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When the birthday of your teenager is rolling up again, you want to do something special for them. If your teenager begs you a beach party, even if you’re miles away from a beach, it’s not always easy to fulfill that wish. Finding a venue for this themed party can be difficult, there’s a lot of planning involved, and they can be rather expensive. But when your teenager begs you for such a party, you rarely want to say ‘No’, as you don’t want to spoil their fun.
However, there’s a cheap and easy option to create a fun beach party in your own home. A garden shed is the perfect place for a beach party. No need to build a little wooden hut, as your shed is a little wooden hut. The job’s already half done, and depending on the size of your shed, this will limit the amount of guests, who can be invited. No need to argue over how many kids can and can’t be invited.
First off, be sure to find temporary new homes for whatever you are storing in it, and give it a good clean. Dust and cobwebs should be removed.
Next, you’ll need to staple a clear tarp to the floor of your shed. This will be the surface for your sand. The tarp will keep the sand from falling through the cracks of the shed floor and make the clean-up easier. Now, you’ll need to purchase some soft play sand. Make sure the sand covers your floor well, and maybe go for a little extra as it will be moved around during the party by people walking through it and dancing on it.
You’ve got the beach in place, now you need the beach atmosphere. You can build a bar ( a bar that doesn’t provide alcohol, mind you) out of old wooden crates, and decorate it with cut up hula dresses, flower leis, coconuts and pineapples. Anything you associate with beach and tropical should be included in your decorations. A surf board propped up behind the bar will give the room a good beach atmosphere, as well as looking ‘cool’. You can use more wooden crates to be chairs and tables for the guests to mingle around. Vintage wooden crates can be bought in bulk on ebay, so no need to worry about how to get your hands on them. Consider decorating the walls with streams of flower leis and colourful lanterns. You can get some novelty party lights, which are shaped like pineapples and parates. Lights and lanterns can adorn the shed both inside and outside.
Music is a must for a party, so be sure to have an extension cable for your stereo system. The music should be fun with some summer hits thrown in to create the beach party and summer feel, but ultimately choice of music will be your teenager’s repertoire, so leave that to them, and simply suggest the fun music.
A beach party wouldn’t be the same without cocktails served in coconut halves with silly cocktail umbrellas. There are plenty of non-alcoholic and very tasty cocktails out there. Check out the web for some recipes. I’d recommend the Fireside Flamer, which is a refreshing orange juice based cocktail, and the Cranberry Cutie Cocktail consisting mainly of cranberry and apple juice.
Even the invites can be created in the beach theme. A currently popular method is to write the invite on a flip flop. It’s a novelty idea, and will make people curious of the party as well as tell them immediately what the theme is, and what they should wear for it. Now, sit back, relax, and let the kids enjoy their beach party.
