12 Gift Ideas for Senior Night

Schools across the country are celebrating their senior athletes in various sports, like volleyball, soccer and football, before they start cheering for their winter athletes. Our experts are often asked for tips on what to give to senior athletes as a gift for senior night.

We have compiled a list of a few of our most popular items, as well as some you wouldn’t expect.

Personalized Mugs & Tumblers

Mugs and tumblers are a practical gift that students can use for years to come. Whether they are fueling up on water before a big game, or walking to their first college class, these insulated cups will always hold special meaning to your students.

Canvases

Custom photo canvases are a gift that the student and their parents can both enjoy. You can create these with a photo from the current season, or ask parents to submit a photo from the athlete’s childhood. Many athletic directors enlist the school’s yearbook class to provide them with cool photos from the season.

Sports Bags

Custom sports bags are a very practical gift option. Students can  use these bags to tote around their gear for practice or for weekend trips even after they graduate.

Custom Water Bottles

 

Water bottles are affordable enough to give to all of your athletes, even if you’re on a budget. You can often get large-quantity discounts, which will help to reduce the price even further. Many athletic directors choose to order in bulk at the beginning of the year, then use the water bottles for every athletic team.

Big Head Cutouts

Big Head Cutouts double as a spirited way to cheer for the big game and a decoration for the event. After it’s over, each athlete can take them home and use them to decorate their graduation party in the spring.

Posters

Custom posters make every athlete look like a superstar. These also work well to decorate for the event.

Custom Candy Bars

For a very affordable option, or as a supplement to another gift, include spirited candy bars. These can even be personalized to include a voucher from your school’s concession stand or spirit store.

Umbrellas

Umbrellas are a practical gift for everyone. When you personalize it with your school’s color and logo, it becomes a unique keepsake that the students will enjoy using for years.

Blankets

A new addition to our collection, fleece blankets are an excellent gift. These soft blankets can be personalized with your team’s color, mascot, and team name.

Lanyards

Another practical option, these lanyards will be used to carry car keys, college dorm room keys, first home keys, and more for many years down the road.

Car or Locker Magnets

These custom magnets make a great gift for any spirited member of your team. You can use them to decorate the student’s lockers, or students can place them on their cars or their family’s cars.

Flash Drives

Flash drives are another gift that has a practical purpose. Students can use these personalized flash drives to turn in their homework or to store photos from high school.

 

What are your favorite senior night gift ideas? Let us know in the comments.

How to Set Up A Hot Chocolate Bar

Whether you’re planning a winter event for your business or looking for inspiration for your wedding hot cocoa bar, giving your guests a warm, sweet treat is always a good idea.

Our display, used for a Christmas hot chocolate bar, could easily be updated with other colors and patterns to fit all of your winter events.

This hot cocoa bar used plain inspiration from our Sweater Weather Collection.

To start out, we displayed hot chocolate in a candy jar and set out some mini marshmallows in an apothecary jar.

Leisure time mugs with spoons created an opportunity for creativity. The hole that was designed for a spoon worked perfectly as a candy cane holder.

A simple photo frame worked as a label for the cocoa bar. These could also be used to label individual foods on the buffet.

A ball jar filled with candy canes and tied off with a ribbon was a cute accent and treat for everyone. Guests could also dip the candy canes into the cocoa to create peppermint hot chocolate.

Another great food item for our hot chocolate party was chocolate dipped pretzels, also shown off in a ball jar.

Cupcakes, personalized with sweater weather cupcake picks and wrappers, made another cool accent for this hot buffet.

For this decadent dessert, simply insert paper straws into marshmallows, dip them in white chocolate and roll them in crushed peppermints.

After guests added whipped cream to their drinks, they could sprinkle mini chocolate chips on top from an apothecary jar with a candy scoop.

Our favorite addition to this cocoa bar was peppermint spoons. To create these, simply dip spoons in melted chocolates before sprinkling crushed peppermints on top.

