Planning the Menu
What are your graduate's favorite foods?
Keep it simple. Make
it easy on yourself and serve five to seven different menu items. The
most common mistake made at a graduation party is serving too much food. Read on for advice on quantity.
Dare to be different! After going to too many graduation parties where the same food was being
served you will understand. We encourage you to be
imaginative! For example, if your graduate is a pizza freak, serve
pizza. It is an unusual open house item, and yet the number one most
popular food amongst teenagers. Mix it up by serving some unique
gourmet pizzas in addition to the standard favorites, cheese and
pepperoni.
If your graduate loves
desserts, have a dessert party that starts at 7:00 p.m., and specify
“dessert party” on your invitation so people know to eat dinner earlier. Desserts can be made ahead and require little serving time. The bakery
is an easy way out. Or how about make your own sundaes and banana
splits?
Ask for help in the kitchen. Hire a caterer if you can, this is one party you don't want to miss! If
you can't afford a caterer, ask friends and neighbors to help. See
Ask
for help. If you’ve agreed on a theme, be sure to maximize the
opportunity to find foods that fit the theme.
For caterers in your area, just go to our
Local
Resources webpage and search for your state. We may have some
local businesses listed.
Brunch ideas: A Weekend brunch
is a great time of day to have a graduation party. You
will get a great turn out and your guests will be hungry.
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- Make it simple
- offer a variety of fresh baked bagels and a selection of spreads.
- Cook pancakes
on a big griddle and serve them with different toppings/syrups. You can
hire a professional to bring their own griddle.
- We all love
frosted doughnuts! Order ahead for a quick stop at the bakery. You can
even request frosting in your school colors. Be sure to have lots of
napkins!
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- You can prepare
hard boiled eggs with your graduate’s name and the year on them and
place them in a beautiful basket. Great for people on the low-carb diet.
- Coffee bar
kiosk: Check with a caterer or the local coffee shop for service or
supplies. Or create your own with rental equipment and supplies.
- Serve exotic
juices, or use your juicer to prepare custom beverages.
- Serve fresh
fruit in a watermelon boat. Cut your school logo out of the watermelon.
Afternoon and evening menu ideas:
- BBQ sandwiches,
ribs or chicken served with cole slaw and chips, baked beans and a fruit
salad. Tip from the professional caterer for the BBQ: If you want to use
the grill, reduce your stress and precook your meat.
- Mexican taco
bar: Serve spicy ground beef in a crock pot, and put the cold items
(lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, salsa, olives, onions) in bowls floating on
ice to keep them cool. Arrange the taco shells in a Mexican serving bowl
or basket. You can rent equipment for dispensing hot cheese. See
Party
Rentals.
- Buy large bread
shaped like the graduation year. Serve it with spinach dip or do a big
submarine sandwich. Plan ahead on how you are going to keep the hoagie
cool while it sits out for several hours. We recommend setting it on
ice. Rectangle shaped flower pots can be bought in various sizes. Or a
wallpaper hanging trough will do the job.
- Hoagie or Sandwich Bar: let your guests assemble their own sandwiches. Stop by
your local submarine sandwich shop for inspiration. Or order a big
variety to be sliced and served as needed. Keep the back up in your
refrigerator.
-
Rent a cotton
candy machine or popcorn machine. It adds a festive flair and the kids
love to serve themselves.
- Salad bar and fresh fruit for the health nuts
- Oriental Food - See
Hiring a Caterer
- Baked Potato Bar
- Pizzas – order them from a local delivery service.
- Swedish or Barbeque Meatballs
- Tortilla Wraps – ordered from a local restaurant
- Lasagna
- Veggie Tray
Tasty Desserts
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Custom cakes:
Have you seen the new photocake? How about a custom cake made in the
shape of a basketball or tennis shoe? Order one custom cake to display
and a second cake to cut and serve.
- The fun is candy bars with
personalized wrappers to give out to your guests. Check out our
Local
Resources page.
- Smores at a
fire pit. Provide several baskets full of marshmallows, chocolate bars
and graham crackers. Have plenty of roasting sticks on hand.
- Ice cream
sundae bar: serve ice cream with different toppings, fruit, cookies, and
coffee. Its easy, fun and guests will love it.
- Frozen treats
from your favorite ice cream specialty store, packed on dry ice. You can
rent an ice cream cart for the day.
- Trays of your graduate’s favorite bars, cookies and candy. Or, use a cookie cutter
shaped like a graduation mortarboard. If you have family members who
like to bake, ask them to help.
- Fortune cookies
- Custom made chocolates: Order gold foil-wrapped coins with your graduate’s name on
one side and the year on the other.
