Mad Men Party – part 2

First up is the party favors. I ended up spending about $2.00 on each favor bag. I had a bag for the guys that I made to look like a guys white button shirt & tie (with a little lipstick on the collar…just a joke ;p).

For the ladies, I got black bags, punched two holes in the top & strung a fake strand of pearls. I found a 16 yard spool of pearls at a discount store for $3! Score. 🙂

(You can see that I took this picture, while a professional photographer took the two above. ;p Her name is Kim Herbert & here’s her photography site.) 

This is I put in the favor bags –

Gentlemen

Small Yellow Legal Pad

Two #2 pencils

Candy Cigar/Chocolate covered pretzel I made

Ladies 

Small Yellow Legal Pad

Two #2 Pencils

Box of candy cigarettes

(p.s. This was an adult party only, which is why I felt okay giving the guests candy cigarettes. When I was a little girl, I LOVED to buy those candy cigarettes. They tasted so good & I didn’t become a smoker because of them…addicted to sweets, yes. Smoker, no. ;p) 

This was the dessert table. I set up our downstairs basement like a lounge that had the dessert table, several hi-boy tables, a makeshift “bar” & the photo booth.

Breakdown of the dessert table decor:

Backdrop – two rolls of wrapping paper on clearance for $1.07 each; the red frame was actually a mirror I got at Goodwill for $7 (a little steep but I caved ;p), painted it red, cut out some scrapbook paper for a background & cut out the ladies head & words from my computer

“Hat Box” – This was actually an old box I had leftover from my wedding reception. I spray painted it silver & glued a ribbon around it.

Labels – Scrapbook paper & printed cardstock.

Frames – $1 frames I had picked up from Michaels ages ago & spray painted silver. I printed off Betty Draper quotes. This one says “I’m a vegetarian, sometimes.”

“My mother always said, ‘You’re painting a masterpiece. Make sure to hide the brushstrokes.” 

And my favorite one…

“Only boring people are bored.” 

Betty Draper is certainly a crazy character. ;p

Pearls – these were part of that huge spool I got at a steal.

Tablecloth – the top part is just a portion of one of those plastic tablecloth rolls. The gathered skirt is also plastic that I ended up getting at Party City. I wanted to DIY one but just ran out of time. It wasn’t too pricey & I taped it instead of using the sticky edging so I can use it again.

All together I spend about $15 for the table decorations. 🙂

Let’s talk sweets! 🙂

Menu –

German Chocolate Cake (b/c it is Mike’s favorite) 

Chocolate Malted Mousse Cups

Lemon Bars 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting 

Chocolate covered pretzels/candy cigars

Chocolate Malted Mousse Cups: I just came up with this one as I was thinking about popular foods in the 60s. Malt Shakes were really popular but I knew that would be too complicated. Instead, I took chocolate pudding, added cool whip & malted milk powder to create a mousse. I topped it with whip cream & a malt ball.

The lemon bars were super easy because I used a box mix & made them the night before. The German Chocolate cake takes a little work (plus I was doing the main food) so I wanted something simple & not chocolate (since I was serving so much chocolate).

Chocolate Cupcakes: For these I just doubled the German chocolate cake recipe to make the cupcakes. Both the German Chocolate cake & the cupcakes I made the weekend before & froze them so I didn’t get too overwhelmed the day of the party. I had extra cream cheese from another recipe, thus was born the idea to top them with cream cheese frosting. 🙂

Chocolate Cigars: I also made these several weeks in advance & froze them. If you make them with the chocolate melts, they freeze nicely. If you make them with semi-sweet chocolate, freezing isn’t a good thing. ;p I had these little strips in my scrapbook supplies that I used to replicate a cigar label.

This is an estimate but I think I spent about $30 on the ingredients for the dessert table. The malted mousse cups came in at under $10, the lemon bars $3, the cupcake & cake were about $15 (we already had the nuts for the cake so that helped) & the pretzels were only a few bucks.

These were our hi-boy tables. I originally wanted to try & DIY these but ran out of time. I got them from Atlanta Rental & there were only $12/each. I got 4 tables & they were perfect for helping set our “lounge-like scene.”

For centerpieces, I topped regular wine glasses with red vellum & put a little tea light inside.

For our “makeshift bar,” I stacked 4 rubbermaid containers on top of each other (two on the bottom & two on the top) then I put a door on top & covered it with the black plastic tablecloth! ;p We just finished up our basement so we have a couple extra doors laying around. ;p

We set a photobooth up in a corner with random items I salvaged at Goodwill.

This was one of my favorite pictures. This is David, my sister Meg’s fiance. (I’m sooo excited for their upcoming wedding)

Speaking of…this is my sister! Love her so much.

Here are a few more snapshots I loved –

(BTW…those cigarettes are all fake! :-))

I think this last one may actually be my favorite. They all turned out SOOO good! This last photo just looks like something on a movie cover.

I hope you got some good ideas from this party! We had so much fun. It’s always fun to dress up!

What is a TV show you love that would be fun to do as a party theme?

Hope you have a great weekend! There is some exciting changes coming to Parties for Pennies that I can’t wait to share with you. Thank you for reading or glancing. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you. Have a wonderful Memorial Day remembering those heros that sacrifice for our country, along with their families!

p.s. You can now LIKE Parties for Pennies on facebook! Click here. 

                                                    Linking up to – 36th Avenue & Serenity Now