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How To Throw a Wild West Party

May 4, 2016 by Jennifer 3 Comments

Every January I start to peruse Pinterest for brilliant birthday party ideas for my daughter’s April birthday. No, that’s not a typo. I give myself 3 1/2 months to plan this shindig every year, until this year. This year I was so clever. I had everything saved from my sister-in-law’s 40th surprise party back in September (that I started planning in March, do the math). Both ended up being a Western Cowgirl theme. (This post contains affiliate links)

I am a little bit crazy, yes, but it’s also my “creative” outlet. I’m not fancy enough to come up with all this stuff on my own, but luckily millions of Pinterest users are. And they provide me with hours and hours worth of ideas I can emulate, and put my own little twist on.

With that being said, I can’t take credit for a lot of what I’m about to show you. My mother-in-law and some good family friends made these parties come together, but I think they provided me with my very own Pinterest-worthy pics and ideas:

FIRST we started with some tables and chairs in the yard for people to sit and eat. For the 40th surprise party we rented some linen gingham tablecloths. We then made centerpieces with burlap from the fabric store running down the middle, and horseshoes to keep it all from blowing away.

You can see the bandana banner in the background, we had that strung up everywhere which added a very Western flair. These were made by cutting bandanas into triangles, and sewing them onto a ribbon (my mother-in-law).

Western Tables with Wild Flowers in Mason Jars

THE mason jars were filled with wildflowers from my parent’s yard, and wrapped with burlap ribbon and some red mesh tied into a bow. Silver buttons were tied in the middle. You could use glue dots to keep it all in place, but the ribbon was wired so wasn’t necessary in our case. All in all very low cost.

Mason Jar Vase

WE bought a couple of pairs of cowboy boots from the local thrift store and glued some rhinestones onto them. Stick a mason jar with flowers down in the boot, and you have a fancy centerpiece.

Bejeweled Cowgirl Boot Vase

THIS table looked pretty much the same for the 40th birthday party as well as my daughter’s 5th birthday party. Only difference (other than the wooden “40” in the middle that I covered in star scrapbook paper) was that we made the food for this one, and catered the second party from a bbq restaurant.

Keeping the food in foil pans made for easy clean up. We used bandanas as napkins, and I got some rhinestone napkin rings to add a little sparkle. The fabric store had mini hay bales that were perfect decoration for the table, and we used all our 4th of July decorations for the rest.

Western Food Table

INSTEAD of the wooden “40” sign, I got some cowboy boot picture holders for my daughter’s party and put a collage of birthdays 1 through 4 in one, and her 5th birthday pic in the other.

Western Fifth Birthday Pics

WHO doesn’t have a ton of mason jars lying around their house these days? I got some cool chalkboard labels with liquid chalk markers, and put all the condiments in the jars on top of a wooden cutting board.

Chalkboard Condiment Mason Jars

AND of course you’ve gotta have a bar. We ended up doing a few more dishes than I would have liked afterwards, but we used mason jars as the cups.

Western Bar

DESSERT was easy peasy. We had the cake and cupcakes made from a local bakery, then we made the cupcake toppers using a Silhouette Cameo. We saved the cupcake toppers and used them again for my daughter’s cupcakes. I happened to have some French Macaroons lying around so I threw those in a jar as well (I work for a food company though, so if you don’t normally have those in your house don’t worry about it)

Western Party Dessert Table

PHOTO booth’s are so hot right now, we decided to make our own. We took some large hay bales, added a couple potted plants, hung a banner on the side of the house, and had a basket of crazy props. I got an Instax Instant Camera, and let people go to town. We hung some string up on our porch, and clipped the pictures on it with cute little mini clothes pins. Then the guests could take them with them when they left.

Western Party Photo Booth

I’D say the biggest difference between the two parties was that we got a real live pony for my daughter’s birthday. I know that sounds a little over the top, but there’s a great company locally that will just drop him off, then come back after 3 hours and pick him up. The pony just wanders around your yard, eats your grass, and gives the kids as many pony rides as they want. I will say that this was actually my sister-in-law’s idea, but it ended up being a huge hit. And it’s surprisingly cheap… less than paying for a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese.

Real Live Pony at the Western Party

And there you have it, all the makings to throw a successful Wild West Birthday Party.

Here are some other awesome party ideas!

Construction Themed Birthday Party

Animal Shelter Donation Party

Hot Cocoa Bar Party

Wild West Birthday Party

Related

Filed Under: Homemaking, Party Planning Tagged With: birthday, how to, party, pony, western, wild west

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Next Post: 5 Things I Stopped Caring About After Having Kids »

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Comments

  1. Megan says

    May 12, 2016 at 6:53 am

    It was the best 40th surprise party a girl could have. The pony is over the top???!!! (Maybe people just don't know us(me) that well! Truthfully, the pony is a great price, the kids love it and our 5 year old birthday girl felt like the rodeo queen!!
    Reply
    • Jennifer says

      May 13, 2016 at 8:06 pm

      Hahaha, people were showing up saying "Sooooo.... there's really a pony in your back yard."
      Reply

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  1. How to Throw a Construction Themed Birthday Party says:
    August 9, 2017 at 12:04 pm
    […] How To Throw a Wild West Party says: May 29, 2017 at 5:21 pm […] How to Throw a Construction Themed Birthday Party […] Reply […]
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Welcome, I'm Jen! I'm here to offer realistic (sometimes semi-green) parenting, eating, and homemaking tips so that you can embrace life and let go of perfection. Because if I can do it, you can do it! Get to know more of Jen →

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