This was our holiday hot cocoa bar. Share your inspiration on social media and use #stumpsparty

Transform Your Event into a Winter Wonderland

Winter is a great season for gathering people together. While cold weather might not be the best part of the season, you can celebrate the best part of winter – sparkling, beautiful snow and ice with a Winter Wonderland Event.

9 Ideas to Create a Winter Wonderland at Your Party

We’ve done our fair share of setting up for winter events, here are a few of our favorite looks from the upcoming season, as well as years past.

1. Create a Frozen Fountain With Balloons

Use the Winter Garden Fountain to create a focal point for your party. White Latex balloons and white shred add sparkle and charm while creating the look of a snow-covered fountain.

2.  Set the Stage for a Blizzard

If you’re setting up a stage or creating a photo booth at your event, Silver Foil Curtains and giant snowflakes are an easy backdrop that makes a big impression.

3. Make an Icy Entrance

Guests will feel like they’ve entered a snowy tunnel thanks to a white luminescent tunnel set up at the entrance.

4. Create a Textured Table

Floral sheeting, blue napkins, and silver ornaments combine for a subtle, textured nod to Christmas that doesn’t look tacky.

5. Make A Fireside Glow

There’s something special about sitting by a fire during the winter. Even if your venue doesn’t have a fireplace, you can create the same effect by grouping candles (or LED Candles) on a shelf or table.

6. Stage an Icy Forest

Combining tree backgrounds with lighted trees adds dimension to your winter scene for a mystical look.

7. Set Sparkly, Easy to Clean Up Tables

Combining winter colors in your tableware doesn’t have to be complicated. Simply using silver and blue plates in varying sizes, combined with cutlery and a snowflake cutout makes for an elegant winter place setting with easy cleanup.

8. Make a Wintery Candy Buffet

In this delicious scene, the winter theme is communicated more through the color scheme than anything else. Floral sheeting and foil curtains bring the room to life while blue and white candies give the guests a great treat. Why not serve milk and cookies with personalized bottles too?

Expert Halloween Candy Buffet Ideas

If there’s one thing everyone can agree on, it’s that candy is an essential part of Halloween. While your guests might be too old to trick-or-treat, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t receive plenty of candy at your event. Get inspiration for your own Halloween candy buffet from this great set up put together by our experts.

Halloween candy isn’t just for kids. Use these tricks for office parties, adult Halloween parties, or even at a town fall festival!

This look can be achieved by using a black table cover and coordinating table skirt as the base and setting it against a background of weathered wood flat paper. Details like lighted trees (similar Halloween Trees), stacked skulls (similar to shown), orange paper lanterns and pumpkins also help set the tone for the table.

Scalloped candy containers were a bright way to show off mint candies. Covering boxes with orange gossamer helped to create a tiered look on the table and added dimension to the display.

Cylinder Vases worked perfectly to show off sixlets in various Halloween colors.A set of stacked skulls added a spooky dimension to the table.

Rock Candy Sticks were displayed in a cylinder containers, which had black gossamer in the bottom so the rock candy sticks would stick out.

Gumballs became a work of art when displayed in layers in a vase.

A scalloped container worked well as a base for personalized chocolate lollipops, too. A foam block wrapped in orange gossamer held everything in place.

State of Grace Theme

The State of Grace theme is one of our most versatile collections. While we’ve seen it used for weddings, fundraisers, and corporate events, Jess at Celebration Stylist brought the theme into a fresh light when she used it to host a Champagne brunch bridal shower.

The focal point for the party was a bubbly bar. The table included gold tassel garland, all that glitters votive candle holders, a light box, State of Grace Custom Glass Frames, personalized napkins, white balloons, pop, fizz, clink balloons, and peony paper flowers.

Brunch was served against white plates, offset by gold plate chargers and pink polyester napkins.Jess used a white floral sheeting table runner to add texture to the table without overwhelming the look with color.

Rather than using the  bride’s name on her personalized napkins, Jess used the phrase “Brunch & Bubbly” to add a personal touch.

