Oriental Party Ideas

The key to pulling off a coordinated event: Evoke your theme throughout the affair. Whether that theme is as general as a season or a feeling, or as specific as a special flower, 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!

Locations: Oriental Garden, Asian restaurant, Oriental Tea Room, reception or banquet halls, hotel ballroom.

Color & Attire: Use Red, Black & Gold. Or try Pink & Mocha. Another combination might be Claret and White.

INVITATIONS:

As a fun alternative, you can hand-deliver Chinese take out containers to each guest. Include a hand-written invitation inside along with some wrapped fortune cookies. Tie a ribbon around the boxes or to the wire handle.

You'll think of so many cute ways to use Chinese Take Out Containers. They are available at craft stores in white, and a variety of other colors like: yellow, blue, green, pink and purple, try them for favor packaging.

Send invitations tied to a pair of chopsticks. Use red card stock and a gold paint pen for the invitation. Tie the invitation to the chopsticks with black curling ribbon.

Decorating:

Don't forget Chinese celebrations always include firecrackers to scare away evil spirits.

The tops of your tables provide you with a very large surface area and covering them with a beautiful tablecloth is the easiest way to change the feel of a room.. It is also the most cost effective way to decorate.

Bring the exotic look of the Far East to your tables.

Many venues offer a variety of linens. If they don't have the color you need or length desired, you can rent them from your local party linen store.

Gossamer is a unique material that is used to create overlay on your tables. In addition to using as an overlay for tables use it to cover a wall, make a curtain, chair bows, and etc. Asian print gossamer is available. Gossamer makes super backdrops too.

Place-cards facilitate guest seating, and are a must at semi-formal and formal events for sit-down dinners as well as buffets. (They get guests seated expediently.) Each couple gets a place-card, and each single guest.

For good luck, toast only with sparking wine or champagne.

Centerpieces:

For a formal event have your florist do floral arrangements in the traditional Oriental tri-lineal design concept of heaven, man and earth. Simplicity and naturalness are the watchwords for Oriental flower arrangements.

Use interestingly shaped twiggy branches ( Manzanita) for line, they should be weathered for contract.

Some other ideas for foliage are Pittosporum foliage, Polysaia branch, Solomon's Seal, Huckleberry, Bamboo, Japonica, Cocoa Spray & Grape Ivy.

Excellent focal flowers for Oriental arrangements might include: Iris, Azalea, Tiger Lilly, Canna Lily, Fugi Mums, Camellia, Calla Lily, Anemone, Sun Dahlia, Magnolia, Passion Flower, Gardenia, Calliandra & Blooming Cereus.

Fill out arrangements with Dwarf Pittosporum, Oleander, Mountain Laurel, Podocarpus, Mountain Ash, & Philodenendron.

Bamboo containers are excellent for holding floral arrangements.

Bring the raw beauty of nature to Asian centerpieces and flower arrangements by adding grey stones.

Add a painted Chinese Fan to your arrangement for accent.

Pair magnificent Asian Candles or Bamboo and Coconut Candles for mood lighting with handsome red scalloped placemats.

If you are in the Cypress, TX area, contact our floral designer at 281-373-1572.

Non Floral Centerpieces:

In keeping with your theme we would suggest using one of the following centerpieces.

Napkins:

Use red, gold or black imprinted napkins with an oriental design. The napkins will serve several purposes … great decorating in disguise and a delightful memento of the party that can be saved in scrapbooks for years to come!

Napkins can be laid out on a buffet table, or can be displayed at each place setting.

Place napkins in the center of each place setting at an angle, or unfold them and place them in glasses for a tall dramatic look.

The napkins can also be tied (and bundled with plastic cutlery) with a multitude of items to match your theme. Tie with curling ribbon, gossamer streamers, ric-rac, beads or ribbon.

Place paper dollies in the center of each dessert plate.

Placecard Holders:

Perfect for an Asian theme are place cards shaped like Asian fortune cookies.

Dress up tables with mini fan favors! Place one at each place setting.

Room Decorations:

Hang paper lanterns from the ceiling, lots & lots of them. Use all one color, two or three colors.

Long revered in Asian cultures, bamboo is believed to spread good fortune in everything from business and health to wealth and relationships. Wherever bamboo is placed, good fortune is sure to follow. Create a festive and colorful setting with bamboo chargers, bamboo placemats or floral arrangement with bamboo accents.

If your budget is low, but your dreams are grand, consider the depth of a giant photo mural. They can fill an entire wall, and better yet, they provide guests with the most realistic setting imaginable. Great photo backdrop too.

Place some Oriental Garden Lampposts in strategic locations around your party area.

Consider the following items for decorating accents:

Other decorating accents might include:

Pagodas
Asian Characters
Asian Screens
Fortune Cookies
Bamboo Chop Sticks
Chinese Symbols
Dragons lighted with twinkle lights.

Gift & Favor Ideas:

Painted Chinese Floral Fans come with assorted color plastic handles and make nice favor.

Red Satin Mandarin Hat
Oriental Cap! Our gold and red satin Mandarin style cap is topped off with a tassel.

Oriental Coolie style hats

Chinese Take Out Containers are a must have. Set at each place setting and fill with fortune cookies.

Bamboo Chop Sticks - Add to the festivities when your food and theme have an Oriental flair with chopsticks on the table.

Activities:

If you will have children at the party, you can keep them busy with a small craft project. Purchase some plain small oriental take-out boxes and have the kid's decorate with red and black Asian symbols (to make this easy for them, provide some books with Asian designs that they can copy).

Food:

Asian cuisine is one of the world's most tasty and unique. Guests will love to try new and delicious dishes at your Asian theme party. Here are some suggestions:

You can either choose one type of food from a specific country, or offer an array of different Asian tastes.
If you opt for just one country's cuisine, select from Japanese, Chinese or Thai food. These are the most popular and easy to find.
If you are not up for making the food yourself, simply order take-out from your local Asian restaurant. When you get the food home, display it on your own platters to make it look more homemade.
Instead of cooking or getting take-out, hire an Asian chef to come to your party! You can either hire a sushi chef to give a demonstration (and then let the guests roll their own for a fun activity), or a stir-fry chef to cook up each guest's specific dish. Let them select their own ingredients for a totally custom experience!

Don't forget the chop sticks.

Fortune Cookies - It would be fun to create some personalized fortune cookies for your anniversary party. These are easy to make and are sure to be a big hit! Simply take some regular, store-bought fortune cookies and microwave them for about five seconds. The cookies will be soft and you will be able to bend them to take out the fortune message. Replace the message with your own special message!

You could make a Fortune Cookie Cake. This is easy to make and very impressive. The fortune in the cake can say "Confucius say, Happy Birthday".

Serve oriental tea.