So many awesome ideas here! Some of my favorite elements of this Dukes of Hazzard party are:
The pie tin cake stand
The vintage wooden soda crates
The vintage car cake
and MORE!
This is what Mariah said about planning this party- “This ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ Birthday party was an instant hit amongst the little kids as well as the adults. Reminiscent of the hit television show from the 80’s, the theme brought a nostalgic feel to this little boy’s birthday party. His dad’s favorite show growing up was the ‘Dukes of Hazzard’, so what better way to bring the old into the new! It was important to include all things ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ from the hay bales to the vintage wood barn door. It was a classic part of the show where cousins Luke and Bo would jump the car over hay bales and through barn doors. We also included old tires, vintage gas tanks, a custom vintage lunch menu and we cannot forget daisies honoring the infamous Daisy Duke.”
Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Mason Jar Daisy Cut Lids Striped Paper Straws Jute Twine
How cool is this 80′S ROCK STAR 30TH BIRTHDAY PARTY submitted by Laura Harper of My Pookie Designs! So many totally awesome ideas!
Here is what Laura had to say about planning the party- “My sister-in-law asked me to do a party for one of my dbrothers who turned the big 30. It was fun to combine two themes together, 80′s and Rock Star. I chose neon and black for the color scheme, because what’s more fun and totally rockin’ than neon!?
On the dessert table, there were: microphone push pops made with chocolate pudding, snickers, whipped cream, brownies and crushed Oreos (so fun and so scrumptious), drum sticks (pretzel rods), black sixlets, California Raisins (picture pasted on mini raisin boxes), Pop Rocks, rock candy, and my personal favorite, Rock Star drinks with custom labels I designed. LOVE how they turned out, the picture of my brother couldn’t be more perfect. I liked the idea to have a place for people to write their name so they don’t forget which drink is theirs.
Tin pails were used as containers and stands. There were simple black tablecloths sprinkled with silver stars, and a backdrop covered in neon shapes- even Pac Man! Pretty simple set up, but the details made all the difference including the beacon, disco and party lights!
We had a photo op with inflatable guitars, glasses, neon bracelets plus some totally rockin’ 80′s styles! There was an inflatable air guitar contest for the kids in which they were all rated by judges (they all got a 10 of course) and received a trophy stuffed with candy. I also designed some fun VIP Backstage Passes for everyone to wear. We jammed all night long to 80′s rock music, Rock band and karaoke! Everyone had a blast!”
Items used in this party available in Kara’s Party Ideas Shop: Push Pop Containers Mini Metal Buckets, Tin Can Containers Rock Candy Swizzle Sticks
How creative is this GOONIES THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTY { would make a great HALLOWEEN PARTY, too} submitted by Audrey Novak of Sweet Cheeks Tasty Treats! Wow, so much detail and so many wonderful ideas!
Audrey said- “To celebrate my son’s 4th birthday we planned a GOONIES themed party! We are all BIG fans of the movie around here, and after all the guests left he told me it was his “BEST party EVER!”
When Dane originally told me he wanted a GOONIES party, I have to admit, I spent a couple of weeks trying to convince him that maybe he wanted a different party theme…one that was a little easier to plan – LOL! He had his mind made-up and I figured out a way to make it work. I decided we’d have GOONIES elements, with some pirate decorations, skulls, lots of treasure and hoped it would all come together. I tried really hard to not make it just a pirate party and didn’t want a Halloween feel…I think the end result was more than I could have hoped for!
Squared Party Printables created a GOONIES themed party package for me. It really gave the party a cohesive feel! I wanted to incorporate several quotes from the movie in the printables, and they looked great framed throughout the party. I used the 2” cupcake toppers on SO many things…cupcakes (of course), Cake Pops, Cupcake Shooters, favor bags and several other treats!
I found a few different GOONIES movie posters online and hand them hanging throughout the house. We framed the Truffle Shuffle poster and plan on hanging it in my son’s room after the party.