Each champagne flute was personalized with the word “Cheers” to play into the theme. By turning the word sideways, she added a creative twist.

 

 

The State of Grace theme also works for weddings! Check out this fully staged wedding ceremony.

Do you love what Jess did with the State of Grace theme? Check out the whole collection and create your own innovative look.

Halloween Table Decorations for an Adult Halloween Party

Planning a Halloween party doesn’t have to be a gory ordeal, make your Halloween party spooky-chic with inspiration from The Blue Eyed Dove‘s Adult Halloween Party, which she originally styled for our sister company, Shindigz.

To set the tone for the tables, Erin started with a Black Candelabra paired with a black table cover. A chain ran down the whole table, acting as a spooky table runner. The chain was surrounded by LED Candles, Skulls (spray painted gold), and cobwebs.

The place settings were made up of Gold Glitter Placemats, Black Chargers (similar product), Skull dinner Plates, Gold Cutlery, a Wine Glass (featuring Gold Baker’s Twine on the stem) and a Skull Shot Glass. 

Each guest was also given a Coffin Treat Box filled with Halloween Candy.

Adult Halloween Party Food

No party is complete without at least a few treats. Erin focused on a bar with some great snack options.

The chain theme carried over into the bar area, but also featured crooked tombstones. Guests were able to “pick their poison” with a variety of wines available, all featuring personalized Halloween Wine Labels.

Black coated candy apples (also featuring Gold Baker’s twine) were a great choice for the snack of choice and really helped to put a finishing touch on the bar decorations.

Everyone showed up in costume, too – even furry guests.

NOTE: Content from this post originally appeared on Shindigz Party Ideas.

13 Creative Uses for Floral Sheeting

Floral Sheeting is best known for its use in decorating parade floats, but savvy event planners know it works even better to decorate for events of all varieties.

As students across the nation gear up to decorate thousands of parade floats, we wanted to share with you some great ideas for other practical ways to use (or reuse) floral sheeting.

Please enjoy these real examples which were sent in by real customers and professionals across the nation.

1.Wall Decorations

In her Kraft Paper party that the styled for Shindigz, Heather Bauer used White Floral Sheeting to add a luxe touch to a simple color scheme. When paired with tissue poms and other hanging decor, it created a beautiful play on texture.

2. Table Covers

One thing that we especially love is floral sheeting’s practical use to add texture. In this example, a customer simply layered white elements together to create a stunning look for a wedding. White Floral Sheeting acts as an excellent base for the whole look.

3.Party Props

Floral sheeting is an incredibly versatile textile. Here, a variety of colors is used to cover a cardboard structure it easily covered the large surfaces and turned a boring cardboard structure into a giant pinata party prop.

4. Backdrops

Floral sheeting also makes an excellent backdrop for dessert or gift tables. Here, Brittany Schwaigert used green floral, combined with playing cards, to create an amazing backdrop for an Adult Birthday Party she styled for Shindigz.

5. Costumes

As Halloween approaches, you might find yourself looking for a costume DIY. If that is the case, look no further! Use floral sheeting to turn ordinary strips of cardboard into playing card costumes that are sure to win awards at the Halloween party!

6. Table Runners

Jess at Celebration Stylist put together an unbelievably chic bridal shower using a very simple color palette of white, gold, and little pops of pinks. The floral sheeting really helps this color palette come to life by adding texture.

7. School Spirit

One of the largest ways that we see floral sheeting used is for school spirit. Because it comes in large sheets, it’s easy to cover large areas, like this local school did to the doors of their school.

8. Table Skirts

Looking to turn an unsightly table into a focal point that you’re proud of? Floral sheeting creates an excellent table skirt. Simply add Adhesive Pad Tape to the perimeter of the table and attached the floral sheeting around. You can then trim it down to the correct size so it’s a good fit.

9. Parade Floats

We wouldn’t be doing floral sheeting justice if we didn’t at least mention using it for parade floats. It’s an incredibly easy way to cover the whole surface of your float with color and texture! There’s a reason it’s our most popular float decoration.

