House Divided Graduation Party

‘Tis the season for graduation parties! Today I’m sharing about a House Divided Graduation Party I designed for a friend of mine. At her work, she has two interns who are both graduating this year with master’s degrees, and she wanted to celebrate them! They go to two different schools, so she wanted to be sure to highlight that as part of the decorations. She also said she wanted a photo booth and a simple set-up.

The school colors for each graduate are red & gold and purple & gold. The fact that both schools have gold as a school color actually made my job easy! And, since purple and red compliment each other nicely, a color scheme was born. I added in some black as my basic color and I was ready to start designing.

Armed with my party challenge, I headed out to my favorite stores to gather supplies to bring her vision to life. I visited Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Party City, with a final stop at my favorite spot – my garage ;).

Here’s what I gathered…

I got the black and gold wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby to use as the base layer for the buffet I love the sparkle of the gold shapes on this paper. I love to use wrapping paper because it’s recyclable and makes for easy clean up!

At Target, I found some great photo booth props and the “congrats” napkins. At Party City, I found the purple and red serveware and candy. I also found some cute graduation straws to make the drinks extra festive.

To complete the look, I “shopped” in my garage and put together the tassel banner in the coordinating colors, and also found a “congrats banner” to layer on top of that at the photo booth. I also gathered some vases and mason jars to use as vessels for flowers and silverware.

A few days in advance of the party, I boxed everything up to meet my friend. I like to do a hands-on overview so I can show the decorations and give advice for how I’d set everything up, but I also love to let people put their own touch on their parties, so I love to see how it all turns out after the fact.

I got a message and photos a couple days after the party. My friend said she only had a few minutes to get everything ready, so I’m glad it was an easy set-up.