Baptist Fundamentals

Tips for Throwing a Stylish and Affordable Birthday Party

Written by bmlengel on August 18th, 2009

The economy is making it hard for a lot of people right now but that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate birthdays in style. If you’re the designated party-thrower in your family, these tips will help keep costs down, while still allowing you to create an event no one will forget:

Be Creative with the Birthday Party Theme

Why not try an unusual theme that can be implemented without breaking the bank for your guests or you? For a kids party, you can ask all the guests to bring inexpensive gifts suitable to give to a regional animal rescue organization or family homeless shelter. If you call the organization in advance, you can compile a list of low-cost items that can be included with the invitations you send to your guests. Instruct them to wrap the items as if they were regular birthday gifts and then everyone can go as a group to deliver them. This would not only be meaningful for everyone involved but it would also give children first-hand experience with how good it feels to give to others.

If the event is for an adult, you can help your guests save money by having a recycling/re-gifting party. Most people have at least one gift in their closets that they’ve been given but don’t want, so why not have them wrap them up and give them again? Make sure to let them know who is coming to the party though, so people don’t re-gift items they received from other party guests! If you don’t want to risk hurt feelings, people can just bring impulse purchases they made but have never used. Make sure to provide a specific dollar limit for the recycled items, so that everyone can participate and go home with a gift.

Make Your Own Birthday Party Decorations and Invitations

The Web has an unbelievable selection of printable birthday invitations for both adults and kids. So why waste your money on store-bought invitations when printing them at home is so easy and inexpensive? There are also plenty of birthday clip-art options online, which make great party decorations. If you can find high resolution art, you can make banners or signs. If you can’t find the right kind of clipart, you can at least use smaller art to make table place holders or to cut out and sprinkle throughout flower arrangements or plants. If you like antiques, try printing and cutting out various free vintage birthday cards and tie them with fancy ribbons to a string that forms a garland. This is an easy way to get a vintage feel and make the party more festive! To enhance the shabby chic, vintage theme, you can get mix-and-match used plates and silverware at a thrift store instead of buying paper plates and plastic knives, forks and spoons.

The most important thing to remember when trying to save money on a birthday party is that you need to be creative. If you infuse style into your party plans, no one will ever know you did it on the cheap!

Tags: birthday clip art, birthday clipart, free printable birthday invitations, printable birthday invitations, vintage birthday, vintage birthday cards