10. Scene Setters

With a little creativity, you can create any scene you want. Here, floral sheeting is combined with Twistees to create a football end zone for a sports banquet.

11. Stage Decorations

Perhaps on of the more creative ways we’ve seen floral sheeting used is to create columns on a stage. Here, each columns is made from one roll of floral sheeting and lights are placed behind to create an iridescent effect. The iridescent floral sheeting would work well to achieve this look.

12. Home Decor

Gearing up to welcome trick or treaters shouldn’t fill you with fright, create a Halloween display using floral sheeting! This same concept could be applied to all of your holiday needs.

13. Boat Decorations

In some communities, a day on the lake means a day spent with your neighbors, friends, and family. For big holiday weekends, floral sheeting and fringe ensures that your pontune boat is the best one on the lake.Since the floral sheeting is made out of mylar, it won’t be harmed by water.

We would love to see how YOU are using floral sheeting. Send us your examples using  #stumpsparty or message us.

Liberty Print Bridal Shower

Celebrate the bride-to-be with a bridal shower that’s a decadent blend of vintage floral designs, sparkling gold accents, and personal touches.

Planning a bridal shower is a big honor. It is an opportunity to spell out exactly what the bride means to you and to bring all of her loved ones into a shared space for the sole purpose of honoring her.

Take inspiration from this event, planned by our professional stylists, and your celebration is sure to be unique and fuss-free.

Delightful Desserts

Of all the foods at a bridal shower, desserts are the most important.

Make sure that the cake is photo ready by adding a cute cake topper. To coordinate with the theme, we used Liberty Print Mr. and Mrs. Cake Toppers.

We also took the time to spruce up an ordinary cupcake tree by adding moss to the edges. Overall, these simple additions took neutral desserts and highlighted them in a special way.

Pretty Place Settings

Bridal showers are often small enough that you can afford to pay special attention to every guest, but large enough that you have to take measures to make clean up simple.

Combining disposable items. like paper plates, cups, and napkins, with more formal items, like stemware and chargers, was an opportune way to create an elegant feel while still making for easy clean up.

A gold plate charger anchored each place setting. Liberty Print Dinner Plates, Dessert Plates, Cups, Napkins, and Place cards brought the whole look together.

Personal Touches

No party is complete without a few special tributes to the guest of honor.

Wine bottle labels always make a special impact at events. Personalizing the bride’s favorite kind of wine with her own label works well for serving drinks or as a special gift for the bride.

Don’t forget about favors! Personalized Candy Bars make a sweet way to savor memories from the day.

Looking for more bridal ideas? Check out this creative way to pop the question to your bridesmaids!

How to Plan an Unforgettable Alumni Brunch

Looking for the best way to gather your high school or college alumni? A brunch is a great way to allow everyone to mingle, reconnect and get to know each other better without making too much of a fuss.

With homecoming just around the corner, planning a brunch into the weekend is a great way to keep your guests occupied and  to honor alumni who have made significant contributions in their field. Plus, it’s an ideal way for your alumni office to refresh their contacts.

Planning a successful brunch can be broken down into a few simple steps.

Step One: Choose a Theme

In order to make sure that your plans are cohesive from start to finish, it helps to give the event a theme. If it’s during homecoming, make it simple and coordinate your theme with the theme of the weekend.

The theme can also help you choose a color scheme and select designs for invitations and tableware that match.

Step Two: Get the Word Out

Many guests and alumni will be traveling from out of town, so you will want to build interest in the event early. Be sure to select the date and keynote speaker (if you opt to have one) at least four months early so that your alumni office can send out the information with other homecoming announcements.

Pick a Guest List:

If you have a large enough space, you can leave an open invitation for alumni that are in town for the weekend that might be interested in attending; but, even if you go that route, you should make a list of other alumni that would really benefit from attending. Often, a simple open invitation receives a poor response because no one feels a sense of urgency.

