Complete Luau Party Planning Guide
Written By Penny Warner.
A tropical luau makes a great theme for any type of party – birthday, reunion, housewarming, clambake, barbecue, or even a bridal or baby shower.
- Say "Aloha" to your guests with floral shirt-shaped invitations, or send them picture postcards of beach scenes. Begin with "Wish You Were Here," then add party details.
- Mail invitations in colorful padded envelopes and include a mini fan, plastic sunglasses, or a lei flower bracelet to get your guests in the "hang loose" mood.
What to Wear
- Ask the kahunas and wahinis to dress as Hula dancers, bathing beauties, tacky tourists, or King Kamehameha.
- When they arrive, greet guests with silk flower leis and bracelets. Have a supply of grass skirts, floral hair clips, coconut bras, beachcomber hats and other tropical costumes and accessories.
- Ask guests to remove their shoes, then give them fancy flip-flops to wear.
- Transform your yard or home into a tropical paradise. Set out Tiki torches, colorful lanterns, or string holiday lights along the fence and around the tree trunks. Place pink flamingos around the party area, or use inflatable palm trees, parrots and tropical fish. Swag fish net on the tables and fences, and attach sea creatures and a life preserver to the netting. Toss beach balls around the yard. Glow sticks at night add a festive feeling to the tropical mood.
- Cover the table with straw mats, wrap the sides with grass skirts, and set it with floral paper products. Add silk flowers, leis, seashells, and scented candles. Use tropical shirt can insulators, fancy hurricane glasses, or cups shaped like coconut and pineapples, and seashell bowls. Beachcomber hats turned upside down also make great serving bowls.
- Play luau music in the background – Don Ho, IZ, "Elvis Sings Blue Hawaii," steel drum music, or Hawaiian luau music.
Games & Activities
- It's not a luau without a limbo contest, so set up a limbo pole and see how low the guests can go. Then have a Hula Hoop contest to see who can swivel their hips the longest.
