Fun Themes for Black-Tie Events

Host Fred and Ginger at your house for an unforgettable black-tie party.

Black-tie themed parties start with the same frisson of excitement and possibility you experienced playing dress-up as a kid. Take your black-tie party over the top with inventive party touches that justify all that trouble to look glamorous. Try for some quirkiness that keeps things from getting stuffy. When your party is unconventional, you increase the fun factor from the invitation to the last toast.

Things You'll Need

• Card stock
• Parchment
• Seed envelopes
• Tube mailers
• Ribbon
• Tables
• Tablecloths
• Fruit
• Knife
• Blank place cards
• Raffia or twine
• Wheelbarrow
• Ice
• Tiki torches
• Citronella candles
• Red carpet
• Movie posters
• Classic movie DVDs
• Screen
• Bistro tables
• Plastic Oscar-style statues
• Red roses
• Ice sculpture or cardboard film slate
• Cut flowers
• Champagne and effervescent juice
• 3-tier display stands
• Pre-mix party tape
• Dance instructor

Instructions

Backyard Black-Tie

1. Send invitations in the mail to capture attention from the first whisper of your party. Hand print small cards with the party information and tuck them inside seed envelopes that you saved from last summer’s garden. Schedule the event for daylight hours into dusk to maximize use of the outdoor setting.

2. Specify that the dress is “black-tie with a twist.” Your guests will be creative and that instruction gives them the freedom to pair the tux with sneakers or rubber boots that work with your terrain.

3. Use nature as party décor. Place the table or small tables under trees or in the garden. Cover tables with white tablecloths--find old ones at flea markets and bleach them to remove any yellowing or stains. Cut a thin slice in apples, pears or avocados, depending on your growing zone, and slip in place cards with the name of each guest.

4. Roll napkins into a cone, tie with raffia or rough twine and tuck a sprig of greenery or fern, or a single cut daisy or rose, into each napkin.

5. Fill a wheelbarrow with ice and chill bottles of beer, champagne and wine on site. Use fancy glasses for a champagne toast to start the festivities. Serve easy foods to eat and borrow the menu from nature’s bounty using fresh vegetables from your garden--an appetizer made from vine-ripened cherry tomatoes studded with goat cheese or mozzarella, an entrée of cold grilled salmon served on leaf lettuce, a side dish of miniature potatoes tossed in artichoke pesto. Mound strawberries dusted in confectioner’s sugar to make pretty centerpieces that double as dessert.

6. Light the tiki torches for glam dancing on the patio or porch as the light fades. Use citronella candles to make your black-tie bash bug-free.

Classic Hollywood Black-Tie Party

1. Send invitations to your black-tie party printed on parchment scrolls and tied with red ribbon. You can buy tube mailers in the size you will need. Invite your guests to an oldies film fest party, Fred and Ginger-style. Specify black-tie and dancing shoes.

2. Roll a red carpet from the front door to the party room. Use red material for an inexpensive and disposable carpet. Hang old cinema posters around the party room featuring films like “Top Hat” and “Flying Down to Rio.” Get DVDs of classic Fred Astaire movies and project them onto a screen over the buffet table.

3. Set up bistro-size round tables with small, Oscar statue replicas as centerpieces. Scatter a few cut red roses, single stalks tied with red ribbon, on each table.

4. Spend, spend, spend on an Oscar-shaped ice sculpture for the buffet table or make a cardboard movie slate with a film title chalked on it and surround it with flowers for a centerpiece.

5. Serve champagne and a bubbly apple juice substitute so everyone has a choice of elegant beverage. Keep party food simple--a variety of appetizers that fit on tiny plates. Refill the serving platters often. Set petit fours and miniature cupcakes on three-tiered display stands on the buffet table for dessert.

6. Pre-mix songs from Astaire films and hire a student from the local dance academy to teach waltz, foxtrot and cha-cha to party guests. Turn the sound down on the projected films while the dancing is in progress.

Tips & Warnings

• For an indoor or outdoor black-tie party, renting small gilded party chairs for guests is a stylish touch.

References

• Country Living: Backyard Black-Tie Party

Resources

• The Black Tie Guide: Black Tie Dress Codes