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 among 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.

Keep hot food hot & cold food cold!

As you plan your menu think about how you are going to set up your buffet table.

Chafing dishes are available for rent and make an excellent presentation. You may want to borrow one or two from a friend. Or you can rent them at your local rental company.

To keep cold food cold we recommend setting up an ice table. These may be available for rent or check out this new product:

Brunch ideas 

A Weekend brunch is a great time of day to have a graduation party. You'll get a great turn out and your guests will be hungry.

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!

• Sausages and bacon can be pre-cooked and kept warm in a chafing dish.
• 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 coleslaw 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 hard and/or soft taco shells in a Mexican serving bowl or basket. Or serve taco chips. 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 extras in your refrigerator.
• Rent a cotton candy machine, slushie machine or popcorn machine. They add a festive flair and the kids love to serve themselves. Beware: Cotton candy machines can be messy so you may want to set this up outside.
• 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
• Pasta Bar - serve several different pastas (eg: rotini, penne, shells) and different sauces (marinara, a white or alfredo sauce, and a meat sauce). Let your guests create their own favorite pasta dish. Pastas and sauces can be kept warm in chafing dishes or crock pots.
• Veggie Tray

Tasty Desserts

• Custom cakes: Have you seen the new photo cake? 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.
• Graduation Cupcakes with icing in your school colors. Use a sweet station or cupcake tree to display them and keep replenishing the cupcakes throughout your party.  You won't have to worry about when you should cut the cake and they're less messy too. Sweet stations and cupcake trees are available from Shindigz. Just go to their website and search on "sweet station" or "cupcake tree".
• The fun is candy bars with personalized wrappers to give out to your guests. Check out the personalized candy bar options on our Party Favors 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.

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!

Beverages

The most popular beverage to serve at graduation parties is bottled water. Stock up when water is on sale. You can use it all summer if you have leftovers.

For an extra fun surprise buy personalized water bottles with your grad's photo or a congratulatory message. Or buy the labels and apply them to your own water bottles (the ones you bought on sale!). Just go to our Water Bottles web page to see the Graduation water bottles and labels we have to offer.  

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.

Another fun beverage to serve is personalized Jones Soda from myJones Soda store. Pick a cute photo, a fun quote and your favorite flavors to serve at your party. Your grad (and your guests) will be so surprised.

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.

•  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.
• Jelly Belly jelly beans in your high school or college colors - Set out little bowls of Jelly Belly jelly beans or make little jelly bean take away bags. For a unique and fun twist use your grad's high school or college colors. Jelly Belly has more than 50 different colors and flavors to choose from. Click here to see Jelly Belly's selection and to order.

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.

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).

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:   =    _____________

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.
• Instead of serving one large platter that sits out for hours, it's better to serve a smaller platter that gets refilled or replaced as the platter becomes empty.
• 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.