I received a box of sample products from Oriental Trading in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own, and no other form of compensation was received.
I love to throw parties. We usually celebrate all the big holidays, birthdays, and other occasions with a party. Sometimes I like to throw a huge get together, and other times I like to keep it simple with just a few close family and friends. We always have a great time, and seeing all those smiling faces makes me happy.
The downside to being the party host is parties can get pretty expensive. While I tend to go bigger for my daughters’ birthday parties, I have to keep my budget small for everything else throughout the year.
Monday was my husband’s birthday, so my 5 year old daughter insisted on throwing Daddy a party this past weekend. I let my husband pick out the theme. Because his birthday fell on the day before Fat Tuesday he decided to go with a Mardi Gras theme. I thought this was a great idea because it’s easy to incorporate both kids and adults with party favors for both age groups. I set out on the task of working with a budget. Could I give my husband a great birthday party for less than $100?
Once the theme was chosen I ordered all of our party supplies from Oriental Trading, one of my go to party supply retailers. The supplies are great, budget friendly, and I’m rarely disappointed. I love the options available for each holiday as well as the many solid color options. I tend to shy away from kits that come with everything in a specific pattern or theme because I like to save leftover supplies for future parties. I also donate extra solid colored party supplies to a local children’s home that uses the supplies to throw small birthday parties for each child. This keeps the cost down for the home that runs on a very tight budget while providing a little birthday joy for the children. Oriental Trading has so many options I can put together my own custom party pack with a mix of themed and solid colored items.
In exchange for a review Oriental Trading provided me with sample products valued at approximated $75. Because I wanted to work with a $100 budget (including product value) I left me with $25 for food.
I chose Mardi Gras themed dessert plates and keep the other tableware simple with Mardi Gras appropriate solid colors. I added clear forks I already had on hand and Mardi Gras toothpicks as a fun way to grab finger foods.
Oriental Trading carries a great variety of decorations and other themed items to incorporate the fun. I decorated a “favor table” with a cute Mardi Gras centerpiece then added Mardi Gras crowns, glow in the dark Mardi Gras beads, Mardi Gras masks, Mardi Gras coins, and a treasure chest full of toys. Everyone enjoyed choosing their own party favors, and this made it easy to have something for every age group. All the favors were budget friendly and well made, and everyone took their coins home in little gold buckets I also purchased from Oriental Trading. I used the extra buckets to hold the utensils making them a double duty purchase.
The sticky tabs that hold the lid and sides together on the treasure chest aren’t sticky enough, so I had to tape the treasure box together when I built it. It’s a very small complaint in my opinion, and I would buy it again. The crowns were also really large when put together and were too big for even the adults, but we pulled the tape out again to adjust them to individual head sizes.
Add food, and our Mardi Gras birthday party was complete. I made a trip to my favorite grocery store, Aldi, for party food on the cheap. We chowed down on pulled pork sandwiches, chips, crackers, cheese, and fruit. I forgot to pick up a cupcake stand, so I recycled one from my daughter’s Princess Sofia Disney party. Oops! No one seemed to mind because they were too busy chowing down to notice! I picked up buns and chips at my local dollar store because I also forgot to grab those while grocery shopping. That bumped my food total to $23 and some change. I already had 2 CrunchPaks in the fridge, and my 5 year old insisted on “serving” those, too, aka she gave one to her sister and took the other.
We ended up having a great party with lots of laughter and full bellies without breaking the bank. I was able to throw a birthday party with family and friends for less than $100! Next time you need to throw a party on a budget head over to Oriental Trading to see what they have to offer!
The post How I Used Oriental Trading to Throw a Mardi Gras Birthday Party for Less Than $100 appeared first on BrainFoggles.
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