A year ago my brother came to me and said he wanted to do an 80’s themed birthday party. I love 80’s music and I love theme parties so this was exciting news to me. We started planning right away and began looking for inspiration on Pinterest. We started with the basics of how many people, where the party was going to be, and what kind of decoration we wanted. Several planning secessions later, we pulled off an epic 80’s party! Below is what we came up with.

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I Want Candy Bar

I love candy - who doesn’t? With some many parties including some form of “bar”, we knew we wanted to create a mini candy bar complete with the tape designs with the labels for the candy. My sister-in-law found all of the 80’s themed candies and I created the labels and sign. On the table we placed dishes of candy with their corresponding labels above. Also on the table we included glow items, 80’s themed objects, and had glowing slinkys hanging from the ceiling. Biggest candy hit of the night? The candy cigarettes! Just about everyone had one sticking out of their mouths at some point - very 80’s. All night people we snacking off the candy table.

The Boombox Bar and Stereo

This was our signature piece for this party. Once we started looking at doing an 80’s party one of the things we wanted for sure was a Boombox bar. So my husband and I started planning and looking at ideas of how we could recreate one for ourselves. It took us a few months, working only a couple hours at a time, to put this together. We were both really happy with how it turned out. For a tutorial on how we made this Boombox Bar click here.

Setting the mood.

One of the things I like to do is set the stage for the party right away. After you determine when, where, and what theme your party is going to be you should start thinking about party invitations. My brother created an awesome 80’s themed digital invitation which included a 2 page video invite which was emailed and texted out to all of his friends and family letting them know they were in for a can’t miss party. On the night of, we made sure to include the entrance in our theme by including a Back to the 80’s style sign using this mirrored vinyl , a Back to the Future lego display, and the hallway leading to the backyard was lined with 80’s movie posters completed with 80’s word signs I created.

Create a dramatic party backdrop and photo opportunity.

I love photo backdrops and this Back to the 80’s one was perfect. They create such a huge impact, go a long way to incorporate your party theme, and are a great way to get your party goers to take pictures. This wall greeted all the guests as they came into the party. Since we decided on an 80’s colorful neon-glow theme for the party I created these cute neon rubiks cubes using neon paper I cut in squares to go along with our ballon arch. I will admit, this was my first balloon arch and clearly I am not a professional balloon artist. But at night, once the blacklights got going the backdrop and balloons took on a life of their own and it was totally awesome! We got the whole party together for a photo and each couple had their photos taken in front of it.

80’s Boombox Bar and DJ Booth

The bar was completed with the addition of my brother-in-laws slushie machine, as well as our Costco cooler for waters and sodas. Behind the Boombox bar (which I totally forgot to take a picture of) was a table with bar complete with lights where the drinks, bottles and cups were stored. Under the table we placed our portable bluetooth speaker and blarred 80’s music all night long. We had so many compliments on the bar and it was a great addition to the party.

80’s Drink Signs

We created several drink signs for our 80’s party. The Signature Drinks, the Pretty in Peach for the peach daquiri frozen drinks, and a Secret Menu. The Signature drinks were made in both an alcohol verision and a non-alcoholic version so everyone could enjoy a fun colorful drink. We had several under 21 party goers and others that didn’t want alcohol but still wanted a fun drink so this worked great for us. The Secret menu was created to give those “in the know” a fun way to order something different at the Boombox bar.

80’s Boombox comes to life after dark

While the Boombox looks great during the day and is best for viewing the details. It’s really at night that the party really gets started. We used LED light strips on both the upper and lower speakers. The “Equalizer” also had moving lights that made them look like they were really moving. For a tutorial of the Boombox construction you can find it here.

Games

What 80’s party is complete without a Pac-Man game? We ordered an 80’s style video game console for the party. The first game that we ordered wasn’t working properly so they swaped us out for this one. The Pac-Man machine was a big hit with the adults and young adults. We also used our Bucket Bounce game (from the Fall Carnival collection of games). We set up a tent complete with Blacklights (and again I totally forgot to get a picture of this at night). The space theme of Bucket Bounce with all the LED lights made it a great addition to the 80’s party.

Food

We set up this food table as a large Pac-Mac table. We use plastic tablecloths and Pac-Man charactures I cut out using my Cricuit. We did 80’s themed foods such as spray cheese, Bugles, macaroni salad, and beef dip sandwiches.

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Setting the mood.

Create a dramatic party backdrop and photo

opportunity.

I love photo backdrops and this Back to the 80’s one was perfect. They create such a huge impact, go a long way to incorporate your party theme, and are a great way to get your party goers to take pictures. This wall greeted all the guests as they came into the party. Since we decided on an 80’s colorful neon-glow theme for the party I created these cute neon rubiks cubes using neon paper I cut in squares to go along with our ballon arch. I will admit, this was my first balloon arch and clearly I am not a professional balloon artist. But at night, once the blacklights got going the backdrop and blacklight balloons took on a life of their own and it was totally awesome! We got the whole party together for a photo and each couple had their photos taken in front of it.

I Want Candy Bar

I love candy - who doesn’t? With some many parties including some form of “bar”, we knew we wanted to create a mini candy bar complete with the tape designs with the labels for the candy. My sister-in-law found all of the 80’s themed candies and I created the labels and sign. On the table we placed dishes of candy with their corresponding labels above. Also on the table we included glow items , 80’s themed objects, and had glowing slinkys hanging from the ceiling. Biggest candy hit of the night? The candy cigarettes! Just about everyone had one sticking out of their mouths at some point - very 80’s. All night people we snacking off the candy table.

The Boombox Bar and Stereo

This was our signature piece for this party. Once we started looking at doing an 80’s party one of the things we wanted for sure was a Boombox bar. So my husband and I started planning and looking at ideas of how we could recreate one for ourselves. It took us a few months, working only a couple hours at a time, to put this together. We were both really happy with how it turned out. Here is a tutorial for how we made this Boombox Bar .

80’s Boombox Bar and DJ Booth

The bar was completed with the addition of my brother-in- laws slushie machine, as well as our Costco cooler for waters and sodas. Behind the Boombox bar (which I totally forgot to take a picture of) was a table with bar complete with lights where the drinks, bottles and cups were stored. Under the table we placed our portable bluetooth speaker and blarred 80’s music all night long. We had so many compliments on the bar and it was a great addition to the party.