I also framed some printed GOONIES cards from Thunderpeep Designs. She had created caricature-style renditions of some of the key characters, Sloth, Mama Fratelli and One Eyed Willy…another FUN way to tie in the movie. I used a TON of borrowed items to decorate, along with LOTS of thrift store finds. My Grandma had most of the trunks that we used just tucked away in her basement. I also managed to borrow a Statue of David figure! I’m not sure that all of our guests got the movie reference on that one…but TRUE fans of the movie thought it was hilarious!
The favor station included lots of FUN goodies including Ring Pops, Rock Candy, Skull rings, necklaces, jewels, golden coin candy, candied cornfetti, eye patches and Pinchers of POWER, to name a few. I put out paper bags and skeleton stickers so the kids could decorate their own goody-sack to fill-up! I also had some COOL favors for the grown-ups at the party. Inspired by the Lost Garden Wishing Well scene from the movie, Two Jennifers created stamped quarter charms! Some were stamped with “My Wish” and some with “My Dream.” They look great on necklaces or even key chains and turned out SO super cool!
I created ALL of the desserts for the party…I love doing it and had LOTS of fun ideas! To honor our favorite character from the movie, Sloth, I made several Rocky Road-inspired desserts! We served Rocky Road Cupcakes, giant marshmallows dipped in chocolate and then rolled in walnuts, and cupcake shooters. I pre-scooped Rocky Road ice cream into cupcake liners…and then forgot to get them out during the party! I also made “Buried Treasure” Cupcakes, they had a layer of Crunch Coat topping under the frosting…SO fun! I have to say, out of ALL the desserts…the Cake Pops STOLE the show! Dane had requested some skeleton pops and…SLOTH Cake Pops! I figured he was already lumpy to start with, so they were worth a shot – LOL! They turned out hilariously cute…I was literally laughing out-loud as I was making them.
Another fun movie reference, I wanted to serve a drink that looked like the grody-water Mama Fratelli serves to the boys in the Lighthouse. I made an Apple Juice/White Grape Juice combination and put it in our big beverage dispenser. Next to it, I put a framed printable with a quote from that scene in the movie…funny!
One activity the kids really enjoyed was digging for buried treasure in our backyard. We buried a bunch of seashells and colored gems in our sandbox and the kids dug away! They put their buried treasure in some SUPER cute, hand-stamped canvas bags from Thunderpeep Designs. We also had a bench in the backyard so they could walk-the-plank! I planned on having a Truffle Shuffle dance-off, but the kids were having SO much fun playing outside, we just never got around to it!
When I started planning the GOONIES party my son asked me if we could invite Sloth to the party! I immediately got online, found a Sloth mask, Superman Shirt, red suspenders and made the purchase. The next day, Dane informed me that maybe Sloth shouldn’t come to the party because, “Sloth kinda freaks me out sometimes Mom!” LOL! I told him it was rude to uninvited people, but if he was scared when Sloth got to the party, he didn’t have to see him. Well…Sloth arrived…Baby Ruth Bars in-hand…and most of the kids were willing to go up to him since he was giving out full-size candy bars. Dane hid in his playhouse and told Sloth he could just toss one up to him…SO funny!
After all of our guests went home, Dane still told me his favorite part of the party was when Sloth came, but quickly added that he didn’t want him to visit again anytime soon.”
Vendors and Credits:
Party desserts, photos and event styling- Sweet Cheeks Tasty Treats
my husband was born in 1980 so for the past few months i’ve been planning a “totally awesome” 80′s birthday party to honor the year of his birth & years of his childhood. the party was a hit. thinking back to the 80′s was hilarious! so here’s his ‘radical’ night…
shown in the above pic: mr. t, mr. t, mr. t…i found a huge life size stand up of mr. t online. we used him as a photo op and backdrop. for drinks i had capri sun’s (capri sun’s were the bomb in the 80′s…remember?) and water in plastic spiderman cups..oh, and you can’t forget the neon straws :). scoobydoo adorned my food table (we had pizza by the way), along with neon plates/napkins and old school comic books.here’s the invitations that i sent out. i found these neon wallets on ot and just had to get them! i put the invite inside (also neon) along with an uno card (great 80′s game). the invite read, “uno you wanna’ be cool, right? so totally come to celebrate the year of ben’s birth! it’s a radical 80′s birthday party! come ready to have a tubular time! don’t give any bogus excuse! dress in your 80′s getup and be the bombdigity!” i attached the recipients names to the wallets with an 80′s friendship bracelet. they turned out awesome :). and this was the bithday cake…i brought back the rubik’s cube baby! the cake took forever but was well worth it :). i even made the middle layer a neon swirl :).
