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Bring an island paradise to your home by hosting a tropical party. Use beautiful bright colors mixed with gorgeous lush green leaves to bring the summer vibe.
This tropical party is easy to recreate with simple tutorials for party decorations and fun themed food. This is a party your daughter will love inviting her closest friends to.
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It’s pretty hard not to have a smile on your face when you host a tropical party. And the great thing about this party theme is that it is suitable for SO many times of parties.
You could easily hold one for a kids party, an adults party or even a baby shower or bridal shower.
All the party needs it a few tweaks to make it suitable for the occasion.
This party was held for my daughter’s 8th birthday.
She was at the age of wanting something more “grown up”, but still fun and very child friendly.
We brought a tropical island to our backyard because let’s face it, everyone is relaxed and happy with a tropical vibe.
It was “pretty” but a lot of fun, just as she requested.
Tropical Party Decorations
The decorations that are chosen are always so important for creating a themed party.
More good news here is that a tropical party is SO incredibly easy to decorate for.
Think about using bright colors across the birthday party space.
Lots of pops of color really bring the entire area to life.
There are so many tropical party supplies available both in store and online that it’s hard to know where to stop.
Easy tropical party decorations include:
- Tropical flowers
- Grass skirt around tables (and to wear)
- Inflatable palm trees
- Pink Flamingos
- Flower Leis
- Lanterns, shells, coconuts and pineapples
- Tiki torches (if hosting an adult party)
- String lights look beautiful if holding the party outdoors in the evening
Behind the food table, I always hang up a party backdrop.
I find that having a backdrop is a great way to highlight which colors you will be focusing on throughout the party decor. It also provides a focal point at the party.
Whilst there are many beautiful tropical backdrops that can be purchased, I find creating one with plastic tablecloths is a much cheaper alternative and it always looks amazing.
The best part is that this DIY party backdrop can be designed for every single party that you hold. It instantly has a different feel to it purely by the colors chosen.
So once you know how to make this backdrop, you can use the same formula over and over again.
This tropical backdrop was made up with pale pink, gold and white, which remained the main colors throughout the party decor. The addition to this was the green tropical leaves.
Rather than use fresh flowers, I used a lot of artificial flowers throughout the party decor.
I used a selection of hibiscus flowers and pink and white lily’s mixed with tropical palm leaves.
These flowers were perfect table decor that were beautiful but not over the top.
They worked really well to provide the pop of color that was needed to turn the area into an island paradise.
A feature piece on the food table was a flamingo light, which helped to provide additional color and interest.
I also used some hanging flamingo decorations, which helped create pops of color around the party area.
Part of my party decor always incorporates a set of printables, and the tropical party printables set was used for water bottles, food labels and candy bars.
This is another way to instantly create a themed vibe with little effort.
Tropical Party Food
It’s always a lot of fun to add themed food to a party and there was a lot of delicious treat food at this party.
Tropical Cupcakes:
Aside from the birthday cake, I always like to include vanilla and chocolate cupcakes.
I created these stunning tropical leaf cupcakes by adding a fondant leaf covered in gold glitter to the top of the cupcake.
Tropical Cookies:
Cookies are always another popular choice at kids parties. These tropical flower cookies not only looked beautiful but they tasted amazing.
Other tropical party food included:
- Cinnamon donuts turned into pineapples
- Marshmallow pops
- Fresh fruit which was added to a wooden skewer with a flamingo on the top
- Cheese squares onto bite sized square crackers with a tropical palm leaf pick on the top
- Red and green jello
- Bright colored candy
And then of course there is the cake. It wouldn’t be a party without the birthday cake!
We purchased a very simple cake design, then decorated with some of the complementing tropical flowers and simply placed a flamingo on the top.
It was easy and it looked beautiful.
If you would prefer to make your own birthday cake, then you will love my easy tutorial for a flamingo birthday cake that has a free printable cake topper.
We also set up a cocktail bar consisting of two different cocktails. These drinks were of course mocktails, but it was still fun to call it a cocktail bar.
Each drink was served with fun tropical umbrellas, and a drink stirrer which was a fun way of adding an extra pop of color to the drinks.
The kids were so excited to choose a drink from the menu and have it specially made for them.
Tropical Party Activities And Games
Having a selection of activities and games at a party ensures that the party runs smoothly and everyone has a great time.
There are also a lot of kids party games that can be tweaked slightly to fit any party theme. These are popular games that kids will enjoy playing.
One of the activities that we set up was a photo booth. This was simply created with a gold door curtain as the backdrop and tropical themed props were made available for the kids to use.
It was great to look back on the photos after the party to see how much fun the kids had together.
Rather than hand out a party favor bag at the end of the party, I like to incorporate this into a game. Each of the kids are handed a favor bag and as a group are taken on a treasure trail.
At each stop the kids are handed an item to place into their party bag.
When the kids were younger I used to create a map of pictures for them to follow but as they have got older we have found that a quiz works really well.
The kids have to answer a question and then given a word to find that has been placed somewhere at the party. We always have super excited kids whilst undertaking this activity.
The bright, vibrant and fresh colors used throughout this tropical party created an exciting birthday space for our daughter and her friends. It was easy to coordinate and a lot of fun to put together.
Do you now feel ready to host your own tropical party? I hope you have been able to take some inspiration from some of our tropical party ideas!
Need some ideas for a different theme? Check out the ultimate guide to easy girls party ideas. You will have a ton of inspiration for different themes, games and more.
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