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Party Planning
- Theme Party Ideas
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Fifties Party Ideas, 50's Party Ideas
Party Resource Guide
Presented by Event & Wedding Planners
Soda Shop
Party, Hop Drive-In, Sock Hop, Hopelessly Devoted, Rock Around
the Clock
Calling
all you grease monkeys and beauty school dropouts, cruise on
over for a blast from the past!
The perfect theme for
the lover of Fabulous 50's Music. The perfect theme for your
milestone events. It's always fun to take a
step back in time. The fifties were a fabulous time and a 50's
party is great fun. So let's get started!
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Our party planners have
added some 50s party ideas on each of our fifties pages
Fifties Tableware,
50's party items
& Fifties
Decorations & Props that are sure to make your party sensational. "It may only be Rock and Roll", but you'll have your guests singing along to the music in
retro
glasses &
Elvis
Wigs, while playing their
inflatable guitars. Munching on Cheeseburgers, Fries and Milk Shakes
and doing the Jitterbug
to the 50's
music. Have a great party!
The key to pulling off a coordinated
event: Evoke your theme throughout the affair, it should be the subtle thread that ties
everything together. Your location, invitations, flowers, menu,
cake, and favors should all cleverly reflect one common concept.
Then, get as creative as you can!
Colors:
Use colors that relate
to that time period. Here are a few ideas for some color choices for a
"50s party", but by no means does it represent the only choice
that would be appropriate!
Black,
hot pink
with
splashes of
blue and black and white check with
splashes of light blue & pink.
When using a color scheme use one or two main colors and build around
these. If you choose to use only one color for your decorating, try to
add little touches of another color or a lighter or darker shade of the
same color to create a more pleasing effect. Adding little splashes of
white, black, gold or silver will not detract from your main color
choice, and the effect will be considerably more dramatic!
Invitation
Idea
Visit a second hand record store and
buy old 45s records. Cover the label with the details of the party ( where,
when, RSVP, etc.). Use these as invitations. Or, if you can't find the
real thing, cut records from black poster board and add your own label. Create a rockin’ invitation by
sprinkling some Rock & Roll Confetti
into each of the envelopes. Also
perfect for jazzing up your tabletops.
Decorating Ideas
“Twist and Shout – come on, come
on, baby now!” - if music is going to be center stage at your event, a
Sock Hop motif is the way to decorate! Bring back the memories of
45 records and the music of the 50's.
Remember that the tops of your
tables provide a very large surface area and setting them with
themed or colorful tableware
is the fastest and most economical way to change the look and
feel of your party area. Make this your 1st priority in
decorating for your event. For additional
tabletop setting ideas go to:
Fifties Tableware
Do-It-Yourself
Decorations: Easy
to make record bowls for decorating and centerpieces.
Record bowls that you make
yourself are a fun way to
decorate your tables for a 50's party. These record bowls are
created from 33 1/3 records. The bowls can be
used as serving dishes or
turn them upside down and use them as a base for a
centerpiece.
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We used record bowls to create
these centerpiece
for a 50's party. For the centerpiece shown, we glued a flat 33 1/3 record to the top of
the upside down record bowl (creating a flat surface to set a
bubble bowl on top). We added a fuchsia floral ring and
a
floating candle.
We used 33 1/3 records
for
charger plates and yoyo's were placed on the top of the
napkins for decor & favors.
Some ideas for using the record bowls include:
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Use record bowls to
serve snacks or as a candy dish.
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Use
record bowls to elevate food items on a buffet
table.
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Place a glass
cylinder vase & floating candle on top & decorate
with a floral ring.
- Place a pillar
candle on top and add a floral ring.
- Stack & glue record
bowls
together to make a taller elevated base for a vase or
candle.
- Place a hurricane
globe on top and add a floral ring.
Get creative! You
will be amazed at what you can come up with.
Additional photo below show some of the ways we used the
record bowls.
Instructions for
making record bowls.
Don't have a collection
of old 33 1/3 records to work with. Start by
visiting thrift shops and antique stores, ask friends and
family for old records (make sure the record is not
valuable before you melt it down). If you find 50's
albums in the original album covers there are frames
available for displaying them.
Preheat oven to 200
degrees.
Set record on top of a Pyrex
or oven proof glass bowl (use a bowl that is large
enough so that the record can melt over it). Place in
oven and heat for 2 - 5 minutes. It is ready to
remove as soon as the record has melted & taken the shape of the
bowl. Be careful when removing from the oven the glass
bowl will be hot. The record will not be to hot. Let sit
for about a minute then remove the record bowl from the glass
bowl.
