If you’ve got a Star Wars fan with a birthday coming up, or you’re planning a May the Fourth get together, you do not want to miss this post!
Rohrl, my now three year old, loves Star Wars. He loves EVERYTHING Star Wars! Anytime we watch a movie he always requests Star Wars, usually either Episode 1 (with Darth Maul) or episodes 4-6 (with Darth Vader). He was Darth Vader for Halloween last year and when we asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he said a Millennium Falcon and an AT-AT. That’s my boy, we knew for his birthday party a Star Wars theme was a must.
We were planning on just having a small family get together but Rohrl wanted his friends to come too; and I just can’t say no when he says “Pleeeeeaaaaasssssseee” so friends were invited too. I knew from the amount of invites we sent out we were going to have a big party so staying on budget was going to be key. My husband, Jeremy, and I talked and we set a budget of $75. For 50+ people I knew I had my work cut out for me.
We ordered his first birthday party invitations from Shutterfly so I went there first to order invitations. I found the cutest Darth Vader invitations but they were going to be $1.78 each and that would’ve taken up a huge amount of my budget. So instead I went to PicMonkey, designed my own, and had them printed at Walmart for $.19 each.
Next to plan the decorations. Rohrl is definitely a bigger fan of Darth Vader and Storm Troopers more than he is of Luke, Leia and Han so I decided to go with a black and white theme for the decor. Everything I didn’t already have I got from Dollar Tree. We went with white table cloth, black plates, cups and napkins and black and white balloons. We tied red baker’s twine to the balloons and hung them from the porch. Unfortunately it was a bit windy so some of the balloons popped before the party started. I was planning on making a Happy Birthday Banner but found this Star Wars Rebels banner at Zurcher’s for $5. It includes numbers 0-9 so we can use it for other birthdays too! After everything was said and done we spent $17 on decorations.
Now here comes my favorite part, the food. There are so many cute and fun ideas on Pinterest when it comes to party food for Star Wars parties. Since we were having so many people come I knew doing a meal was probably out of the question. Not only did I not want to spend the money for Han Burgers or Padme Pizza, but I also didn’t want to spend the time making them. We decided to go with easy finger foods. Chewbacca Chips and Han Salsa, Vader Veggies, Fruit Sabers, Clone Cupcakes, R2D2 H2O, and Sparkling Leia Lemonade. For the veggies I decided to make the dip and only buy vegetables we would eat if there were leftovers vs. buying a vegetable tray. I got the idea for Fruit Sabers from Pinterest and all the ones I saw used grapes. Grapes looked cute and are good but they aren’t in season right now so they are expensive. I chose to go with Cuties and Strawberries because they were on sale and everyone seemed to like them at the party. For the signs I used my Cameo to cut out the words in Star Jedi font and then stuck them on black construction paper. It was 1 am when I was finishing them up and I had a little trouble with getting the Clone Cupcakes to transfer so there wasn’t a sign for them. We spent a total of $38 for all the food.
The party favors were the kids (and the grown ups) favorite part. I made Pool Noodle Light Sabers and Death Star Oreo Truffles. The kids had so much fun at the party battling each other, some of the dads joined in on the fun too! And they were all so excited when they found out they could keep the light sabers at the end of the party. The Death Star Truffles didn’t turn out as pretty as I had wanted but they were super yummy and everyone loved them; I think one of Rohrl’s cousins ate 10 of them! I made cards in Word and glued them to the front of jewelry ziplock bags that I had left over from Valentine’s Day. I got the pool noodles at Dollar Tree and spent $13 making them (I factored in the Oreo Truffles in to the food budget).
Everyone had so much fun at the party and we stayed under budget too! We had just under 50 people show up and spent a total of $71. Not too shabby I think. And most importantly the birthday boy had such a good time! He was sad to see all his friends leave but he took a good long nap and woke up happy as could be.
Are you a big Star Wars fan? Who is your favorite character?
Robin (Masshole Mommy) says
April 13, 2015 at 9:30 amThose are all awesome ideas. I think my boys would love a Star Wars party.
Sydney says
January 8, 2016 at 10:45 amThanks Robin!
Carmen Perez (listen2mama) says
April 13, 2015 at 10:33 amI love all of these ideas, very creative! I’m sure they had a blast!
