How to Plan a Cinco De Mayo Fiesta

Are you ready for one of the biggest celebrations of the year where sombreros, margaritas, and tortillas are the norm for the day! It's time for CINCO DE MAYO!!

#1 Invitations

Sending out festive invitations is always the best idea and your local Target or Party City will have these on stock, however, there is a quicker and still creative way to invite your guests to your Cinco de Mayo Fiesta; send them an EVITE. Evite has premade Cinco de Mayo invitations so this requires little effort from you. Simply pop in the email addresses and you're set!

#2 Decor

Decoration must haves are included, but not limited to: Fiesta table cloth, maracas, sombreros, pinatas, Fiesta colored paper lanterns, festive designed lights, Fiesta colored streamers, napkins, plates, and cutlery in Fiesta colors, and Fiesta colored margarita cups. There are always sections in Party City dedicated to Cinco de Mayo decorations, but you can also try Oriental Trading Company (pictured above) for some even more unique decor.

#3 Food & Drinks

It's time for some south-of-the-border tasty fun! Food & Drink must haves include, but are not limited to: icy cold margaritas & coronas, chips & salsa, quacamole, a warm bowl of chicken-tortilla soup, 7-layer dip, chilli, quesadillas, chicken wings, and burritos and tacos. Since tacos are more of a main course, set up a taco bar! Use colorful trays to separate all the toppings – cheese, lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, olives, and choices of salsa. For dessert have churros & sopapillas! Click here for specific Cinco de Mayo recipes!

#4 Entertainment

I for one would love to bring actual professional Mexican dancers to my party, BUT, to save some money, select a station on Pandora or simply download traditional Mexican music from Amazon or iTunes!

I hope you are now ready to plan your next Cinco de Mayo Fiesta!




ADIOS!

How to Plan a Large Birthday Party-Part 2: Decorations

So you've chosen the theme for your party, created an itinerary for the birthday party, sent out invitations and are now waiting for RSVPs. What to do, what to do? It's time to start getting decorations!

I wanted to activate sight the second my guests walked into the room where I was hosting the first part of my birthday celebration and I knew there was only one decoration company that could bring my vision to life; Oriental Trading! This company has party supplies, crafts, and party decorations for absolutely ANY occasion. Since I wanted to bring my Mardi Gras meets Masquerade theme to life, I ordered a metallic gold door curtain to hang at my door so it screamed "party time" as soon as my guests stepped up

and I ordered the Mardi Gras Design-A-Room Set. It was simple to use, all I did was unravel the set, obtain adhesive tape, and stuck it to the walls of my party room. This look really enhanced the theme!

The Mardi Gras Design-A-Room Set also came with 'people' that you could also stick to the walls which I thought was so cool and a must have.

What is a Mardi Gras meets Masquerade party without masks? On one of the nights of the party I wanted to incorporate masks. But, not just any masks; I wanted masks that could be easily taken on and off and not tamper with my guests' faces and hair. So I decided to get beautiful hand masks also from Oriental Trading.

As I constantly say, choosing three main colors to match your theme makes buying and creating decorations so much easier. The three main colors I chose for my party were gold, purple, & green. The hard thing about a Mardi Gras meets Masquerade theme is that there are a lot of color variations like royal purple, dark purple,light purple etc. so if you can stick to two or three stores that have your exact colors that is the safest route to go. For me I stuck with three: Oriental Trading, Michaels and Party City

Since Michaels and Party City were local stores, I used them to fulfill quick, basic decor needs like helium for my balloons, streamers, arts & crafts supplies, and cutlery/napkins/cups.

Remember in my HELLO KITTY Baby Shower blog I discussed the importance of MINOR DETAILS? Though I fulfilled my decor vision with physically bought decorations, I still needed to create decorations of my own that would serve as minor details. Stay tuned to see all the ways in which I implemented minor details!