There are endless ways to
use these record bowls, a few ideas are shown here.
Left, we used a square
vase and set the vase on the record bowl stand and just
added a few flowers.
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Bubble bowl filled with
Hershey Kisses on top of the upside down record bowl.
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A 33 1/3 record was placed
on top of the up side
down record bowl and a cylinder vase was set on top with a floating
candle. |
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Record
bowl filled with Hershey Kisses and a single flower
bloom on top. |
Record bowl base
with bubble bowl filled with
Hershey Kisses. A few single flower blooms finish
off the arrangement. |
Add some
fun decorations & props related to your 50s theme
to create a spectacular party setting!
When choosing room decorations
one large prop will provide a greater impact than lots of little
decorations, so if your budget is tight, choose one large
decoration like a Soda Shop Arch,
Mural or Standee.
Fifties Music
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BAND ON THE RUN KIT |
Set the mood
with music. Use
Microphones & Guitars
as props or decoration! A
BAND ON THE RUN KIT
is a great party prop that will help you sing
your way to stardom! Spin some records on a turntable. If
you don't have a turntable or records, check with friends & family
members or visit your local antique or thrift shops.
Dance
to the Music!
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Fifties Favors
& Party Items
Stock up on affordable
50's party favors to be
used at your event as prizes, before the event as promotional
items, and after the fifties party as keepsakes. No 50's party
supplies list is complete without throwing in
special personalized fifties
party favors for guests to enjoy.
Place a
pair of retro sunglasses at each place setting, tuck your napkin
in the fold of the glasses and have them act as a napkin ring.
You're guests will love dressing up
for this party, an Elvis Wig and
Beehive hair-dos are a must.
Poodle skirts, pink
lady jackets & pants, letterman sweaters,
leather jackets, car hop
girls in roller skates & more! Anything Polyester is great!
Don't forget the costume contest!
Activities
A dance contest is a sure way to get
all of those grease monkeys and beauty school dropouts into the
swing of things! Don’t forget about “The Stroll”,
"The Hand Jive", "The Madison", "The Cha Cha", “The Bop”
and the "Swing". Of course, by the end of the 50s, rock and
roll was making news all over America, and dance was
changing. Partners no longer danced together, but gyrated to
the powerful beat on their own. Swing and The Bop gave way
to 60s dance crazes like the Twist, the Mashed Potato, and
the Hully Gully, but that's another story!
Have a “car hop” relay.
Divide your group into two teams. Give each team a tray with
french-fries, a hamburger, a bottle of Coca-Cola, and an ice cream
sundae. Each guest must run down to a
car
window, touch the car (car
standee), and run back - all without
spilling any food. Once they are back, they hand the tray to
the next person and so on. The first team to complete the
“car hop” wins!
Play “Name That Tune” using old
50’s
songs – extra points are given to the team that can
name the title and the artist.
Create a list of products, ask guests
to guess the price now Vs the price in the fifties. The team with
the closest guesses wins.
For older children or teens, have the
girls make poodle skirts. Using felt cut the material into a circle.
In the center of the circle, cut a second hole for the waist. Use a
pin to secure the size of the waist, or attach a piece of wide
elastic using a sewing machine. Have the girls cut out records and
write on names, or cut out fuzzy poodles (check old dog books for
poodle designs). Attach the cut outs with a low-temp glue gun or
fabric glue.
Set up a drive-in
movie theater in your back yard and watch “Grease”
under the stars!
Have lots of bubble gum and pass out as
many as each guest thinks they need to blow the biggest bubble ever.
Drag Races
Set up a course on a table top or floor with 2 hot wheel cars.
At the drop of the scarf, each racer must blow their car through the
course with a straw.
Food
Ideas
Got to have the "Blue Plate
Specials" with this party. Nothing beats good ole' Hamburgers and a basket of fries, unless of course it is a good hotdog and
a basket of fries and onion rings.
Keeping the meal simple, similar to a
soda shop or 50's Diner, can ease the stress in the kitchen.
No fifties party
would be complete without a float/shake/malt of some kind. Get the
blender out and whip up some tasty treats.
Root Beer Floats
Most important part!
Pour root beer over
vanilla ice cream. Simple and rewarding. Don't forget the cherries.
Record Cake
Bake a round cake from your favorite recipe
and frost with black frosting except for a circle in the center. Drag a
fork around the record part to make it look more realistic.
Frost the center label pink and write the birthday message here.
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