Aliza B says
April 13, 2015 at 10:57 amThis looks so fun! My daughter loved everything Star Wars from the time she was about 4-9. Now she’s all about Harry Potter. We still do a dinner with special names for Star Wars Day (May the 4th). I think she would love the Princess Leia Lemonade!
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Carlee @cookingwithcarlee says
April 13, 2015 at 11:37 amWhat a cute party! When my little guy gets a little older, i can see this being right up his alley!
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Alysia from My Domestic Dish says
April 13, 2015 at 12:13 pmYou did a fantastic job with this! I love those pool noodles! You’ve just given me a ton of ideas for my son’s birthday, as he’s obsessed with Star Wars too.
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Harriet says
April 13, 2015 at 1:51 pmThat looks like so much fun. What a great idea.
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Kendra Wright says
April 13, 2015 at 3:11 pmLove it! Good Job mama!! I bet he will remember that one! I might just have to copy you for my sons party next year. This year it was Ninja, but they LOVE Star Wars! I love the foam swords! I love all the food names you came up with!. So creative!
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Marjie @ Home Again Jiggety-jig! says
April 13, 2015 at 3:31 pmWhat a fun birthday party and LOVE how you stuck to a budget. Having 50 people for less than $2 a person is amazing! I’m pinning this to my “Party, Party, Party” board!
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Lady Lilith says
April 13, 2015 at 3:42 pmWhat a fun idea. This looks great.
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Britney says
April 13, 2015 at 4:03 pmSo many super fun ideas!! My hubby would love a party like this!
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Carol Cassara says
April 13, 2015 at 4:57 pmAny party on a budget is a great idea for parents!
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Sandy says
April 13, 2015 at 5:36 pmAll great ideas. Both my girls would love all of this. Pinterest really is the best place for ideas, right? 🙂
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Vicki and Jennifer 2 Bees in a Pod says
April 13, 2015 at 6:01 pmCould this be any cuter? What a great party idea…you’re so creative! Thanks for sharing with us at Something To Talk About Link Party!
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Jessica Harlow says
April 13, 2015 at 6:15 pmStar Wars seems to be making a huge comback lately! My kids are totally into it! I love your Hans Salsa idea! lol
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sarah says
April 13, 2015 at 7:25 pmLooks like a fabulous party, I can’t believe you pulled it off for $71!!! Great job.
Hope says
April 13, 2015 at 7:42 pmThe Hans Salsa was my favorite!
Bonnie says
April 13, 2015 at 8:15 pmI loved all of your simple ideas for a birthday party. I’m visiting from #Motivationalmonday linky party.
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M from The Stay-at-Home Life says
April 13, 2015 at 8:18 pmAdorable idea!! We have major Star Wars fans in our family, they’d love this.
Lora Bumatay says
April 13, 2015 at 8:41 pmWhat great AFFORDABLE ideas! Love it!
Vidya Sudarsan says
April 13, 2015 at 10:17 pmLooks like a great party idea on a budget!
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Liz Mays says
April 13, 2015 at 10:19 pmYour light saber idea is so brilliant! You really came up with such cute food names too.
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Beth@FrugalFroggie says
April 13, 2015 at 10:36 pmI did like the Star Wars film. And of course I liked Han Solo.
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Bianca says
April 15, 2015 at 1:10 amwow! Such an awesome party, and for so cheap! My family are huge Star Wars fans, and I know they would love this!
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Lenze says
April 15, 2015 at 11:00 amSuch a cute idea for a party!
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Christy says
April 15, 2015 at 1:00 pmThe names For your food crack me up! Fabulous job!
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Danica says
April 16, 2015 at 10:23 pmThis is sooo cool! I can’t wait until Nathan is into Star Wars and I’m definitely going to do a party like this!!
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Kendra @ www.joyinourhome.com says
May 7, 2015 at 10:28 pmI bet your lil man loved it all, Sydney! You did amazing and love throwing parties on a budget. Love all the food signs… and those party favors are perfect! xo
Michelle says
January 17, 2016 at 9:20 amVery fun! I love the pool noodles for light sabers! I have a free R2-D2 favor printable on my site that you might want to see: http://printabelle.com/star-wars-r2-d2-favor-bags-with-free-printable
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