You Can Make Your Own Luau Decorations.
Got a luau coming up and want to have fun before it starts? Make your own decorations. Throw your own great luau for any occasion, no matter what it is — wedding anniversary, birthday, or just for no reason at all. You can make your party a lot of fun and still keep your costs down by getting creative yourself with some magazines, scissors, plastic fish, Styrofoam, and a glue stick.
Pretend you live in the bright and sunny tropics — temporarily
Use your decorations to create a mood of living in the tropics. Use images like palm trees, coconut leaves, tropical flowers like orchids and hibiscus, Hawaiian ambience-inducers like erupting volcanoes and humpback whales, just about anything that will bring the spirit of Hawaii into your party — make that luau.
Create collages with pictures of sun-drenched beaches, turquoise blue oceans, beach shacks, sailboats and ocean sunsets to use as party invitations. Send out the invitations in Hawaiian and leave it to your guests to figure out the translation.
Adorn tables with make-believe grass skirts; to make them, use green garbage bags and cut them into strips that are an inch to an inch and a half wide, and then use a ceiling or table fan to gently blow an “ocean breeze” through your room as guests kick back and relax on the “beach,” hula skirts gently swaying in the breeze.
Your luau needs a theme
Next, you need a theme for the decorations you are going to use for your luau. You can use a beach party theme or a marine backdrop, for example. If you want an ocean theme, find tropical fish in plastic at a toy store or party store, then use fishing line of to hang them from your ceiling.
Hanging the fish at different heights will give you and your guests the illusion that you are on the ocean floor and when you look up come see the fishes swimming overhead, just going along about their business in the ocean. Hang seaweed that’s plastic from the ceiling, tack fishing nets up on the walls, or do anything else that will give you an “oceanic” ambience.
If you want to feel like you’re standing on the ocean floor, you can take inexpensive white sheets, paint them with giant clamshells, and arrange them artfully over your furniture. Giant inflatable humpback whales can be found at most toy and specialty stores, and you can use one as a “sentry” to greet guests when they come in. This’ll certainly get your guests in the mood for your special Hawaiian luau.
Beach culture at a luau
If you want a beach feel with luau decorations, it’s perfect for the casual atmosphere you want to invoke. Throw beach balls haphazardly around the room, draped low rise tables with beach towels, and use beach mats instead of chairs for sitting. You can have your guests participate in a contest whereby the most creatively decorated flip-flops will have the wearer going home with a prize specifically related to Hawaii, like a coconut or pineapple.
Hawaii is not all about sun-drenched beaches and fun and sun. There is a deeply mystical and ancient side to the islands. To recreate the ambience of the old Hawaii, hang large wooden masks on the walls. Give your imagination free rein in making luau decorations with a ritualistic effect e.g. you can create own totems out of Styrofoam cubes and a couple of pots of paint. Look to pictures of old heiaus (temples) for inspiration.
Take your totem poles and put them in corners of the room, turn the lights down, and just like things indirectly with tiki torches and candles. Paste stars that glow-in-the-dark on the ceiling to pretend you’re out on a starry sky trek and just hanging out and have a little party.
You can also create your own volcano out of chocolate. Of course, everyone’s probably going to want a bite, which is exactly the idea. If you want to make it “smoke,” you can use dry ice. These simple ideals will do a lot to make your party into a luau with not much effort. And with them, you’ll have Hawaii’s deep, enduring spirit with you. Aloha! Remember not to take anything too seriously, and just kick back and have some fun.
