This surprise Football Tailgating Party was thrown by Jen Carver of Banner Events and her sister Cami for their Dad’s 60th birthday. From the cookie toppers to the chocolate covered strawberries footballs were everywhere along with the blue, tan, and white colors of BYU! Jen Carver is not a rookie to styling sports themed parties. Check out this League of Her Own Party and Gymnastics Party she helped style.
Jen Carver tells us the details and thoughts behind this amazing Surprise Football Tailgating Party:
My sister and I recently styled a surprise 60th football tailgating themed birthday party for our father on the eve of the big college rivalry football game. Dozens of family & guests flew/traveled into town to be in attendance. Close to a dozen wonderful vendors contributed towards this event.
Details:
‘Tis the season for tailgating. How do you honor a football fanatic on the occasion of his 60th birthday? By surprising him with the biggest football themed tailgate party of his life, complete with gridiron goodies from some of the most talented dessert artists around. Of course some of the best graphic designers were also recruited to design the invitation, party printables and coordinating banner. Fabulous vendors were called upon for packaging, party favor and display needs.
We kicked off our event with a custom invitation designed by Anders Ruff Custom Designs. They scored big with their incredible design work, which set the stage for a crowd pleasing surprise event. The honoree’s college alma mater is Brigham Young University (BYU)–home of the Cougars. Anders Ruff Custom Designs was sure to capture the team colors and college logo perfectly!
Guests arrived to our event on the afternoon of the biggest BYU rivalry game of the year! That evening, the BYU Cougars would host their cross-city rivals, the Utah Utes. Our honoree’s immediate family all had custom designed matching navy and white team shirts with Cougars on the front and PRICE and 60 on the back (the last name and age of our guest of honor).
Guests ‘signed in’ on mini printable footballs (courtesy of Shindig Parties to Go) where they were able to write their name and a little birthday message on the back. They could then tack up their birthday wishes on our football field banner, created by Ryan Murray of The RPM Studio.
Guests sat down to tables outfitted to look like a piece of the football field itself. Astro turf was cut to fit round tables. White ribbon and die cut numbers were glued on to look like yard lines and markers. Centerpieces were made from coordinating college logo balloons, gift bags, pom poms, footballs and coordinating candy. Each place setting was designed using eye-catching printable designs from Shindig Parties to Go. Notice the custom “60″ water bottle wraps, napkin rings and coordinating pennant straw flags.
A delicious lunch was served buffet style with menu items like:
Hail Mary Honey Bacon Club Sandwiches
Face Mask Fruit Salad
Chips to Cheer For
Buttonhook Baked Beans
Sideline Salad
Jumbo Jello cups
Shotgun Shrimp Pasta Salad
Half-Time Hot Dogs
Safety Soda
Runningback Rootbeer
Wide Receiver Water
Fun faux football leather food labels added some fun tailgating appeal to the buffet table. Adorable football boxes from Nashville Wraps helped house chips on the buffet table and fun party favors on the kids’ table.
The highlight of the event was definitely the dessert table. Also, decorated to look like a football field, with astro turf used as the table covering, the dessert table was the focal point of the party design. Striped pennant flags were hung using denim twine from The Twinery. PVC pipe was cut, assembled and painted to look like field goal posts and held letters which spelled out the honoree’s name: DALE. (Thank you to Shindig Parties to Go for inspiring the field goal design!) Bleachers were fashioned out of foam core board to house delicious ‘quarterback’ cupcakes (Cupcake Chic) with custom fondant toppers by Two Sugar Babies. JP Creatibles outdid herself with the most stunning football cookies I have ever laid eyes on! Footballs, custom BYU jersey and BYU logo cookies with the most detailed design work I have ever seen, were the talk of the party! Many other ‘gridiron goodies’ also played starting roles on our dessert table. ‘Corne rback’ cookies were iced and topped with gorgeous fondant cookie toppers crafted by Edible Details. Strawberries were dipped in chocolate and decorated to look like their pigskin counterparts. Beautifully hand dipped and decorated ‘play action’ pretzel rods were prepared by Pretzels Pleaze. Notice the cute sugar footballs adorning the pretzels! No detail was spared! There where ‘wideout whoopee pies’, ‘blocker brownies’, ‘touchdown treats’ in apothecary jars, maple bar ‘cougar paws’, ‘goal time’ cake pops (lovingly created by Johanna Dellino of Pop.O.Licious Cake Pops), and more!
Not to be overshadowed by the other desserts, a delicious 3 layer cake was displayed on its own table, topped with an amazing fondant cake topper by Two Sugar Babies. Notice how the helmet design matches the design work on the invitation by Anders Ruff Custom Designs! I love it when professionals collaborate to make an event even more amazing!
A separate table housed take home party favor window bags and glassine bags from Nashville Wraps. I just love their eco-friendly packaging options! Each was adorned with coordinating ribbon and printable tags by Shindig Parties to Go. They were the perfect thing to allow our guests to take home all sorts of desserts!
Our event included a tribute slideshow and a presentation of autographed sports memorabilia from BYU’s starting quarterback, Jake Heaps, as well as basketball standout, Jimmer Fredette, the 2011 NBA #10 draft pick.”
This surprise Football Tailgating Party was thrown by Jen Carver of Banner Events and her sister Cami for their Dad’s 60th birthday. From the cookie toppers to the chocolate covered strawberries footballs were everywhere along with the blue, tan, and white colors of BYU! Jen Carver is not a rookie to styling sports themed parties. Check out this League of Her Own Party and Gymnastics Party she helped style.
More inspiration for your football loving fan:
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