I threw a luau in honor of my friend Kathy’s engagement. She is from Hawaii, her fiancé had proposed to her in Hawaii, and she was going to have a Hawaiian themed wedding so I thought it would be perfect! The invitations were made with bright colored, thick, foam paper (found at local craft store) cut into the shape of a flip-flop and I bought foam flowers and hot glued on thong portion of invite. The party details were printed on colored, regular paper and glued to the sole of flip-flop. They were mailed in bright colored #10 envelopes. Everyone wore their Hawaiian beachwear and was greeted with a lei. Upon arriving , the guests received nametags that had their Hawaiian name printed on them (all names found and printed from a website before the party started) and a small bag of 6 seashells and their name was written on the outside of the bag. Through the course of the party, everyone had to call all the guests by their Hawaiian name instead of regular name – if you caught someone forgetting to do so, you could have one of their sea shells – whoever had the most sea shells by the end of the party received a prize. We also had a hula-hoop contest that was so funny!! Our house is not a huge house so to break up the crowd, I made a tiki-bar outside. I took a 3-wall canopy tent and left the front open. I made a sign out of a raggedy piece of cardboard and writing the words “Tiki Bar” on it and punching holes sporadically along the lines of each letter using a pencil then sticking a small Christmas light through the back of each hole – when it was dark out and the sign was lit it looked great! We hung it from the top, front of tent. Inside the tent was a big table with snacks and I hung fish net with big, plastic fish along the walls. I filled a big, plastic , kiddie pool with ice and drinks and around the pool was a bunch of fun, lawn chairs for people to hang out. The shower was a hit! Everyone had a great time.