Homemade Graduation Party Decorations

Instead of hiring a party planner and caterer to set up a graduation party, enlist the help of family and friends and do it yourself for far less money! Suppose your graduation party theme is A Day on a Caribbean Island. With a little ingenuity, planning, and help from friends and family, you can decorate a venue to mimic a Caribbean island, and have your graduate and guests remembering the event for years to come. Buy all of your decorating materials from discount stores, such as Dollar Tree, Just A Buck, WalMart, Michaels Crafts, and Dollar General. Here's how to make the decorations for your party:

• Cocktail tables. Use folding tables as cocktail stations. Transform them into festive tables by covering them with brightly colored fabrics, and then Velcro grass skirts around them. Cut palm fronds from green construction paper and place them onto the tables.
• Haitian lounge. Using your patio furniture, place brightly colored fabrics over them and then add colorful pillows. Use your patio end tables as small cocktail tables. Use votive and pillar candles within glass holders, surrounded by rock salt to create atmosphere.
• Thatched tiki hut. Create an inexpensive thatched tiki hut by building a frame from simple 2x4s. Anchor the four legs into five-gallon buckets filled with sand. Decorate the buckets with bright colors. Staple foam board to the top of the frame to create a roof, and then glue construction paper palm fronds to the top. String party lights the length of the wooden legs.
• Food. Use natural wood baskets and inexpensive disposable aluminum trays to serve hors d'oeuvers. Decorate the baskets and trays with colorful paper napkins, pineapple leaves, and artificial exotic flowers. Find artificial coconut beverage servers at a discount party outlet, and pick up some beverage umbrellas while you're there.

These are just a few suggestions of how to make homemade decorations based upon one party theme. Whatever your party theme, you can save money by making the decorations yourself. If you're not too imaginative, ask a creative friend or family member to brainstorm with you for ideas about decorations based on your theme.