You want an 80s Themed Party? You've come to the right place I'm more than happy to help as I'm a big fan of the 80s!
Here are 5 things that you ought to consider for your 80s Themed Party...
1. 80s Themed Food and Drink
We've got that one covered for you at The
Hungry Plaice
take your guests back in time with our Old Fashioned Vintage Fish and Chip Vans, we have Betty and Beryl
in our fleet and we serve Hand Battered Traditional Fish And Chips, sadly without the newspaper as Food Safety stopped all that!
Our van Betty was a working van on a Chip round back in the 80s and is thought to be the only one still in service all these years later so you'll be guaranteed to have something really special at your event.
If you wanted to put together your own food there are some other ideas you could try...
How about Chicken and Chips served from Baskets, a bit like the ones you can sometimes get in Bowling Alleys, you might be able to pick up some baskets on Ebay and then you can always sell them again once you are done.
For a Cheesy Party you'll need an abundance of cheesy food and cheese balls always go down a storm, you could even consider the good old pineapple and cheese on sticks!
There are lots of snacks you could have for a buffet including Twiglets, Bacon Rashers Crisps and Pickled Onion Monster Munch, there's Peanuts, Wotsits and Space Raiders. You could even make some cakes or cookies with a Retro 80s theme, there are some great cookie trays shaped like Pac-Man you can find on Ebay.
Vol au Vents were big back then and they are easy to make with no end of fillings you could add, here is a basic recipe for you....... https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2219652/party-volauvents
Your sweet table could have a selection of Old Fashioned Retro Sweets like Hubba Bubba, Flying Saucers, Love Hearts and Dib Dabs to take some people back to their childhood. There are some great deals on Ebay where packs are sold or you could take a trip to your local wholesalers where you can still buy them in bulk. Don't forget to have Angel Delight and some Trifles, Jelly (and alcohol flavoured jelly shots), Wall's Vienetta and Arctic Roll.
Your drinks selection could include old fashioned style retro glass bottles of soft drinks like Cloudy Lemonade, Shandy or Ginger Beer and you could have a few bottles of Babychams and Blue Nuns kicking about!
If you are lucky enough to have or know someone with one of those old Teasmade's machine maybe you could have that hooked up on a table so people can have a cup of tea when they're bored of downing the jelly shots!
The theme of your party is the 80s but you could go for something more specific in the decade to make things more interesting.
How about having a TV/Movie themed 80s Party? You could ask your guests to dress up as 80s movie characters and have your decor to match, maybe you particularly like a certain TV programme or theme like The A Team, Knightrider, Top Gun or Dirty Dancing and everything is themed along those lines or maybe have a mix up of two.
Your theme could be 80s Gaming, your guests could be asked to dress up as 80s gaming characters like Pac-man, Super Mario, King Kong or Paperboy, maybe they could come dressed as a Nintendo Gameboy.
Have you considered a Roller Disco theme? Everyone could bring along some Roller Skates with Huge Socks and you can have a 80s themed disco, it would be great fun to see how many times people would be falling over after a few drinks!
A simple 80s theme could be just made up of colours it would be easy to use neons or bright yellows, pinks and blues, everything could be aligned to the colour scheme to ensure it all matches.
You could extend your theme to any invites you send out to show your guests what to expect at the party the list really is endless.
This is such an easy one as there is so much to choose from!
If your 80s Party theme is general 80s with a Fancy Dress Code, there are loads and loads of options for clothes to wear, you really want to try to stay away from buying new at any shops and get your guests to scour Charity Shops, Ebay and Facebook, you might want to get a pile of clothes yourself to put in a box for your guests to pick and choose what they want when they arrive just be careful you wash any of those second hand clothes to keep everyone happy!
There are leggings, hairbands, tracksuits velour and shell, sports jackets, ballet skirts, t-shirts with acid smiley faces, big Earrings, Jewellery, Trainers and Hairbows to name just a few things a quick search on Google will point you in the right direction!
Remember to go cheap to save yourself money and then you can always sell the clothes on when you're done!
4. 80s Music For Your 80s Themed Party
I am sure we don't need to go into the various types of 80s music there is out there...
If you've got loads of money to splash out on the music at your 80s themed party the obvious answer is to get a DJ in, tell them about your 80s them and insist that they play nothing else.
If you wanted a really good 80s music theme there are other ways to set your music up. You could go cheap get one of your bluetooth speakers get your playlist on your phone or laptop link it all up and off you go....or how about something far more genuine 80s.....
Get hold of an old Hi-fi system with a Tape Deck and find some of those big freestanding speakers and put the 80s Now Collection on loop! It might not give out the best sound quality but it could be more in line with the look of your party!
You could hire one of those dancefloors with the clear box flooring which light up with different colours, perhaps you will want to add a bit of cardboard on the floor for anyone who wants to attempt a bit of breakdancing...
Decorations will be key to creating your 80s themed party.
There are 80s themed partywares with the normal tableware, balloons and hanging items with 80s emblazoned across and with all the 80s colours being sold online but you could go a little bit more authentic, how about looking around for 80s themed items that you could scatter about to give your party a unique 80s feel.
If you've chosen a specific 80s TV or film theme, it's easy to find things you could use to decorate with that in mind I'm sure there are lots of items you could pick up to do with flying and planes for your Top Gun theme.
You might want to head down to a local carboot to find an old 80s side table to put up somewhere in the room you could use it for your buffet table or fill it with some 80s goodies or food.
Find an old Boombox, old gaming systems, black and white TVs, walkmans, Rubix cubes, Computers or one of the old dial telephones you could put on the side somewhere it doesn't matter if they are not working as they are only for show and if they don't work or turn on they will be much cheaper to buy.
See if you have any old metal signs of 80s Brands that you could put up and cover the walls with posters from 80s Films and TV there are websites where you can add photos and print them off with A4 paper and turn into huge sized posters.
Tap into the selfie craze and dot some Polaroid Cameras around the room, you could hire a more vintage Photobooth which produces the old style photos with the white edging and get a box of 80s themed clothes and items for your guests to put on, pose and take photos with.
I hope this has given you some ideas about the sorts of things you could plan into your 80s themed party, there are lots of other resources around so do some digging around to see what else you can do, if you are looking for food please check out our 80s Fish and Chip Van Hire we would be happy to send you a
quote.......
......hope you have fun at your 80s themed party save me some cheese!
