Theme: when I heard the theme I knew right away I wanted to design everything in green, do something girly & have all the food be green. I also wanted to literally take “green” to the max & that also included something with recycling. It took me a while to come up with a theme but it eventually came together & a “G.R.E.E.N.” Swap was born! I wanted to have the word “green” stand for something, so I came up with Girls Recycling & Exchanging Everything N’More! This was a great idea to create a party around because it provides a fun girls night out (the girly part), a chance to “recycle” old clothing, accessories, handbags & more & design it all in the color green! I also decided on the “N’More” part because that way any type of party could use the décor & printables from this collection – from just a clothing swap party to recycling nail polish & handbags to just an accessory swap.
Doing it all on a $100 budget was a challenge but planning in advance on what you want to buy & buying it on sale is KEY!
Food: consisted of Granny Smith apples hollowed out with a caramel/ whip cream dip inside. Lime jell-o & whip cream in mini glasses garnished with a slice of lime. Mint Oreo pops to coordinate with the Oreo whoopie pies (bought pre-made) & then rolled in green sugar to match. Cupcakes with a mint chocolate cookie accent on top. I also came up with mini handbags to match the theme by using marshmallows & using a green fruit roll up for the handles & accenting with green gel icing to create mini marshmallow handbags for the dessert table. All candy was green that was bought for the spread including the green candy in the party favor jars. Mini martini glasses were filled with lemon-lime Jelly Belly jelly beans & garnished with an “olive” resembling a green fuzzy pom.
Jewelry bar: Instead of having all the dessert on a “display”, I decided to create a “jewelry counter” display that would be where the guests could swap out jewelry that they brought for something new. Everything from necklaces to rings were displayed & shopping baskets provided so the guest could shop for their new jewels then sit down & have a snack at the dessert table afterwards.
Nail bar: Why not? I am constantly telling my friends how tired I get of a new nail color only after a couple uses, so I decided to add that on the list of things we could recycle amongst ourselves & get some great ‘new’ colors at the same time.
Additional displays: I set up a handbag rack for people to display their handbags that they wanted to swap. Also set up a clothing rack for the guests to hang any clothing that they may want to recycle. Large white shopping bags were provided for the guests to be able to carry all their new ‘recycled’ loot home with them.
Printables/ styling / décor/ food – eye candy event details
October 10th, 2011 at 10:08 pm
I love all of the dessert details! The flower garland in the backdrop is beautiful- thanks for all of the great ideas!
October 11th, 2011 at 12:41 am
What an awesome theme! My girlfriends would totally want to have this party Laura!!! Are those crepe paper skirts on the beverage bottles?? So cute!!
October 11th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
best idea ever! I think I may need to do a swap party soon:)
October 11th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
I love the G.R.E.E.N. acronym and the lime colors you used. Especially loving the hanging tag "SWAP" signage! Well done.
Eleanor
October 11th, 2011 at 10:29 pm
LOVE this!! What a GREAT idea.
Would love a tutorial on the Pom Pom backdrop!! 🙂
October 15th, 2011 at 10:54 pm
Sheila Tatum said…This is just beautiful. What a great party. I'm GREEN with envy! Love it!
October 17th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
You have my vote!! love thinking outside the box!! and the design is scrumptious!!
October 17th, 2011 at 9:24 pm
So fabulous, so many details!