Make Memories at a Safari-Themed Graduation Party

Most people will attend at least a handful of graduation parties each year. Make your graduation party stand out from the rest by making memories at a safari-themed graduation party! Sure the school colors are common, as well as caps and gowns, but instead of all that do something different. This graduation theme is fun for a graduate heading off to college and even more so for a graduate heading abroad.

Come Up with a Fun Safari Phrase
This could be easy if the graduate is either graduating from a school with a mascot like a lion or tiger, or a graduate who will be attending a college with a mascot found on a safari. Get a personalized banner honoring the graduate and tying in the safari theme. Display the banner outside of the venue, inside, or both! Some ideas are, “Go Get ‘Em Tiger!” or “Congratulations Jason, and Good Luck! It’s a jungle out there!” Come up with a creative title for the party and watch your party guests smile at your creativity!

Welcome to the Jungle
A safari-themed graduation party needs some seriously wild decorations. Skip the typical graduation balloons that match the school colors and instead opt for safari print balloons. Decorate tables with zebra or tiger-print paper, and place animal standees around the venue while also showing off the graduate’s accomplishments. Consider using animal-print picture frames for pictures of the graduate while he or she was growing up, or from their favorite high school memories. If the graduate was ever a safari animal for Halloween or some other event, be sure and display that photo as the largest.

Safari Snacks and Drinks
Keep guests’ bellies full and thirst quenched with a variety of food and drink. Make cookies or gelatin in the shapes of safari animals, and be sure to incorporate your safari theme into the graduate’s cake. Ordinary graduation parties serve graduation-themed mints, but this is no ordinary graduation party. Toss some safari printed mints on the tables. They’ll act as both a treat and a decoration!

To help the guest of honor, the graduate, stand out, let him or her carry a personalized cup. Serve guests drinks like “Safari Water” and “Jungle Juice,” and get some personalized reusable plastic cups that guests can take home with them.

Safari Sound
Your safari can really come to life with the help of the right sounds. Download some safari sounds and have them playing in the background. If the party is going to be huge and have a lot of young guests, consider getting a DJ to play some music so people can dance.

Say Thank You
After the party is over and the gifts have all been opened, make sure to send out thank-you cards to the people who came. Keep the safari theme in mind and thank them for attending your wild safari-themed graduation party! Chances are it was the most unique and exciting party they went to this season!

Over-the-Top Graduation Celebration Tips

Your graduate has reached a major milestone and now it’s time to celebrate!  It’s easy to design a party that will wow everyone and let that graduate know how proud you are of their accomplishments.  

Let your guests know about the event by sending custom graduation invitations.  Choose the colors and font, insert a picture and have the best invitation around.

As people arrive to your party, personalized yard signs will help direct them where to go and will announce that they have arrived in the right place.  A personalized door decoration will direct people inside to the party.

Be sure to hang a large multi-photo banner near the entrance. This vinyl banner will show pictures of several special moments in your grad’s life and let the guests share in those moments.   Other banners congratulating your graduate can be hung elsewhere.

This will be a busy day for your graduate.  A life-sized standee can help greet the guests!   Fill the party location with graduation balloons, while adding a little shimmer by using liquid metallic fabric to decorate for this special event.  Choose a solid color table cover in a school color, and then choose either a matching table skirt or one in a contrasting school color. Sprinkle black confetti on the table, especially around the graduation centerpiece.

Send your guests home in style with an imprinted favor sack filled with graduation related candies like graduation candy bars and lollipops, and beads in the school colors.

After this amazing day has come and gone, make sure that your grad has a memento of the occasion. A signature graduation cap is a wonderful way to have guests record that they were a part of this day.

Congratulations, Soon-to-Be Graduate!

Step One: Pick Your Party

You’re on your way to having your diploma, so it’s time to play your graduation party!  Now, where do you start?  Definitely get help from your parents.  This could be their last chance to do something fun with their soon-to-be graduate before sending you off into the big, wide world.  The first step is to pick what kind of graduation party you want.  A couple options are a backyard barbecue, a bowling party, a card party (or game night), or just have your friends and family come to your house and hang out.  After you’ve decided on a type of party, you can pick your invitations and start sending them out.  Be the first to get them out so everyone knows when your party will be and you can minimize party overlaps.  You don’t want to have a graduation party the same day as your best friend’s graduation party, do you?

Step Two: Decorate Your Location

There’s always the question of how to go about decorating for a graduation party.  This is where your mom comes in handy—let her go crazy with the decorations!  She’ll have fun with this part.  Don’t hesitate to help her or give your input, because this could be one of those bonding moments that moms love with their kids.  Remember, though, to concede a bit—if she wants to hang a graduation banner, let her.  Have fun with it and help choose one to hang over the entrance of your graduation party.  After you decide on a banner, another good idea (especially if your family is coming to your graduation party) is having a graduation card box.  This way, your friends and family have a secure place to put cards for you and you won’t have to worry about losing the cards.  Whether your party is indoors or outdoors, you can hang dangling swirls from either the ceiling or from trees.  You can also hang graduation cap cut-outs along the wall, fence, or even on trees!  Of course, you’re also going to have balloons decorating your graduation party.  Combine latex balloons in your school colors with various Mylar balloons—such as a graduation cap-shaped Mylar balloon and the classic “Congratulations, Grad!” Mylar balloon. 

Step Three: Food!

It’s a party; you’re going to have food.  Whether you get a party platter from a local sandwich shop or your mom and dad decide to cook, you’ll have to decorate the tables.  Pick table covers in one of your school colors and plates in your other school color.  Finish the table decorations off with personalized napkins, a staple at every graduation party.  It’s a good idea to have a centerpiece, also, to give the tables that final touch.   Every graduation party has a cake, too, and many times moms like to be the one to bake the cake.  She could bake one in the shape of a graduation cap.

Step Four: Favors

Many people take personalized napkins home from graduation parties as favors.   Make your graduation party more memorable by creating personalized favors other than a napkin for them to take home.  For example, not everyone has lemonade mix as a graduation favor.  You could also look into hand lotion, lip balm, mini notepads in addition to more commonplace favors like mint tins and picture frames.  Whatever favors and decorations you end up choosing, the most important factor to any graduation party is fun.  Have fun celebrating the fact that you’re headed toward the next great step in your life, you’re done with high school and moving on.  So congratulations, graduate!