ah, the days of cassette tapes!! i wanted to incorporate cassette tapes (as well as vhs tapes..which are shown below) since that’s what was hip during the 80′s. i painted them (neon colors of course) and hung them from the ceiling fan. it was a really fun decoration, i was actually pretty pround of myself :).
i purchased a bunch of candy that screamed ’80′s’…poprocks, bazooka gum with comic strips in each wrapper, flinstone candy sticks, tom & jerry candy, and scoobydoo candy packs. all of it was in a spiderman bowl (spiderman was one of my husbands favorite shows when he was young by the way). you can also see slinky’s in the background. i hung a bunch of them from the ceiling behind the cake table & above the bar. and there’s one of the vhs tapes i was talking about..i painted them in neon colors as well :). oh, and you can also see the neon table cloths that i had all over..i used some as back drops and some as actual table cloths.
do you remember these glasses?! they were the COOLEST in the 80′s! i was so happy when i found them online! i set them out for the guests to wear :).
i also set out neon glow bracelets (above in the spiderman cups)…
and here’s a close up of the SLAP BRACELETS and 80′s character pins!!! the neon slap bracelets were the best…and the pins were rainbow brite, my little pony, alf, karate kid, and she-ra/he-man! here’s some of the party goers in their ‘getup’…EVERYONE looked great!!! you can also see the authentic old school xmen poster i found online..and of course, our photo op, mr t :). i had our polaroid camera out for anyone who wanted a polaroid pic…we took a bunch of ‘em with mr t and all the other 80′s decor.
more of our ‘totally awesome’ guests :).
this is an inflatable boom box that i found on ebay…it has an ipod dock so it actually plays music (i had 80′s music that i purchased on itunes playing on and off throughout the night). it was awesome!
i bought a used old school nintendo machine! does this say 80′s or what?! we played pac-man and mario bros throughout the night. it brought back so many memories!
here’s my make shift stage. one of the best parts of the night took place here..and it may not be what you think. poetry readings faded out in the 80′s…but i decided to bring one back! i asked each guest to write a poem to ben/about ben to present to him at the party (this part was a surprise). IT WAS GREAT! everyone was SO creative!! some poems were hilarious and others very touching…all of them were SO clever. i got video of everyone reading the poems (no pics) so i need to upload one of the videos to post.
here’s some more of the 80′s decor. i decorated my whole upper bar with 80′s memorabilia…spiderman books, connect four games, scoobydoo snacks, whistles, gelly bracelets, glitter bracelets, friendship bracelets, koosh balls, uno cards, garbage pail kid cards, aqua net hairspray, slinky’s, rainbow brite, transformers, and more…
i also had trivial pursuit totally 80′s out on our coffee table for guests to play. some of the questions were a riot…
i found some old school looking t shirts at target for my boys to wear. they had 80′s cartoon characters on them. they worked perfectly! here they are eating their pizza on the kitchen floor.
here’s a closer look at some of the 80′s stuff….gotta’ love it!does anyone remember trapper keepers?! i found most of these things on ebay. i had a trapper keeper exactly like this one! and the alfluchbox and thermos…wowsers…now that was cool!
Here’s the birthday guy and our two little guys as we were singing happy birthday.
rock on! here’s one more polaroid for you all :). i bought inflatable rocker guitars that fit the theme.
i also played a tv trivia game..i downloaded a bunch of 80′s tv theme songs (again, on itunes) like mash, muppets, carebears, hawaii 5 0, doogiehowser, alf, stairway to heaven, love boat, and a lot more, and played them for guests..first one to guess the tv show got an 80′s whistle keychain or a hulk paddle ball. it was a really fun game!
all in all it was a great party. my husband loved it. happy birthday babe!!!!
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