How to Throw the Ultimate Graduation Party
Graduation is one of life's biggest milestones, which also makes it the perfect excuse for a party!
Theme Your Decorations
It's easy to find a whole range of graduation themed decorations online, including the Churchill Gowns decoration pack. Think bunting, balloons and customised banners to give your event the 'wow factor' and provide the perfect backdrop for photos.
Websites such as Etsy and Not on The High Street also have a wide range of personalised decorations, which can be customised with the name of the graduate and date of graduation. These could make a fantastic gift and keepsake of the occasion as well.
If you're feeling crafty you could even make your own decorations... paper chain made out of your dissertation perhaps?!
Incorporate Some Games
If memories of my student days serve me right, we loved playing games. What better way to impress your graduation party guests than by getting them involved in some themed activities?
You could write a quiz, either themed around your time at university, your degree subject (although make sure the questions are accessible for everyone!), or graduations themselves. For example, you could print out sections of famous graduation speeches and your guests have to match the speech to the speaker.
You could also take some traditional party games and make them graduation themed. We've all heard of making wedding dresses out of toilet paper, but how about making a graduation gown and cap out of household items? Or pin the tail on the donkey could be changed to pin the mortarboard on the graduate, easily achieved with a printed poster of the graduate, a paper cut out of a mortarboard, some blue tack and a blindfold!
Serve Graduation Themed Food
It should be easy to create the wow factor by serving some graduation-themed food and drink at your party. If you're a wizard in the kitchen, then there are plenty of creative ideas online for making your own graduation show stoppers. We love these chocolate mortarboards, created from upside-down Reese's cups and a square of chocolate, topped with a tassel made from apple laces! Or these pancake diploma scrolls - both from Easy Good Ideas.
Don't worry if your culinary skills are not this advanced, you could always take a more straightforward approach and just buy some graduation themed cake toppers online. Personally we love these lego cake toppers from Etsy which can be customised for the graduate!
The food and drink don't just have to be graduation themed either, they could be themed around the subject you graduated in. For example, jelly sweet eye balls if you're graduating with a medical degree, or shots served in pipettes for the chemistry grads!
Hire a Gown and Photographer
To bring the full graduation vibe to your party, wearing a cap and gown is a must. The cap and gown are the most important symbol of your achievements and wearing one to your party will mean all your friends and family who could not attend the ceremony itself will get to see you in your academic dress. When you book your university cap and gown from Churchill Gowns it all gets delivered to your home a few days before your party so you have time to try it on and get prepared.
You could even hire a professional photographer to capture the occasion. Often the best graduation photos are not posed stiffly in front of a studio backdrop, but instead candid photos of you celebrating with those people who matter most to you. Perfocal have a network of professional photographers across the UK, and for just £120 you can have an hour of professional photography, delivering 60-70 stunning hi res photos for you to commemorate the day.
Churchill Gowns customers Shiv, Tasnima and Ailie enjoying their graduation parties.