Last week was my little brother Greg’s graduation party! I had been working for weeks, months even, to make this party special for him. Greg is the youngest of the siblings and to me he is still six years old. I literally can’t believe he is going to college. Well I was thrilled to be able to help plan the party with my parents. I was also really excited to document it properly for us all to look back on. However, my heart completely sunk when we drove the 2.5 hours to my parents house and realized we left both cameras in Connecticut at our place. I think I was just so scatterbrained trying to pack the car with graduation stuff that it totally slipped my mind. I was devastated. Therefore sadly all the pictures are from my iPhone and there aren’t that many… but hopefully you will get the idea

For the centerpieces I got some simple vases from the dollar store and filled them with yellow mini jawbreakers and blue gum balls from the Bulk Candy Store.

I made some twine covered sticks to go inside of the vases. I used candy sticks, twine and printables from The TomKat Studio. They looked like this…

The printables said different things like “Grad” and “Greg” and “2012″ etc etc. I mentioned them here as well.

Then I needed to figure out some sort of display for my Pastry Pedestal  which I wrote about in length here. I had bought some blue and yellow fabric to cover a bulletin board to use for pictures of Greg and had some leftover (the DIY bulletin board tutorial can be found here). With the leftover fabric, I decided to cover some pieces of styrofoam to make displays for my Pastry Pedestal. They actually worked out really well. I just used a staple gun but you could easily use a hot glue gun. I folded the fabric over the styrofoam just like a present.

Then using a straight razor I made little slits in the fabric and stuck the rods right in! They stayed perfectly.

Awesome, right? Then I decided to use some of the straws I bought from Shop Sweet Lulu to create a “slip” over the rods. This came as a suggestion from the brilliant mind of the owner of the Pastry Pedestal.

I made a few other things that night including some felted billy balls. I wanted some “flowers” for the party but since it is for an 18-year-old boy… it couldn’t be overly feminine. I’ll share the tutorial for how to make these soon because they are really easy to make from roving wool. Here is what they look like at my house right now..

The graduation party was absolutely fantastic. It is always great to see my whole family. We had a tent and some tables for shade…

We also got Greg a bouncy house (I think it’s actually called a moonwalk…). This was the king of all, though. It had an obstacle course, a climbing wall and a slide. It was an absolute blast for the kids (and the adults who still act like kids, such as me).

The biggest hit of the party was the Popcorn machine we rented. I had bought these adorable polka dot popcorn bags from Shop Sweet Lulu. This prompted my father to rent a machine which made me just giddy. I also bought an acrylic ice cream cone holder to hold some of the bags as a display… it was just adorable.

Cute, huh? I also had purchased some West Virginia University fabric from Fabric.com to use as a backdrop for the treat table. I didn’t snap a picture once it was completed but I did get a “during” picture. Also, take a look at the candy cups I got from Shop Sweet Lulu. They were perfect for little treats.

Overall the party was fantastic. There were many other things I should have snapped more pictures of with my phone but I was too busy enjoying myself with my family. Which really, is more important Now I am just looking forward to the next party I can help plan. Any takers??

Here are some of the vendors I used:

Invitations – Michele Purner Designs

Washi Tape and Kraft Bags – PrettyTape

Utensils – Party City

Envelopes for invites – Invitation Outlet

Straws, Candy cups, Popcorn bags – Shop Sweet Lulu

WVU streamers, balloons, napkins and mints – Shindigz

Polka Dot balloons – Polka Dot Market

Candy – Bulk Candy Store

Custom Printables – The Tomkat Studio

There were many, many other vendors and stores I used but these were some of my favorites from this party. If you are planning a party, start by checking out supplies from some of your favorite vendors… it is great inspiration. For instance if I hadn’t come across those simple popcorn bags, we wouldn’t have had such a great addition to the party!

How is party planning going for everyone? Any vendors I should check out for next time? Let me know!