Even More Hollywood Glamour on a Shoestring Budget

Now that you have awesome wall and table decorations, you only need a few more things to complete your Hollywood event: a way to make your guests feel welcome and something to make them remember the night.

What better way to welcome your guests than to make them feel like movie stars? Lay out a red carpet and line it with adoring fans and camera toting paparazzi. Because no one wants real paparazzi crashing their party, here's a quick and easy way to bring the "fans" home.

Paparazzi Decoration

You'll Need:

• Black butcher/roll paper
• White chalk/pencil/crayon
• Scissors
• Red ribbon
• Aluminum foil
• Cereal boxes
• Glue
• A friend to help

How To Create:

1. Cut pieces of butcher paper long enough for a person to lay down on.
2. Work a friend to complete this step. You will lie down on the paper, and be traced by your friend with white chalk, crayon, or a pencil. You can be traced with your arms up in the air, like an applauding or cheering crowd, like the silhouette on right in the above image. You can also be traced with your hands behind your heads to create photographer paparazzi, like the silhouette on left.
3. After being traced, cut out your silhouettes.
4. For the silhouettes traced with hands behind their heads, the next step is to add flash bulbs. Create a stencil of a flash bulb out of an old cereal box. Draw a multi-pointed shape onto the box. The shape doesn't have to be perfect, and the flash bulbs don't all have to look alike. Cut out the shape, and cover with glue. Paste to a sheet of aluminum foil. Trim off any extra foil, or wrap extra around the back of shape. Then paste the bulb shapes onto the silhouette faces, as if the person were holding a camera and taking a picture.
5. Affix to the walls and tack a red ribbon in front of the silhouettes to create the illusion of a crowd watching your guests pass by.

You brought your guests in style, so you should send them out the same way. Here are some ideas for movie themed favors to send home with your stars.

• When I think of movies, I immediately think of popcorn. Gourmet popcorn can be expensive, sometimes starting at as much as $20.00 per container. A quick search of AllRecipes.com gave me list of gourmet popcorn options ranging from chocolate to caramel to nacho flavored popcorn. Make up a batch of your own special popcorn and package in a white paper bag for guests to munch on later.
• Personalized awards are a great favor, and can add extra entertainment to the party. Oriental Trading carries a wide selection of mini trophies that can be purchased in bulk. After purchasing the trophies, use a gold or silver paint pen to personalize the awards to your guests. During the party, present the awards in Oscar Night fashion.
• No time to make a favor? No problem. Most large retail stores like Target and Wal-mart now regularly stock movie theater candy. Purchase an assortment of candy like Junior Mints, Sour Patch Kids, Mike & Ikes and Twizzlers. Pair with a bag of microwave popcorn and $5 movie rental gift card and you have a great gift. This option will be a little more expensive than the others, but will be a big time saver.

You're all set for a great Hollywood event! From start to finish, your guests will receive the star treatment. Even better, you'll have thrown a terrific party without breaking the bank because Hollywood style doesn't have to cost a Hollywood fortune.

Fortune Cookies

I believe in getting the best value for your dollar when planning events, which oftentimes means doing things yourself. Now, I have to admit, I'm not a terribly crafty person. But I did find a really easy way to make cool favors with stuff I already had in my house. Inexpensive, fun, and cute - a perfect combination for any event!

I found this Fortune Cookie recipe on AllRecipes.com, and decided to try it out for a dinner party I was throwing. The first thing I did was to write the fortunes. Actually, my friend and I wrote them, putting silly messages like "You're jeans look very sassy today" and "You're AWESOME" on them. After finishing the fortunes (which took about 20 minutes because we were so amused with ourselves that half that time we spent laughing hysterically), we followed the recipe as posted. Everything came together pretty easily, though we did find out a few things that might be helpful.


The fortunes went into the cookies easily, but we found that the paper fortunes ended up sticking to the cookies when they dried. To avoid this, we used a spoon handle to create a center in the cookie. While the dough was still hot, we folded the dough in half around the spoon, then in half around the spoon in the opposite direction. This created enough space for us to slip the folded fortune into after the cookie had cooled. We also didn't have a muffin tin to put our cookies in while they cooled. Instead we used a tea cup. It worked just as well, and allowed us to stack the cookies on top of one another.

This Fortune Cookie recipe can easily be used to create simple, fun favors for a wedding. If you want your favors to match your wedding decor, simply drop a little food coloring to your dough to change the color of the cookies. It's safe to eat and will add that extra touch to your special day. For the fortunes inside, print slips of paper with your wedding date and a small thank you to your guests. Everyone will appreciate that you thought of them in such a unique way. Coating one side in chocolate is another interesting addition to your favors. Add some sprinkles to your chocolate coating to add extra color. Any of these ideas will give you an amazing favor with a personal touch, while helping you save some dough for other things.