New Years Eve Beach Party

dizzytina

Hi everyone i am after some help and inspiration! We have decided to have a party for New Years eve and are going to call it a beach party. We are holding it at our house but don't want to have to spend a lot of money. I am trying to think of themed food i can do (probably in a buffet style) and decoration etc. So far think we will decorate our conservatory which is quite large and get some deckchairs and buckets and spades and rubber rings etc. my daughter has a plastic play house which i thought we could do up as a beach hut bar type thing and pin laminated cocktail menus on the outside. Was thinking of naming the cocktails beach related like sand in my shoe, sex on the beach, blue lagoon etc. can anyone thing of some suggestions to add to my thoughts so far?

Also any idea where i can pick up cheap props etc?:D.

dizzytina

Help anyone?

bailey59

Sorry didnt want to rush off without saying anything. I am just on my way home but I will reply later. I had a beach party last year so I will tell you where I got my stuff from and the things we did

bailey59

Well when we had our party it was summer so a bit different to a cold winters evening. You could do the following:

-An hawain garland for everyone on arrival
-Ask everyone if they will wear something they would wear to a beach party they could wear sarongs over skirts to add to the atmosphere, hawian shirts, sunglasses
-We had buckets and spades, beach balls, lilo's
-We bought different coloured paper lanterns that we hung up around the garden (these were bought off ebay, there were about 10 lanterns on each string)
-As its Xmas you can hang loads & loads of fairy lights around and outside the conservatory. Just think of being on holiday at night at a lovely sea front restaurant, and loads of oil burning tall candles in those wooden stick things what you can get from garden centers
-There are things you can buy called scene setters and if you want a wow factor I would highly recommend these. We bought a seaside backdrop and fitted it to our garage. It was sea on the bottom half and sand & sky on the top, (called blue sky and ocean backdrop) you can buy loads of stickers to stick on these. We had palm trees, some were over 5ft high that you could get. It didnt cost a lot. I bought these off ebay again but you can just google them. You can get beach huts , boats, birrds deckchairs etc to stick on and would look great in your conservatory. They would be a real focal point and really get your guests in the party mood. Check out 'partycheap.com' its not the one I used but its the first I came across just to give you an idea.
-I really wanted some proper sand but didnt know anyone with a sand pit, this could be put in the corner of your conservatory.
-The cocktails are a great idea, we made all our favourite holiday destination drinks & food on the BBQ (Cyprus) not sure if you can go down that route, remind people of their holidays

Hope there are some ideas there for you

dizzytina

Wow thanks very much for all the info that is really helpful. i love the scene setter idea and i am off to ebay to see what i can find. I will also check out the other website you mention too.

Thanks again for your great advice

jem1276

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=beach+party&_sacat=See-All-Categories ideas here.

Could you make some cheap signs, like the ones half way down?

http://www.all4parties.co.uk/tropical_fun.htm

A game of limbo with a broom handle? Download lots of summer songs to play.

A pinata?

Freeze flower petals in ice cubes? Make a flower petal ice bowl? http://www.recipezaar.com/Flower-Ice-Bowls-64636

bailey59

You're welcome. I am trying to remember what else we had. We wanted a beach bar but never got round to it. We thought of getting a table and putting a fake hawian grass skirt type thing around it (again on ebay from one of the party shops on there), you could display all the cocktails on there. You can get flip flop party invites.

Ooh Ohh just remembered, you can get blo up palm trees around 6ft high or blow up surfs both of which you can use as drink coolers, they are really good

Claire_Bear

For your buffet you could make tropical fruit salad or fruit skewers with fresh pineapple, and use the hollowed out pineapples to serve cocktails in with umbrellas and twizzler sticks? Or serve hawaiian pizza with the pineapple

dizzytina

Some great ideas there guys thanks very much. i have looked on ebay at the scene setters and they are fantastic so going to definately get those and inflatable palm trees!. Serving the cocktails out of pineapples is also a great idea - thanks claire bear.

thanks for the links jem i will have a look at those now.

I am going to try and make my own themed invites using publisher.