- Root beer
floats were a huge hit at our friend’s party. She offers this time
saving tip: Scoop the vanilla ice cream into plastic cups and freeze
them overnight. Then at the party all you have to do is add root beer
and a straw. You can buy a keg of root beer from the liquor store.
- Cheesecakes in
a variety of flavors served with different toppings. For example: hot
fudge, strawberries, blueberries.
- Buy lots of
suckers in your school colors.
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- We saw this
idea for chocolate mortarboards in
the Family Fun magazine (great magazine!). Place miniature
peanut butter cups, bottom up, on a plate. Top with a small
dollop of peanut butter, then press on chocolate covered
graham crackers. For a tassel, cut up a long rectangle of
fruit roll-ups, keeping part of the little square in tact,
cut little tassels. Stick on top of cookie. This is a great
project to have younger siblings help with – and they look
so cute!
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Beverages
The most popular beverage at graduation parties is bottled water.
Stock up when water is on sale. You can use it all summer if you have
leftovers.
Provide your guests with a
variety of beverages to choose from. Here are a few suggestions:
- A summer
tradition of big pitchers of iced tea, lemonade or Kool-aid are
refreshing.
- If you want to
serve soda, most people we interviewed suggest liters instead of cans.
It goes a little further, and you don’t have half drunk cans all over
your house.
- If you do serve
cans, put out a couple of recycling bags or boxes. People will hound you
if you don’t. You can clean up the official recycling bin you got from
your garbage company so that it looks more presentable. If you want more
than one, borrow your neighbor’s.
-
Always provide water
for your guests who don’t like carbonated beverages. Bottled water
is very popular with high school seniors.
- Rent a slushy machine from a party rental store.
- Punch bowls are
fun. Make an ice ring using one of the punch ingredients so that as it
melts it will not dilute the punch. A bundt pan works well for an ice
ring.
-
Borrow or rent
tubs for ice. You can put the sodas right on ice. If you use coolers,
label them so people don’t have to dig around.
Fun Treats and Take-Away Gifts
Some people like to put out fun novelty treats that guests can eat at
the party or take home as a souvenir.
-
Personalized
Fruit Roll-Ups from General Mills - New this year!
-
Bring back fond memories and surprise your grad with personalized Fruit Roll-Ups®
fruit-flavored snacks. Imagine your grad’s name
and a graduation congratulations printed right on the
fruit roll! You can make your very own design or select
one from several fun options. Just go to
MyFruitRollUps.com
and invent your own. The order process is easy, the
Fruit Roll-Ups®
snacks are made fresh for you and are delivered
within 15 days. But best of all ... they bring out the
kid in everyone!
- Candy Bar Wrappers by Announce It! Create unique
party favors or take-away gifts with these candy bar and
candy wrappers. Adorable graphics with many sizes
and prices to fit any budget.
For more menu planning ideas, order our book
Graduation Parties! Everything You Need to Know
From Start to Finish
A Word on Alcohol
Design your graduation party so it is
free spirited, but "spirit-free".
Keeping the graduates entertained at
parent-sponsored and supervised parties can prevent a tragedy. Do not
serve alcohol to minors. Even if no one gets
injured, adults that provide alcohol to minors can be charged with a
gross misdemeanor and go to jail for up to one year and be fined
thousands of dollars.
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Tip:
If you host your party during the day, your
adult guests won't even miss alcoholic beverages. |
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The Food Formula
The number one complaint we hear after graduation parties –
“I have so
much food left over!!”
To help you determine how
much food to serve you need to determine how many people will come that
are hungry. Start by reviewing your invitation list. Divide
the people into one of the following lists (a or b).
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A
List: |
Add
up the number of people you can count on to come
hungry (close relatives, close
friends) |
|
_____________ |
|
B List: |
Add
up the rest of the people and cut in half. Our
logic here is that more may come but they won't eat
much. |
+ |
_____________ |
Add A and B lists
together to determine the number of people
you should plan to serve: |
= |
_____________ |
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If your party will overlap with other parties, scale back, because
your guests won't be hungry. Have more bottled water on hand.
General tips on food:
- Limit your menu to five items to keep it simple.
- Single servings
may consist of 6 oz of meat, one half cup of two side dishes and one
dessert.
- A watermelon boat full of fruit can serve 75 people.
- 15 heads of chopped Romaine lettuce serves 75 side salads.
- People will drink 8 ounces of juice.
- If you offer two entrée choices, only serve 60% of each entrée.
- Have lots of
disposable containers on hand to send leftovers home with your guests.
- Food can be left at room temperature for up to 3 hours, but must
be refrigerated soon after that.
- Serve or freeze leftovers within 48 hours.
- Have
non-perishable back up items that you can bring out if you run out of
your main menu items. For example: mixed nuts, chips and salsa, frozen
mozzarella sticks, chicken wings, pizza, candy, cookies.
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