Throw an Oscar Worthy Bash

I've always wanted to throw an Oscar/Academy Awards get together using all the fun Hollywood themed decorations. I finally got my chance this year. I had a few people over for an Academy Awards Party and I had so much fun planning and decorating for it. There are unlimited options with what you can do so it was hard to narrow it down. Here is an overview of my decorations and recipes.

For decorations, you want to think gold, black and red. You also want to think statues and stars and movie themed items such as popcorn, movie reels, tickets, etc. I started at Party City and picked a few things that they had. I then went on to place an online order at buycostumes.com to get a little more variety than the Party City store had. Here are the final results.

I wanted to give the feel of walking into an Oscar party right from the start. I found this door poster that says "Welcome to Awards Night" that I thought was perfect for that feeling. I hung it on my front door so guests could see it right away.

What is a red carpet event without a red carpet?

I love the look of having decorations hanging from the ceiling. I found these gold and black swirls with Oscar statues on them and hung them around the ceiling above the food table. I also hung these strands of movie themed items in the kitchen entry way. I think both give the setting an overall glamorous look. Another idea would be to have gold, red and black balloons all over the ceiling.

If you follow my blog, you're probably familiar with my hurricane centerpiece that I have been updating for all the different holidays. I even found a way to use this in my decor. Along with a fake "Oscar" statue and a clapboard, I displayed my hurricane centerpiece with an Award Show twist. I filled it with red and gold confetti filler and sprinkled movie themed confetti in between. I thought it turned out very well.

I love doing some kind of photo booth or prop that people can take pictures with. I saw a few different choices but I ultimately went with this doorway one with an Oscar couple with the faces cut out.

I also purchased these metallic stars and decided the best place to put them was around the photo prop. I put the two small silver ones on the sides where the tape was holding the prop up and then I hung the big gold one above the photo prop. You can't see them too well in the pictures above but they added something to the display in person.

One easy and fun idea that anyone can do with a color printer is make movie posters. You could do a vintage theme with old movie posters and past best picture winners or you can do my idea. I made a Best Picture Nominee wall and made a movie poster for every movie that was nominated for Best Picture this year. I didn't have time to do this but I think they would have looked good if I had matted them with red, gold and black paper.

One of the main reasons I ended up getting some additional items on buycostumes.com instead of Party City's website was because I saw these Hollywood Walk of Fame stars and I thought it would be so much fun to create my own. I thought about putting them on the kitchen floor like an actual walk of fame but decided I didn't want them to get messed up with people stepping on them so I put them on the door instead. Each couple signed their stars and got to take them home as a fun favor!

Aside from the decorations, you have to think menu. I definitely wanted to feature a few drink options as well as some snacks. For my drinks, I went ahead and went with a Pink Tea Sangria in a punch bowl and then made Red Carpet-tinis for everyone. Click on the links for recipes. I served the sangria in cute cups with reels on them. Gary also featured some of his craft beers.

As for food, I was actually planning to do a popcorn bar because I have these adorable popcorn bags but I completely forgot so maybe next year for that. I made some smoked sausages with crushed red pepper and served them with cute movie themed toothpicks and a variety of dipping sauces. The sauces included horseradish, ketchup, 3 kinds of mustard (honey, spicy and regular), and barbecue sauce. I also picked up a selection of delicious cupcakes from a local bakery and added my movie themed picks to make them themed.  I had some friends bring chips and salsa to add to the salty and I had some Bailey's candy and peanut butter M&Ms to add to the sweet.

The most important part of throwing an Oscar bash is the ballots. Even if you're not that into the show, it's fun to fill out a ballot and have a competition during the awards between your guests. You can print copies of the official ballot off of the official Academy Awards website.