How to Host a Graduation Party for Under $1 Per Person

Easy
How I had our sons graduation party at our house using a local creamery for under $1 per person.
We decided on an ice cream bar for the Graduation Party so the obvious was red and white checked table cloths (I purchased 10 of them at the dollar store). I moved our furniture to the perimeter of the room, put the coffee table in storage and set up three 8ft tables and one square table for seating (I also had tables on both the front and back deck). To the tables I added simple mason jars in blue and green filled with wild daisy’s (FREE). Since we adopted Cody at age 14 I didn’t have any baby photos, so the next best thing was a collection of pics from sports and fun times with his friends. I took them to Staples and had engineer prints done in 18X24′s to hang on the walls ($20).
See that freezer at the end of my island? That’s the ice cream bar. We have a local creamery, MOO-ville, owned and operated by a husband, wife and their 5 children. What I like best about their products are they don’t put any of that funny stuff (chemicals or growth hormone) into their products, it’s just good ole fashioned ice cream. Their also so helpful, when I ordered the ice cream I actually got to go into the freezer where they stock the 4 gallon bucket and pick my flavors. They gave me a heavy coat to put on and it was still freezing in there.
What we got in the package was 16 gallons of ice cream, the freezer to scoop the ice cream from, 12 pounds of toppings, spoons, bowls, and napkins, to serve 300 all for $240 dollars. Can you believe that? Even if I take into consideration the soda and water I still served everyone for under a $1 per person, that’s just amazing…..and the best part was I didn’t have to cook a thing. I turned out HUGE sink into a drink cooler, there’s 168 drinks in that sink as well as 44 pounds of ice. I was amazed how much it holds.
I printed and framed the menu choices and placed it on the island by the ice cream service station. My oldest sons girlfriend works for a place that serves pizza and ice cream so she volunteered to be our scooper for the day.
I think the house ended up looking like an old fashioned ice cream parlor with all the red and white checks going on and my white and blue furniture fit right in. One thing this party taught me was you don’t have to have a large meal for people to come. Everyone right now is hitting several graduation party’s in one day and just having ice cream at our place was quite refreshing to most.
Here’s the break down:


Ice Cream and Toppings, 300 servings: $240


Bowls, Spoons, Napkins, Freezer: Included in ice cream price


Table Cloths, 10: $10


Mason Jar and Daisy centerpiece : FREE


Engineer prints: $20


Final Cost : $270
Dawn @ Creative Cain Cabin
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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