It’s the final days of school and you can feel the excitement of the students ready to say goodbye to the comforts of who and what they know and embark on new pursuits. Give the students their much-deserved celebration after years of hard work with a fun graduation party. Planning a graduation party can be a big responsibility to take. We will give you a step-by-step planning process guide so you can create a send-off for your class that they won’t forget.
Steps on Planning a Graduation Party
Survey and ask the class about their party preferences
Each class has its preferences and interests. As an event planner, you should be in touch with your class to understand what they want. Some questions to ask before you plan:
- What is the date that you are most likely to attend? Do we do it on the night of graduation?
- What activities do you prefer?
- How much are you willing to spend? What is our budget from the school?
- Do you want a specific theme for the party?
- What is the most memorable trend in the past years together?
- What type of food or catering do you prefer?
- Is there any specific entertainment or activities you would like to see at the graduation party?
- Do you have any special requests and considerations?
Make sure to be inclusive and get the feedback of each person from your class. As much as possible, try to get a pulse from at least one representative from the different groups.
Create a Core Team (students, faculty, parents, community members)
The next step is to organize a core team for the graduation party. Each member of the graduation party planning committee brings their expertise and experience to contribute to the event’s overall success. Furthermore, a core team helps distribute the workload, preventing any one person from becoming overwhelmed and ensuring that all details are attended to with precision.
The core committee for a graduation party usually consists of the following:
- Logistics Team
- Venue
- Food and Drinks
- Decorations
- Security
- Emergencies
- Event Program
- Activities
- Entertainment
- Program
- Finance Team
- Budget
- Selling tickets
- Finding sponsors
- Communications Team
- Marketing
- Promotions
Effective communication and collaboration are key, so choose individuals who work well together and can contribute innovative ideas. Look for reliable team members who will make planning fun and stress-free.
We suggest that one adult be in charge of the entire planning and two students take the lead in each department of the planning team. Consider the size of your team; it should be large enough to cover all essential aspects but small enough to maintain efficiency.
Set the budget
The budget is a big factor that will determine the trajectory of your event. Usually, graduation parties are done through ticket selling. Each member of the class who wishes to attend will purchase a ticket and the event organizers will use that fund for the event operations and other costs.
The budget is usually spent on food, drinks, entertainment, raffle or prizes, and decorations.
Plan the logistics
Imagine someone eagerly looking forward to the party only to attend a venue with a maintenance mishap or an unideal location. Planning for the logistics is another important step not to be neglected. Decide on the date and time of your graduation party. Once you have that in place, you can approach venue vendors to check if they have availability on your date.
When choosing a venue, consider factors such as safety, permits, distance, and space. Verify the necessary permits well in advance to avoid any last-minute complications. If the class prefers to have the party outdoors, don’t forget to prepare backup plans in case of bad weather. Some graduation parties choose to reserve party tents too for their outdoor venue.
Be detail-oriented with details on logistics because it will affect the overall experience of the attendees. Under logistics is the need for transportation arrangements for attendees to get to and fro the venue.
Choose a theme and type of graduation party
The next step is to choose a theme or type of graduation party you are organizing. Will the type of party be more of a casual or a formal, ball type of event? These will determine venue specifications like whether to pick indoor and outdoor spaces.
Whatever type of party you decide, the theme is important to make effective storytelling and decorations. Choose a theme that has a reference to something your audience can relate to. Better yet, choose a theme with a significant impact or personal touch with your batch like using the graduate’s school colors.
Don’t forget to add some fun touches to your decorations like graduation caps accessories, balloons, etc. We also suggest adding interactive elements to make the grad party exciting. This could include interactive displays, digital guestbooks, or social media engagement.
Here are some graduation party ideas:
- DIY Taco Bar or Nachos
- Trip Down Memory Lane
- Yearbook Signing
- Classmate Appreciation
- Arts and Crafts Sections
- Awarding Segment
- Singalongs or Karaoke
- Dance Off
Send invites to the Guest List
You can start sending out information about the graduation party once you have the list of names of your entire class. We suggest you set up an event site for your graduation party where you will be selling your event tickets.
Depending on how you decide to send your invitations, you can invite the class through an event invitation email that leads to your event landing page. Furthermore, you can also do social media promotions and utilize your chosen event hashtags.
Event Espresso and Event Smart are ideal ticket-selling software to use for no commission fees. You can customize your registration forms, manage multiple ticket types, and more.
Prepare for the Menu or Book Your Caterer
Consider how many guests are attending after they have registered to ensure there is enough food for everyone. Consider any food allergies the attendees may have. Additionally, you can decide if you want to have additional finger foods or co*cktails.
The caterer is just one of the other vendors you will be booking to make the graduation party happen. When dealing with vendors, consider having everything in writing by having vendor contracts. Doing so ensures that expectations are well-defined, and everyone involved is on the same page regarding services, payments, and other relevant details.
Create Event Program
Now, it’s time to create your event program and give your attendees a great experience. Here are some tips as you set up the details of your graduation party.
- Align your program script depending on your theme.
- Personalize your event program by adding relatable, fun, and familiar lines from your academic experiences
- Choose popular music choices as entertainment or a playlist
- Host fun games that involve teamwork and collaboration to promote camaraderie
- Allow for breaks when people can mingle and socialize
- Announce your class reunion in advance to remind attendees to keep in touch
- Make space for collecting memories. Don’t forget about the graduation party essentials like the photo booth.
Executing on the Day of the Graduation Party
Create a smooth and memorable experience for attendees by executing the graduation party well. Before the event, you can save yourself the stress by assigning responsibilities to your core team. When tasks are properly delegated, it will be easier to check and coordinate tasks during the day of the party.
Set clear expectations for their on-the-day responsibilities to avoid stress. Be prepared for unexpected situations and prepare a backup plan with your team.
Finally, capturing moments through event photography is also very important for events like a graduation party. Arrange meetings with potential photographers and check their portfolios if they match what you are looking for. Communicate clearly about what the class can do with the images in terms of copyright after the event.
Post-event
Leave a mark even long after the party is over by sending thank you messages and gifts for your attendees. Consider sending post-event survey questions to help improve your planning for the next event. If you’ve collected ticket payments, you can also create a post-event report for transparency. As an event organizer, you can also go the extra mile by creating a group where people can network or set up the next reunion or event.
Graduation Party Planning Checklist
Because you already have an idea of planning a graduation party, here’s a graduation party planning checklist that you can use as a reference or guide. You can also download it as a PDF File.
Start the Celebration with Event Smart
Create meaningful events like a graduation party with tools like Event Espresso or Event Smart. Event Espresso is an event registration plugin you can use on your WordPress site. If you don’t want to start a website from scratch, you can choose Event Smart.
Unlike other ticket-selling platforms, both Event Smart and Event Espresso don’t charge any commission fees on an unlimited number of tickets sold. When you use either of the platforms, you can be sure that guests can have a smooth registration process.
Here’s a review from one of the users of Event Smart:
“Event Smart provided my event with everything I needed. It was a school event and it helped the event be a success. In previous years we had used EventBrite and we saved over $1k by switching to Event Smart this year. The customer service provided was amazing and we will continue using Event Smart for future events. Thank you, Event Smart!”
Get the party started by checking out our live free demo or our 14-day free trial.
