Ultimate Graduation Party Checklist!
Here at Best Event Rentals we know that you have a large to-do list with planning your graduation, so we want to help you out and give you our Ultimate Graduation Rental Checklist.
If you are planning your graduation party at a local park here in Fort Collins, or in your back yard, we have all of the event rental items that you need to make it look exceptional.
Here is our graduation checklist:
- Graduation Invitations - You can either do invitations online or you can send out snail mail invitations. Doing an online invitation will save you quite a bit of money in printing and postage. Services like Evite.com make it really easy to mange your guests and invitations. The only downfall with online registration is that some of your grandparents may not be very tech savvy and have an email or know how to use a computer for that matter. The upside with mailing out your invitations is that you can send out your senior portraits to friends and family along with it. Either way, invitations is a must with your graduation.
- Food- The best way to handle the food at your graduation is to hire a catering company. I've used Canino's Catering before and loved it, but you can also use Q-doba, Subway or some other fast food place depending on the style of your graduation. The reason why I would recommend hiring a catering company is that they take care of making sure that all of the food is hot and ready on time. Trying to assign family and friends to do this will take a way from everybody enjoying your graduation party to the fullest. Relax and enjoy your gradation... just hire it out. You won't regret it!
- Beverages - The graduation season can be hit or miss with warm weather here in Fort Collins. Most of the time it is hot, so make sure to have a good variety of beverages for your guest. You can either use a Chill'n Fill Table, large beverage cooler tank, punch bowl, punch fountain or my favorite the Frozen Drink Machine. One thing to keep an eye out for is to make sure that all of your open beverage containers remain alcohol free as you will be held liable if something happens after a underage kid gets caught afterwords.
- Cake - Graduations are notorious for large, delicious cakes that say "Congratulations!" Your graduation should be no different. The amazing thing about cakes is that you can make is a couple days ahead of time and have it ready for your big day. You can also hire it out to a couple local Fort Collins bakery's. Here are a few that I like:
- Party Rentals - As you can imagine, that is where we come it. If you are planning a backyard graduation party or using a local park, you will definitely need to head over to a party rental company to pickup everything you need. As party rental companies are very busy during this time of year, it is really important to make sure that you reserve everything that you need ahead of time to make sure that you have it for your party. It never fails that almost all party rental companies will run out of tables and chairs during graduation weekends. Here are some of the most popular items to rent for your graduation:
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| Tents | Grills | Catering | Chairs | Tables |
- Party Decorations - Your graduation party is your way to showcase whatever atmosphere or theme that you want and the decorations are the best way to set the scene. Your party rental company will have quite a bit of the basics, from linens and napkins in a wide range of colors, but your Fort Collins party store will be a better resource for everything else. Check out: Party City or the Dollar Tree.
- Graduation Photography - Your graduation and the party afterwords will be something that you will want to remember so photography will definitely be apart of it. You can hire a professional photographer if you would like for the formal after graduation pictures with your family and friends, but after that candid photographs from your cell phone or digital cameras will be the best way to go. After all, you just spent quite a bit on the actual graduation portraits, so your own digital camera will most likely be sufficient enough.
- Hotel Reservations - Make sure that you have a solid count on who is coming in from out of town so that you can reserve a hotel room for them. Because there are so many high schools graduating, the hotels will fill up fast. Here is a list of our favorite hotels in Fort Collins:
- Hilton Fort Collins - Click here for all Hilton hotels in Fort Collins.
- Fort Collins Marriott - Click Here.
- Cambria Suites Fort Collins - Click Here for their website.
- Comfort Inn Fort Collins - Click Here for their website.
- Embassy Suites Loveland - Click here for their website.
Here in Fort Collins we have six high schools: Fort Collins High School, Rocky Mountain High School, Poudre High School, Fossil Ridge High School, Liberty Common High School and Centennial High School. Because there are so many high schools graduating every year, it's imperative to make sure that you start your graduation party planning early and with flexibility in planning.
As most high schools will hold graduations on Saturday, you may want to think about holding your graduation party on Friday or Sunday so that you can make sure that your friends are there. It will be hard to make your friends graduation party's if they are all on the same day, so spread it out.
Be sure to start your planning at least six months prior to your graduation to ensure that you will have everything that you want for your graduation. This is especially important if you are wanting to rent from a rental company, catering or cake company. Also, if you are wanting to reserve a local park here in Fort Collins, it will help if you call at least six months in advance to make sure that you have your favorite place.
Here is who you can call to reserve a local park or shelter here in Fort Collins:
- Fort Collins Shelter Reservations - (970) 221-6660 - Click here for their website with locations and reservation information.
- Fort Collins Parks - The Fort Collins Park page here will show you their current calendar of events at the parks and when everything is being used. This may helpl in deciding where to go.
Thanks for viewing our Ultimate Graduation Party Checklist - Please make sure to print out this checklist so that you can reference it later.
If you are wanting to make a reservation for your Graduation Party call us at: 970-267-6500
