Decorating Tips for Your Luau

• Give your tables “skirts” and hang grass table skirts around their edges.

• Serve your guests their drinks in hollowed out coconut shells with straws and small paper umbrellas. (Drink tip: tropical drinks are great for these kinds of parties. They too can be decorative if they are tropically colored!)

• For luau scene setters, use tiki torches to light up the backyard. These are also great to keep the bugs away! You can also hang brightly colored lanterns if you need more light in your backyard.

• Buy lots of tropical flowers (such as orchids) to decorate your backyard. You can create tropical center pieces by arranging the flowers in vases and placing them at the center of tables. Or, remove the flowers from their stems and scatter them around the tops of tables.

• Want to make your own luau decorations? Cut out pieces of thick construction paper or cardboard in the shapes of fish, palm trees, coconuts, and flowers and hang them up around the party room. If your party is outside, punch holes in the tops of smaller cut-outs and put string through them. Then, hang them from trees, fences, etc.

• Hand out leis for your guests to wear. Try buying plastic ones online or, if you have time, craft your own from store-bought artificial flowers or paper cut-outs. If you want to use real flowers, frangipani flowers are great for lei construction.

• Get inflatable palm trees, flamingos, and parrots to place around your backyard to create the full Hawaiian effect.

• Don’t forget the hula hoops! Spread brightly colored hoops around your lawn to encourage people to partake in the activity. You could even host a hula-hooping contest!

• For luau decoration that is also a party necessity, buy brightly colored plates, utensils, and napkins. Stick to colors like electric yellow, lime green, ocean blue, bright orange and hot pink. The addition of these tropical colors will brighten up the environment!

Another quick way to enhance your luau environment is to play Hawaiian music in the background. When you create the playlist, be sure to find something with a ukulele! If you don't have tiki torches, grass skirts, or leis in your closet, that's not a problem. You can either make your own luau decorations or browse party supplies for your luau to give your guests an event to remember!