Create a sense of urgency for your alumni by inviting key people and the rest are sure to follow. Having a prominent CEO speak at your function? Consider sending your business school alumni a personal note urging them to attend.

Send the Invites

Because attending homecoming might require booking travel plans, send the initial invitation about six weeks prior to the brunch and offer an incentive for RSVP’ing early. Then, send a follow-up reminder email the week before the event.

Tactfully wording the invitation is going to be crucial in getting the turn out that you would like to. The key to a successful brunch is making it feel like an honor to be included in the guest list, not like it’s one more task that a busy alum must attend.

Set a Special Table

The best way to ensure that your brunch experience is a success is to make sure that the dining experience is pleasant. Setting the tables with elegance will add a cohesive element to the rest of your decor and make a lasting impression on all your guests.

Match Your Color Scheme

For successful table decorations, you’ll want to pull just a few colors together so that everything feels like it goes together. Tables should be a simplified representation of the  whole theme.  Use solid color tableware, or make it formal with table linens and more formal plasticware.

Make It Pop with Table Decorations

Depending on the size of your tables, adding in additional decorations will be key to making a good impression. Centerpieces are a great way to highlight your theme – especially since many can be personalized with a meaningful phrase or your school’s name.

Add a Personal Touch

There’s nothing that individuals like to see more than their own name. Make sure all of your attendees feel included in the event with personalized place cards. For another sweet way to nod to the theme, coordinate your place card holders with your centerpieces.

Get the Conversation Started

Networking is the key goal to most alumni brunches, so make sure that the conversation flows easy and there are no awkward moments for you or your guests with these ideas.

Pick Interesting Table Topics

If guests don’t know each other, or they end up sitting at a table where the conversation doesn’t come naturally, table topics are a God Send. Write out a list of questions that guests can ask one another as they sit at the table. These questions could be a fun opportunity to reminisce from their days as students, or future-oriented questions related to building up your community or school.

Make your table topic cards go with your event by printing them on custom cards.

Find an Engaging Speaker

An engaging speaker will create a memorable event and leave plenty for your guests to talk about after the presentation is over. As a bonus, choosing a notable speaker is likely to drive RSVP’s or ticket sales too!

Share Plenty of Throwback Photos

When all else fails, break the ice with throwback photos! During the mingling portions of the event, play a slideshow on loop with photos throughout the ages.

As a bonus, you can upgrade your centerpieces with mini cutouts of these memorable photos on every table!

Leave a Lasting Impression

After the event, seal your good impressions with a few personalized notes, like memorable favors and thank you notes.

Send Them Home with Something Special

A useful, memorable favor is a great take-away from your event. Customize it with the name of your event or the key message from the event, like “Improve GCU for ALL Students,” alumni and guests are sure to hold onto that special morning for years to come.

We suggest something is both practical and personal, like custom travel mugs or tumblers.

Say Thank You

Lastly, be sure to drop thank-you notes in the mail to all of your guests, but be sure to send an extra thank you to those that helped you plan the event.

 

 

How to Host a Charity Golf Tournament

Charity Golf Tournaments are an excellent way to raise funds for the cause of your choice, network with important stakeholders within your company, and of course, have a little fun. If you’re considering putting together your own golf tournament, read on to learn pro tips and fun golf outing ideas.

If you’re willing to put in the work a golf tournament can be a wildly successful fundraiser for your charity of choice.

Steps to Hosting a Memorable Golf Tournament

Successful golf tournament planners all consider these logistics and plan appropriately.

1. Pick A Committee

Picking a committee to work with you make your job much easier, especially when it comes to getting the word out and soliciting donations. Volunteers should be well-connected, organized individuals who are able to commit around 4-6 hours a week to the cause.

Pro Tip: Asking local business owners to become members of your committee is likely to make them more partial to your cause. They will be well connected to other business members to get sponsorships and might even choose to sponsor the event themselves.

