<p>I would love to hear suggestions, tips, cute ideas for planning a high school graduation party. It is mainly for adults and family. My d may invite just a few close friends (she didn’t even want a party) I am particularly interested in pit-falls to avoid. Any planning sequencing or suggestion would be appreciated. Party is at end of June.</p>
<p>Since she doesn’t want a party, how about just a summer get together as opposed to a graduation party? That way it’s less pressure on her and she can be more relaxed.</p>
<p>Last year for my daughter, we just did a bit of an ‘expanded’ BBQ, though I let my daughter choose a majority of the menu. She kept it simple, and we had a lot of stuff made ahead. The only cooking that day we had to do was the burgers and dogs, and my husband did that on the grill all at once, then we had everything set up buffet style using chafing dishes.</p>
<p>Family was invited, close neighbors who watched our daughter grow up…and we told our daughter she could invite any friends she wanted, although she opted to keep it only family as then there would be less pressure to entertain two ‘groups’ of people.</p>
<p>One thing we did that was perhaps a bit out of the ordinary and unique for her: she’s an art major, and had a fair amount of artwork that no one had seen before, especially pieces she’d done for a senior art show. I took down most of the pictures we had hanging in the house and created an “art gallery” throughout the entire downstairs of the house. We did a special display with her diploma, cap/tassel and self-portrait at the entrance of the house. This was a nice way to give guests a chance to circulate through the house a bit, and our daughter made sure she spent some time with each as they admired her work.</p>
<p>My son also refuses to have a big party. He wants us to rent a suite at a baseball game and just invite the relatives. $$$$ I don’t even want to know what that would cost me! Another thought is to go on a river boat cruise. </p>
<p>You could do a Sunday at 1pm brunch. That way most food items could be done the night b4. (egg bakes, fruit, caramel rolls, banana bread).</p>
<p>My daughter (jr this year) doesn’t want a party next year, either. She’s a musician (voice and piano), so she’ll be doing a Senior Recital next spring, after which we’ll have a reception. I have lots of photos/videos of her doing music and theatre through the years, so we can “decorate” with that stuff and we’ll keep the rest simple. Friends and family…probably 50-ish people or less.</p>
<p>MSmayor…thank you! perfect plan! I like the idea of putting up his art and maybe have his computer with his animation. Provides some entertainment and conversation starters. Will also force my husband to hurry up and paint the recently remodeled kitchen…two birds! one graduation party! My main worry is that when I plan a BBQ it always rains…</p>
<p>Fourth high school graduation party for us in June. (the last one) I order the invites from the Vista Print company & invite friends & relatives. Graduation is at 10:00 AM on a Saturday morning. H & I pick up the food from the chain grocery store deli in the morning: Cold cuts platters, grilled veggie/humus wraps, Seafood finger sandwiches, a Salad platter (potato salad etc) a Fruit & Dip Platter, some rolls & a cake from the bakery. We put it all away before we leave for the graduation. </p>
<p>As we are limited to number of tickets, the older siblings & other family members will do some work while we are gone! Get condiments ready, slice rolls, make sure all the beer, wine, soda is ready & so on. We probably have about 50-75 people. Typically we get back from ceremony around 12:00 & lunch buffet/party starts at 1:00 PM. The honored graduate may leave a few hours later to go other friends’ parties, after he/she has cut the cake & socialized with everybody. Plus their friends stop by as well & we have had some high school teachers attend too. It all works out & we have had practice!</p>
<p>We scheduled our party for the week before graduation. There are so many parties in our area at that time, and the graduating class is large, and conflicts can be an issue. I wanted S to be able to stay at his party rather than be running off to others. By doing our party in advance, we avoided conflicts. We knew he would be graduating, after all!</p>
<p>For the invite, I dug up an old but really cute pic of S boarding the school bus on the first day of kindergarten, with his backpack weighing him down, smiling into the camera. I balanced that with a pic of him spring of senior year with his backpack, in a like pose. We had him wear similar clothing for the current pic (same color polo shirt and shorts, and the backpacks both happened to be blue.) It was fun.</p>
<p>I prepared a couple of posters that displayed pics of him through the years – in costume for plays, with his musical instruments, working on school projects, prom pics, etc. Several featured kids with whom he was graduating. We mounted these on the walls in public areas.</p>
<p>For the meal, I tried to keep it simple for me – no last minute cooking or tending. We had a buffet of spiral cut honey ham, a bowl filled with rolls, meatballs in a crock pot, potato salad, fruit salad, etc. and had a platter of vegeterian wraps from a local deli. </p>
<p>We had a soft beverage table with sodas, cups and ice, separate from where the food was, which helped with circulation. We had a separate wine table inside with a polite sign that it was adults only. (Not at all an issue for S’s friends – we just felt we should cover that point, but did want to offer wine to the adults.)</p>
<p>Instead of a cake (which IMO looks messy once it is cut into, and people tend to come and go at different times during these open houses so may not see the cake when it is uncut) I had desserts that could be displayed on platters and taken by hand. Some platters had mini cupcakes iced in the colors of S’s school. Other platters had mini-delicacies from a French bakery (mini eclairs, mini fruit tarts, mini cheesecakes, chocolates, etc.) These could be easily replenished, always looked nice, and could be served by someone walking around with a platter as well as left on the buffet. It was more pricey than a sheet cake, but I thought worth it for the unique yet easy touch.</p>
<p>We made sure to have lined trash containers and several recycling containers in corners of the back yard. </p>
<p>We had the stereo set with music that included the musicals done during S’s high school years. </p>
