted veggies, crackers, cheeses, dips, etc.
You may want to bake her a cake yourself from scratch such as a Red Velvet Cake or something. Homemade always tastes best even if it sometimes doesn't turn out so pretty.
Could you rent a professional quality Karaoke Machine? People would probably have alot of fun with that.

[vsjhoc]

I am no good at this sort of stuff, but just wanted to say she is a total winner!! And I'm sure your raising her had more than a little to do with it. Congrats to you both!

[mom-from-missouri]

Whew-that was a typo- I fixed it, between 40 AND 60 people, not 4-60...

The cake I am doing--it will be a caculator, with congrad spelled out.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Wow-oh-wow, what an incredible young woman!

Maybe you could make some black and gold streamers/flags that can catch the breeze. Just hang long strips of fabric, plastic, ribbons, or good old fashioned crepe paper from poles, tops of patio umbrellas, fence poles, etc.

BTW, sometimes spray paint eats into styrofoam, so you might want to test a corner of it before you counting coloring it with spray paint.

For a while gold placemats were available, but I was looking for them myself recently and couldn't find any.

I was in a Hobby Lobby three days ago and they had gold plate chargers on sale. I forget the price, but do remember it was cheaper than I've ever seen chargers before.

You might find some small tree branches or shrub trimmings before they leaf out and save them for making table centerpieces. Leafless twigs would be easy to spray paint. I probably don't have much artistic judgment for those kind of things, but some people could certainly pull it off. Mix with floral picks? Use some of that styrofoam for the bases?

Remember you can reuse gold for other celebratory occasions. I've seen lots of people use gold in their Christmas decorating.

Oh, I have seen gold color sturdy plastic tableware, though it was an ugly gold in my opinion. Gold or black plates? Candles? Napkins?

[LuxLiving]

She sounds awesome! Congratulations to the whole family!

Have a go at googling 'Graduation party decorations' under the images section and look at some of the pictures. I really like the great big rolled diplomas on either side of the door and a grad cap overhead. Click thru on some of the parties and get some ideas. I'm assuming you might have already googled 'graduation party', but not looked under images.

Also what little I looked at I saw a balloon graduate that was pretty cute and looked to be an inexpensive STATEMENT.
http://www.ballooningaround.co.uk/im...balloons_1.jpg

Look at these neat little dessert caps.
ThePartyWorks.com - Graduation Cookies - Party Favors, too

Depending on how sophisticated she is or if she wouldn't be embarassed to wear one, how about making sashes - one for her to wear, and also one for you proud parents & grandparents, etc. I'm thinking a wide bolt of cheap satin ribbon in gold and write on it with a black sharpie, stick the bottom together w/a glob from the hot glue gun.

One place suggested having a new address book available for her to get the addresses of all the friends and relatives to take w/her out into the wide world.

Somewhere on here I think it might have been about a year ago someone shared a place to upload pictures that were then blown up and you could print them out on your own printer? How about a lifesize one of her?? Gosh I wish I could remember who shared that!

If you are setting up tables for people to sit at I liked the looks of those stacks of books w/a grad cap sitting on top. You could do a similar thing w/a stack of books and a rolled up piece of paper tied w/her school color ribbon and write on the ribbon diploma or something. Looks like that could be pulled together quite inexpensively.

Good luck with your party and let us know how it goes!

[Ima saver]

I don't have any ideas, but I just wanted to say congratulations!!

[Kirbycruiser]

You can have one of your favorite pictures of her blown up pretty inexpensively onto a poster and have each guest sign it with a sharpie, afterwards it can be framed and hung (A friend of mine did this it was a hit, everyone loved coming up with things to say). You could also just start her a photo album and have everyone sign that.

[garilon]

where are you having the party - at your place or have you hired a venue - if hired, then I am sure they have seen lots of different innovative ideas in the past and could pass some on - (sorry I don't have any ideas myself)