My youngest daughter graduated high school this past weekend – that’s it for me, babies are all done in the school system and both are ready for their own lives now. Pretty cool unless you think about the fact that I have no clue how to manage an empty nest. Anyway – we wanted to give Brooke a graduation party – and she loves FRIENDS so we opted for a friends themed party – I’m so stoked that she loves the 90s nearly as much as I did.
By trade, I’m an operations manager, and I’ve worked in production for webinars, tv appearances, and video series so I have to stay organized – I created a run of show and I’m sharing that with you here so that you can see the easiest way to keep up with an event.
While we didn’t go all out on the party, we did stay on theme and have a blast with friends and family without blowing too much moola – sharing with you today some of those ideas we implemented.
We found an idea for invitations on Pinterest – and fortunately my ex husband (and friend) is a graphic designer – so I had custom Friends themed party invitations in just a few minutes. If you don’t have this luxury – you can find many friends party themed invitations here. I have always felt that the invitations set the mood of the party – it tells the guests what to expect and how to dress for the event.
Because our party was at 6PM we knew we’d have hungry guests – but with 50 anticipated, we opted for yummy but budget friendy. We played off of Central Perk – the coffee shop where the Friends crew hung out each day – and used foods we figured they’d be able to order there like sandwiches, sides and pastries.
I purchased a large chalk board and then found the Central Perk logo online and printed it out on card stock. Then, using my Silhouette machine, I cut around the logo – you can do this by hand if you don’t have a Silhouette but I like to do things the easy way. I didn’t want the logo to stick to the chalk board permanently so I used a Zig 2 way glue pen on the reverse of the logo and then let it dry completely. This causes the back to be sticky, but not permanently adhere to the board. Then, I asked my oldest daughter, who is fabulous at hand lettering to put the menu on the board with chalk markers.
We played off of the episode title “The One Where Brooke Graduates” and I put it on everything I could find – this letter board stays on our kitchen bar and I update it each week with a different saying – so it was great to have the Episode title front and center on the bar.
We held on to the purple and yellow colors of Monica and Rachel’s apartment door – and I ordered balloons in that color and created a suitcase for cards using that pallet as well. I also used yellow and white flowers with purple mesh bunches to add some softness but carry the pallet throughout.
On our back patio, we hung purple fringe and used Friends photo booth props. I painted a large frame yellow, and ordered a smelly cat, a beret, and a clapboard. Because the party was in the evening, I also set up my photo lighting.
For Friends themed party favors (and I wish I had gotten a better photo of these) I used my silhouette to create the friend frame and printed the saying “Could I BE anymore grateful?” on to white cardstock and adhered them to purple bags – we put saltwater taffy in each one – I wanted to do Phoebe’s grandma’s special recipe “Nestley Toulousse” cookies (Episode 7.03) but it just didn’t seem like much of a parting gift. 
I also create a banner in the Friends TV show font with Brooke’s name on it, unfortunately, I hastily trashed it during the clean up of the party -so there’s no photo. But it was a good addition.
Overall, our Friends Themed party was an absolute success – I had zero stress and was still able to really hone in on a theme that we loved.
