How to Plan a Toga Party
Toga parties often conjure up images straight from the 1978 movie Animal House, with college students dancing, drinking and listening to rock music. If you're planning on a more historically authentic recreation of Roman era life for your toga party, there are lots of ways to make the evening something memorable through aesthetic and culinary details. Given the potential expense of utilizing all of these suggestions, you may want to keep your toga party modest regarding the number of invitees, and utilize a small space that won't need to be filled with many large and expensive props.
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Things You'll Need
- Gold ribbon
- Plastic, horseshoe-shaped headbands
- Real or plastic ivy vines
- Large white cloths for draping
- Large gold cloths for draping
- Plastic or wooden faux doric columns
- Terra cotta urns
- Plastic or wooden faux pedestals
- Trellises
- Plastic toy swords and shields
- Regular candles and tea-light candles
- Oil lamps
- Marinated olives
- Figs
- Dates
- Grapes
- Crusty Italian bread
- Assortment of Italian cheeses
- Chicken
- Fish
- White wine
- Red Wine
- Hot sausages
- Eggs
- Fresh Fruit
- Individual-sized honey cakes
Instructions
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Design and print out toga party invitations using word processing software, and utilizing appropriate fonts and Roman clip art. Aside from the essential information, such as date and place, inform your guests that they are required to wear togas to this Roman Empire-themed event. Roll both ends of these invites toward the center of the paper like a scroll, tie them with a gold ribbon and pass them to invitees by hand.
As a consideration for your guests, buy inexpensive, plastic, horseshoe-shaped headbands to which you can glue plastic vine leaves. Pass these out to guests when you meet them at the door, as party favors that double as costume accessories.
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Contact any musical entertainment you might be considering to hire for the toga party, if you won't be playing pre-recorded music. You will want to do this as soon as the invitations go out to ensure that you can book the musician or musicians in question.
Try to place about two weeks between the handing out of the invitations and the actual event to give yourself adequate time to hire entertainment.
In keeping with the theme, and if possible, consider hiring a harpist and flutist.
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Plan the menu with Roman era-themed foods. Examples of appropriate snack foods are olives marinated in fresh thyme leaves, nuts, grapes, dates, figs, an assortment of Italian cheeses and crusty loaves of bread.
More substantial, entree-type dishes would include chicken with figs, fish cooked in white wine, hot sausages, and various egg-based dishes. For dessert, serve individual honey cakes with apple and pear slices.
Have lots of red and white wine on hand, and adorn all food platters with vine leaves.
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Decorate the space in which you'll be having the toga party in white and gold cloth and streamers. Draping white and gold cloths from the ceiling is a simple way to add ambiance, and looks even more striking if the cloths are intertwined together and fastened to the wall or floor after draping them.
Decorate the space with faux doric columns, terra cotta urns, pedestals and trellises to mimic the architecture of the era. These can be purchased from party supply stores as well as lawn and garden outlets, though buying multiple faux columns, urns and trellises can become quite expensive fast. If money is an issue, utilize a smaller party space and simply use two columns and one trellis at the party entryway. Wrap any columns, trellises, pedestals and urns with real or plastic ivy vines.
Light the room with multiple oil-burning lamps and lots of strategically placed candles. Glass bowls filled with water and adorned with floating tea lights are a simple yet beautiful lighting technique.
Use gold and white tablecloths on refreshment tables, and adorn these with real or plastic vine leaves.
Lastly, plastic toy swords and shields affixed to the wall are a humorous, thoughtful tribute to the gladiators of that era.
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References
- Photo Credit roman column image by javarman from Fotolia.com
