What we designed...

• Party Theming
• Event Coordination
• Invitation Design

The brief

Toby was wanted his 21st to be a ‘stand out’ since many of his friends had already celebrated this milestone. We chose The Wild West theme, supporting Toby’s nick name as the “Milky Bar Kid.”

Entertainment:
Male 21sts’ can get ‘out of hand’ if no entertainment is provided. For our Western theme we decided to hire a bucking bull ride. Some Western cheesy classic songs were interspersed in the musical playlist such as the Rawhide theme and Wandering Star.

Food:
We served bean and other dips with corn chips, Buffalo wings (Hooters Wings), nachos, chilli con carne, wagon wheels, milky bars, chocolate coins, gold nugget bubble gum, beef ribs and corn cobs culminating in a cowprint 21st ice-cream cake..

To collect any bones or rubbish we used little metal pails/buckets. I decorated each of these pails with cow prints to support the theme.

Drinks:
The patio was transformed into a Western saloon with the aid of plastic faux wooden panelling and an old wooden armoire which held the bar. Two friends volunteered to be the saloon girls for the night.

The cocktail list was Western themed with tequila sunrises, cock-sucking cowboys and fireballs. I designed a cocktail menu tablets which was placed on each of the tables.

I created a number of beer labels to give the bought beer a more authentic look. The labels were printed onto stickers and were placed over the original beer label. Horse feeder troughs were borrowed from the local riding school. Filled with ice and hung over the fence these doubled as eskies. Plastic cocktails glasses were painted with cowprints.
 
Scene:
Utilising the scene setters and ‘Wanted’ posters from previous parties, we decorated the walls to create a saloon feel. We purchased bails of hay/straw for seating which we were able to sell back. The bails were a great way of using seating to help strengthen the Western theme.

A Western party needs a unique entry stamp – a cattle brand. I created the brand by cutting it out of a piece of flattened cork in this case “Toby’s 21st” cut in reverse. The cork was glued to a craft plaque and covered in glue to seal it. The plaque was then glued onto something the resembled a cattle prod – in this case a potato masher. The brand was dipped in black or brown ink and used to stamp the guests. It was just another way to add to the overall theme.