2. Find A Venue

You’ll want to meet with several golf course managers to see what sort of amenities each golf course can offer you. No matter which course you choose you’ll want to make sure that the space offers a large banquet or meeting room for your awards ceremony as well as an adequately size and layout on the course to meet your needs. You’ll also want to talk to them about their on-site catering options and restrictions.

Pro Tip: You should negotiate pricing here. Being selected as the golf course of choice is good for their business too. It gets them exposure and boosts their business. See if you can get them to sponsor a hole or chip in for drinks.

3. Select Your Time and Date

Selecting a time and date depends on a variety of factors. First of all, what type of golfers do you anticipate? You’ll want this date to be at least 6 months from the time that you start planning. You’ll also want to make sure the date doesn’t conflict with other community activities or golf events at other courses.

Pro Tip: If you’re catering to retirees, you can save money on the golf course by choosing a weekday.

4. Organize the Golf Tournament Schedule

Before you start promoting your event or gathering sponsors, you want to have a loose outline of what the day will look like and how long each activity will take. A typical day usually includes the following events:

• Registration and gathering time. Set out light snacks and drinks during this time.
• The golf tournament itself: it’s often customary to send the golfers out with plenty of water bottles, beer or other drinks and a box lunch as well. Pro Tip: Get more mileage for your cause with Custom Bottle Labels. This is a great place to sell sponsorships!
• Cocktail hour and/or Silent Auction. If you can get local businesses to donate items, this is a great way to raise some extra funds for your cause.
• An Awards Ceremony: Honor the day’s winners and also include some other fun awards like ‘best dressed’ or most mulligans taken. Pro Tip: Get Custom Trophies made for all of your winners so they have a token to remember the day by.

Pro Tip: Beginner golfers will appreciate some other games and activities during the tournament as well. Be sure to think of some “golf breaks” to do during the tournament to get guests interacting with one another.

5. Start Getting Sponsors

Sponsors are where the money comes from. Golf outing fees usually cover the cost of golfing as well as the food served. Without sponsors, your tournament will break even at best. Sponsors can be local businesses or just individuals who believe in the cause. You’ll want to have at least one sponsor per hole on the golf course. Another way to get sponsors involved is to have them donate physical items as prizes for the winners or silent auction items. Have each committee member get 2-4 sponsors.

Pro Tip: You’ll need to show businesses how sponsoring your event will help them get customers or good PR. Offer different levels of sponsorship for businesses. An example of this would be:

• Bronze: Add your name or logo to the list of donors.
• Silver: Have a custom banner printed with just the company’s logo to be hung near the entrance and get their name on the donor list.
• Gold: Custom banner hung at the entrance, name on the list, name on the water and beer bottle labels, and a yard sign next to one of the hole’s noting that the business is a gold-level sponsor of this hole.
• Platinum: All of the gold-level benefits, plus allow the business to set up a table or activity during the tournament.

6. Get the Word Out

You’ll want to have a good turnout for the day. This will keep your sponsors happy and help bring in extra money. To do this, you’ll want to start with personal invitations to your mailing list. If you don’t already have one of these from your organization, enlist your planning committee to help you come up with the initial list.

You can also hang out posters at the golf course as well as other local golf courses, advertise on local radio, and hang large banners in town.

After The Event – Say Thank You

Just when you thought your work was done, it’s time to start prepping for next year! The first thing you should do is pick a tentative date for next year so that you can include it in all your follow-up correspondence.

Be sure to send thank you notes to the following people:

• Your sponsors: Send a thank you note and offer them a premium sponsorship position for next year. Be sure to let them know what a success this year was!
• Your planning committee: these people worked hard! Make it extra special and give them a gift as well.
• Volunteers: you couldn’t have pulled off a successful event without them! Drop a note and say thanks.
• Lastly, of course, send a thank you to the participants, include next year’s date so they can pre-register at a discounted rate.

Pro tip: Include how the fundraiser did in your thank you notes, add a custom line that reads “We raised $5,000 with your help!”

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