Today I am going to share the decorations we used for the Sail Away Graduation party. It was such a fun party to decorate for. Having a theme makes things so much easier. We decided not to do the “traditional” graduation party but rather use a fun theme. Our nautical theme was perfect! I love red, white and blue.
What would a nautical party be without a boat and a pirate?
Cali made the boat out of a box from a piece of furniture. I had the plastic nautical flags already(they came from Oriental Trading). My mom painted the pirate for me on a big piece of cardboard. The idea came from here. I borrowed the oars from the theater department at school and cut their school names out on my Cricut. The sail was made out of some muslin I had in my craft room and the pole came from the garage. I bought the plastic anchor and wheel at a local party supply store (Lippmans)
I used the little BYU and YAY pennants I had made for the Smart Cookie Party and just added in some for OXY (Occidental) Thought they looked pretty cute in some clear canning jars on my new table Jim made me. For the table runner I just hemmed a piece of long burlap.
My chalkboards came in handy too – for the directions to the Italian Soda Bar and a fun Dr. Seuss quote on the table.
Of course you have to have balloons for a party. We created this fun, festive balloon banner following the directions over at Design Mom. One of the best things I have bought in a long time is a little hand pump for blowing up the balloons. With help from Scarlet (the other graduate’s mother) we were able to blow up the balloons and string them together in no time. The trickiest part was getting the big banner out of the house once it was put together without popping any balloons. I love the color it added to the party!
For the tables, I covered them with an assortment of red, white and blue tablecloths I already owned. I added the fabric pennant banners I made to the front of the tables and to the fence.
I just used straight pins to attach it to the table and thumbtacks to the fence.
For the backdrop for the pictures on the table I used a wooden shipping palette. Thanks to Dana for delivering two of them to my front door!
I had a fishing net already and just draped it across the palette and then using my staple gun I added photos of the girls that we took during their fun invitation photo shoot.
The wooden life preserver came out of the garage and originally came from Michael’s craft. Fortunately Tessa had a nautical theme for her cabin at girl’s camp last year so we had quite a few things on hand.
We also had a photo booth at the party – the kids LOVED it!! I used the large piece of red fabric from the invitation photo shoot and hung it on the front of our shed. You want to make sure it is in a shady area – no direct sunlight so you don’t get shadows and squinty eyes in the pictures.
We set the camera up on a tripod and they took hundreds of photos throughout the night.
I had a table full of fun photobooth props that I downloaded and printed out here.
I also made or rather had Jim make some fun chalkboard conversation bubbles that they could hold up and write on. They did some pretty creative things!
Activities included badminton, bongo ball and a bonfire and of course lots of talking, singing and just having a good time. There was even some dancing going on for a while.
Next up – The Menu
For more graduation party ideas check out these:
Graduation Party Theme and Photo Shoot
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I LOVE your site!!! Im not too good at being computer savvy but I would love to receive your newsletter. What first caught my eye was the fact that you are right in Portland. Since Im in McMinnville, I can actually visit the places you mention and I have! Also, I love to entertain and decorate and cook etc. and I practially drool over all your posts. Thank you SO much for sharing your talents and love of family with all of us out here!! linda
You are too cute! I want to be just like you when I am a mom! I love everything about this party! Oh, and I am currently at BYU, and I know for a fact that your daughter is going to have the time of her life! Thanks for sharing all of your wonderful ideas!
Wow – this party looks amazing. I’m full of ideas for my next gathering – love the photo booth idea, the banner and the apple basket you used for the tortilla chips. Looks like you had a ball. With so many parties going on, I have one question – when do you sleep?
To be honest, I haven’t been sleeping much lately and it’s catching up with me!! I figure there will be plenty of time for sleep once the girls are back in Utah. I want to enjoy every minute with them right now.
Oh how I get so excited when your blog entries are in my inbox!!!!!!! I adore your graduation party theme and am begging…please teach me (or us) how to make those chalk board conversation boards for photos. Oh I hope to make them for the future and hope I don’t have to just wing it or eye it. My hands are not cooperative but with a templet or something, I sure can pull it off.
Have a beautiful day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kymberly. I actually did just freehand the shapes but I’ll work on a little tutorial that at least gives you some measurements.
what a party!!! You did a fabulous job! Definitely one I’ll bookmark for future reference.
You. Are. Amazing. See, this is why I need websites/blogs like yours. I have not one single creative bone in my body but I found a billion ideas from your website. You’re amazing. I don’t know how you do it. Serious props sista.
Leigh Anne, the Princess Beatrice head-dress totally cracked me up. 😉 Have been so enjoying reading about your graduation party details. Thanks for the inspiration.
Love, love, love! Everything looks absolutely perfect and I too love the photo booth idea. Thank you so much for sharing all of your creativity with us!
love this blog, it is so cute!
I’m sooooo stealing the Pallet photo idea. I’ll send you a photo after the party. Thank you for the inspiration! = )
Marjorie – I’d love to see it! Have fun with your party.