Last night was The 84th Academy Awards! Each year we have an Oscar Party to celebrate with our family and friends just how much we love movies. We have all always been huge movie fans but a few of us in our family and several of our friends have actually worked in the industry, including both me and Tory, so we watch a LOT of movies each year. 14 years ago we started having Oscar parties and we choose a different theme to go with each year. This year was "Night at the Movies". 

 Tory started off with these great invites! While "just" printed out on cardstock and then backed with two colors of cardstock, these invites are anything but "just" printed out! They completely set the mood for the party! You really want your invitations to set everyone's expectations of what is to come at your party. These were so much fun for our guests to get in the mail! One "ticket" per each invitee. Simply Perfect!

 As mentioned in my Cat's Cakes blog ...the "dessert" here were my Popcorn Cupcakes! They had everyone fooled too. That was fun! Find out how to make these as well as get a closer look over at the cake blog : http://catscakesblog.blogspot.com

 We continued the theme with little bottles of water personalized for the event. These not only fit in with the look of the food table but also stated and continued our party theme while fitting in with the color palette! Water bottle labels are one of those little detail touches that people don't even realize help make the party that much more special. It's all the little details that really pull a theme together and help take that food table from just being a food table to a real Party Table!

 Next were the favors! Movie themed favors are always easy to find on places like Oriental Trading Company's website so you will have lots and lots to choose between when you throw your own Oscar Party. Tory found these little statuettes that were just perfect for all of our "Movie Buffs" who attended last night. Each guest was delighted to see they, too, got to take a "Little Gold Man" home with them!

 And don't forget your Ballots! The only "game" the hosts get to play is this one so make it special for yourself as well! Oscar.com has the ballots for printing out each year so this is an easy freebie for you to add to your party! Print them out in full color, get some clipboards so your guests will have a nice firm base to write upon and get some nice looking pens so that they feel it's a bit elegant and dignified to be part of the "voting community". LOL. Have everyone show up about a half hour before the Broadcast to fill up their plates and fill out their Ballots. Make sure they put their names on the Ballot and then, right as the Broadcast begins, mix up the Ballots and hand them back out. This way you end up marking someone else's Ballot and not your own. We always have a Big Prize (usually movie passes or gift cards) for the person who gets the most categories right! This year it was a 3 way tie so we are all going out to dinner together to celebrate!

 You can't have Movie Night without Candy right? Tory made sure to pick out as many different types of boxed candy as she could so, hopefully, we'd hit everyone's favorites! The fun part is that when the guests arrived the first thing they did was pick out their candy! LOL!

 Oh, yes, PRIZES. No one ever goes home without a prize from one of our parties. We do a bit of research and find all sorts of Trivia Questions. Then, during the commercials, we play a Trivia Game with our guests. Each person gets at least one prize and we shop to make each prize fit that particular guest. They are not big prizes..a special bottle of beer, a fun little toy, candles, kitchen gadgets for the cooks on our list...that sort of thing. But it's always fun to play the games and to take home the prizes!

I think we dressed up the prizes the first year but then we had more than one guest say that they really wanted to just dive right into the bag and the fancy embellishments made it harder to do so.  We changed the presentation to the Plain Brown Paper Bags after that first year and now everyone knows exactly what those bags are sitting on the table and that they will be taking home at least one of them!

The Drink and Ballot table was the very first "station" when our guests walked in. We wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to fill out their ballot and get a drink before the Broadcast began. When providing drinks make sure to include regular and diet, caffiene and caffiene free varieties of soda as well as a non carbonated drink like water or lemonade. What a perfect spot for some of your personalized water bottles! We also got our guests ready to win prizes by putting them right on this first table. 

 Remember to add in some type of special centerpiece related to your theme! Years ago a special movie friend of mine gave me my own "Little Gold Man" and "he" has become our unofficial mascot for our Oscar Party now. He shows up at each and every party but this year he was actually the Centerpiece! 

 We set up Popcorn and Hot Dog stations which included condiments in these fun themed squirt bottles and mini popcorn cups as well as these plastic hot dog holders! You can find all of this stuff online but don't forget to keep an eye out at your local Target store! We saw the popcorn holders there for a dollar each on Saturday!

Final presentation of the food table. Hot Dogs were set out in the holders, Popcorn in the cups with the Season Salt available, Popcorn Cupcakes, candy and more of the water bottles. Remember to always have a smaller drink station at the end of your food table. Some of your guests may not have picked up a drink at the beginning of the line and will appreciate that you added more drinks at the end!

I hope we were able to give you some ideas for your next Movie themed party. Whether it's planning for next years Oscars or if you want to have a Movie Night themed birthday or maybe just have a Movie Night party at your house next weekend! 

See you next week with some very cute Baby Shower ideas!

Cat