<p>We had a collection of bubble-blowers and bubble-blowing liquid available on a table outside. The kds of all ages had a blast with them!</p>
<p>We also did the front entry hall table set up with a photo of the grad and other relvant mementos (d was a ballet dancer, s a runner). </p>
<p>We also had each guest “sign-in” by writing something in the margins of the Dr Suess book “Oh The Places You’ll Go”. Some people were SO creative considering they did it on the spot. What a great souvenir it became.</p>
<p>One thing we did differently for S is we hosted a 3-way-party–two of his friends/families joined in with ours. It helped spread the food and work around and made the whole idea of a party more palatable for S. Because we had so many relatives in from out of town, I insisted we have SOME kind of party. So this worked for us. Made S feel a little less “in the spotlight”. No problems with that for D 
Food wise, the most important thing is NOT to have to cook/tend food tables. With that in mind, we had lots of different options including shrimp, mini-meatballs, cuf up sandwiches, fruits, vegies, cheese. We did have the traditional cake, but we also offered finger desserts, such as mini cream-puffs (big hit), m&m’s in school colors, etc.</p>
<p>We’ve done grad parties for our 2 the weekend of graduation, mainly because all relatives had to fly in from elsewhere to join us. So the option of doing it really early/later didn’t work for us. More like open houses, they were scheduled for only about 3 hours and we tried to make sure our kids were still able to attend other friends’ parties as well.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great tips!! Great ideas on things I hadn’t even thought of. I plan on having a about 50 people and don’t feel confident ( or energetic) enough to do all the cooking. Does anyone have a good idea to partially cater and supplement with easy home cooked food. For example have catered chicken but make home made potato salad. Any good food ideas would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Well…we had the graduation party in August…right before the first kids were leaving to go to school.There were SOOOO many parties in June that finding a date was impossible without a conflict. In August…no parties were happening at all. It was like a “last chance farewell” before the kids all left.</p>
<p>We had a barbecue. Lots of choices and different ones that appealed to both the kids and the adults.</p>
<p>We had a joint party with other seniors in our neighborhood (the kids had grown up together), had it in the early evening and served desserts, fruit, and cheese. We had a root-beer keg, coffee, tea, and water. There were enough seniors that we made it a block party, but the dessert option is one that can be tailored to any size gathering.</p>
<p>We had an impromptu graduation party for daughter. Got photocollage invitation cards from snapfish.com showing various stages of her life and her senior portrait. Mostly family and she invited several of her friends. Made ahead trays of lasagna, sausage and peppers, bought 2 trays of fried chicken and made a large salad. Kept everything in chafing trays. Cake from a bakery and coffee. Plenty of soft drinks.
Made margaritas and cosmos for the adults, also had lots of chilled wine.</p>
<p>Had some some very simple appetizers like a veggie platter and a platter with cheese, grapes, strawberries and crackers.
While we had the cake, I played a 20 minute DVD we had made for her Sweet Sixteen birthday Party of photo stills of her throuh the years from baby till almost present.
My family had never seen it, and was a highlight. Bittersweet cause there were stills of family member that are no longer around.</p>
<p>Where do you find a root beer keg.? Love that idea.! For desserts I was thinking of having a cake and a good humor freezer. Still have to check into the cost for that.
Wish I was good at that computer photo stuff. I think I will look into snapfish.com. I was going to do that or just take her senior photo to kinko and use as an invitation </p>
<p>All of these ideas are really helping. We are having her party 10 days after graduation. May be in conflict with a lot of other grads but we are inviting mainly family and friends and very few classmates. She may have some kind of joint class mate party with a group.</p>
<p>I was also told to limit the party time to no more than 3 to 4 hours so that it is not so much work with the food. Less exhausting I would imagine as well.</p>
<p>I had a mother daughter party for my oldest. I went to the dollar store and Target and purchased a bunch of items for dorm rooms: shower caddies, memo boards, duct tape, a package of toothbrushes, sticky hooks, and shower flip flops. We did a Yankee Swap for the girls that were going off to college.</p>
<p>We also did prophecies for the girls. They had to write were they would be in ten years and where they thought the other girls would be. We hope to regroup at their ten year reunion and see who was close to their prophecy.</p>
<p>I like the prophecy idea. it gets them thinking.</p>
<p>I forgot that we also ordered these mini-bubbles bottles from Oriental Trading Company which came with the year printed on them “Class of 2010” for example. The caps were these graduation hats and they were a fun souvenir that everyone took home. Did this for D’s party, not S’s (too cutesy for him). </p>
<p>We also had a large banner in the school colors hanging from the deck…wasn’t expensive and we were able to use it the very next year since our two graduated back-to-back. Of course, all paper goods were in school colors too (high school, not college).</p>
<p>S has been in band all 4 yrs so I took a lot of pics. I’m putting together a slideshow to play on the TV during the party. We are having it 1/2 catered while DH bbqs. </p>
<p>I love the signing of the “Oh the Places You Will Go” book. I happen to have a copy.</p>
<p>For my DH’s graduation party from grad school, I printed a picture of him in his cap and gown the next day and put it in a picture with a large mat. Guests signed the mat and later I had it framed. It hangs in his office now.</p>
<p>detroitgirl,
We ordered the root beer keg through a local brew pub.</p>
<p>Another idea, used by an SIL, is to have a local hot dog place cater the party. They sent a hot dog stand with dogs, buns, brats, kraut, condiments, etc.</p>
<p>The host supplied salads and cake. I was a lot of fun.</p>