17549

Grease Drive-In Party -16yr- Malt Shop Diner

February 2008

Alissa in Clearwater, Florida, United States

Honorable Mention

For my sweet sixteen I needed an idea that my very diverse group of friends would love. I came up with a 1950's costume party. With a drive-in and diner theme. I didn't want to spend an excess of money like most sweet sixteens anymore, so I made a lot of the things myself.

I have always thought that invitations set the tone for the party so you have to make them really memorable. For my invitations I made a ticket template with all the information on it. Then I bought small old fashion popcorn bags (the red and white stripe ones available at party city) and curled beige ribbon. I tapped the ribbon inside the bag to look like popcorn, and put the tickets partially inside the bag. These invitations were an insane hit. Absolutely everyone loved them.

Decorations are a big deal too. I made old whimsical signs out of cardboard and painted them myself. I had four all together. One that was for a diner, another was a drive in sign, I had a now playing - Alissa's sweet sixteen sign, and inside was a sweet shop sign. If you can, punch small holes around the borders and stick in christmas lights. It really makes the difference.

Since I invited so many people I needed to let people inside and out. I turned my backyard into a drive in. I made cardboard cars for some people to sit in and to be decoration and I told people to bring blankets to sit on the grass and such.

Inside, I turned my entire house into a diner.  There were the checkered tableclothes, and old fashion menus as well as cutouts I made that looked like carhops. My house really looked like it was straight out of the 50's.

I love having activities, but with teenagers you have to be careful. Nothing is worse than people that don’t want to partake in something and everyone sits while 3 of your guests play the game. So make sure you're not too scheduled. I had things like limbo, and hula hoop contests which don't take a long time, but are just as fun.

The main event though was the theme itself - Grease. We projected it onto a foam board (much flatter than a sheet on the fence ) and it looked just like a drive in screen. It was nice because everyone was in their poodle skirts, and pink lady and T-Bird jackets.

But nothing is more important to a teenager than the food. And it is not going to go over well if you try to have fancy food, so I kept to diner basics. Cheeseburgers, hot dogs, french fries, onion rings, potato chips, malts, root beer floats, and all sodas were in glass bottles. It's always better to have simple food that will get eaten instead of impressive things that sit there. And for cake, I made a miniature Grease Lightning. Soo cute.

If that’s a tab bit out of your baking comfort zone, do something more along the lines of a pink lady cake or something like that. I really wanted everyone to remember the evening.

So for favors I gave out pictures. Earlier in the evening everyone took pictures in front of a head cut out sandy and danny. You know the ones they have at the circus where you stick your head in the hole and take the piture so it looks like your that person. Anywho, everyone took a picture with that, as well as a picture with me(dressed as sandy) and my boyfriend(dressed and Danny) so it was like they were taking pictures with look a likes.

My mother developed the pictures during the party so when everyone left, they got a picture to take home. As well, if they won the limbo or hula hoop contest (you could do trivia too if you have less people) they got prizes like black combs and shades or red nail polish and neck scarves. 

My party was an absolute hit and everyone had a spectacular time. If you keep it at home, and make things yourself you can make it fun and affordable. I hope your party will be as amazing as mine!!

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