Photos by Josh DiDonato

I am so excited to share my 90’s themed birthday party from this past weekend. It has been a whirlwind of a past 10 days as I had continuously been celebrating my birthday and just got back from a cruise last week. If you know me at all you know that I love birthdays and am the type of person who will celebrate all week long. I also love to go all out with decorations as well. My roommate and I have a tradition where for each of our birthdays we will decorate the night before in the kitchen with balloons and banners so that when the other person wakes up, there is so much excitement. I love themed parties as well and miss my college days when in the sorority we had themed parties every single week. Since this was my 29th birthday, I thought I would go with my favorite decade being the 90’s for a fun 90’s themed birthday party. Everything turned out perfect, and surprisingly I picked up several things from home including some of the games, twister backdrop, beanie babies and some barbies. People love an excuse to dress up, and having a theme like this was something that everyone went all out for. I had a vision of what I wanted in my head, and that was lots of 90’s sayings. A huge thanks to City Craftery for making my Biggie lyrics come to life in a cute sign for my bar cart, as well as the candy sign and all of the amazing cups that were designed with fun 90’s sayings. This made that extra added touch come to life. It also wouldn’t be a party without some amazing dessert. Thanks to Okie Doughkie for all of the details and yumminess that came about in her 90’s themed cookies that we had. I had so much fun working on this party and hope you can create one for your next event too!

(Isn’t this calligraphy amazing from City Craftery)

(Besties and blogger pals Karen from Lady in Violet and Emily from Something Gold, Something Blue)

Décor

This was my favorite part about the party. I knew that I wanted to have a lot of 90’s quotes, sayings, and some song lyrics added into the entire theme. Clueless was stuck in my head throughout the planning and some Kenan and Kel quotes too. Of course we can’t forget our favorite sayings like “whatever” “talk to the hand” and our favorite 90’s rap lyrics. I love the Biggie “Juicy” lyrics about birthdays and thought calligraphy with the lyrics would make it a little more feminine and give it a whole new meaning. I worked with the talented City Craftery to craft a poster that was the focal point for where the drinks were. I also used a Twister sheet as the photo booth backdrop complete with some simple happy birthday banners and poof balls. Like I mentioned above, the backdrop, the bop it game, beanie babies scattered around and Barbies and Barbie cars came from home. My parents still had these pieces which really makes them a classic. I also stuck to confetti like décor, black light balloons, and even had some goodie bags for people to take home! My favorite part was the 90’s themed candy bar that I created.

(These cookies from Okie Doughkie are seriously works of art!)

Food

In keeping with the theme I decided to go with 90’s themed food items that were a hit when I was younger. Since the party started at 8 pm, I had mainly snacks instead of a full meal. I set out bugles, doritos, teddy grahams, bagel bites, lunchables and pringles for the main food items. Everyone enjoyed these and they were a great snack food to have around. I also had to have some gushers, fruit by the foot, and rice krispie treats for people to indulge in as well. If you remember the 90’s it was all about junk food and snack food. I don’t know about you, but I was always looking forward to snack time when I came home from school complete with dunkaroos.

(All the essential 90’s junk food)

Sweets

No party would be complete without some sweets, and especially a birthday party. Instead of just having the traditional birthday cake, I went ahead and did a full 90’s themed candy bar with sweets that were popular from the 90’s. This included air heads, war heads, ring pops, pop rocks, bubble tape, and pixie sticks. I put everything in glass containers and had a plastic treat bag for people to fill up while at the party and before they left as well. This was for sure the highlight of the party and something that I felt like was necessary for this theme. We can’t forget everyone’s favorite part which were the cookies from Okie Doughkie. These were decorated in 90’s sayings, shapes, and even included some fun trolls in the mix. They were very delicious too!

(Besties since we were younger)

Drinks

I had the basics on hand including wine, beer and water but wanted to kick it up a little in a unique way. I got this fun blow up boom box cooler that was perfect to put in the corner and people could go pull whatever drink they desired. I also added some 90’s themed water bottle wrappers to make them even more special. It wouldn’t be the 90’s without some capri sun, so I had several flavors of those with vodka if people wanted to make a mixed drink, “capri fun”. I used a letter board to write “who loves orange soda” which was a huge hit as well. It is always fun to mix it up a little, and if you cater around to the theme you can do a lot here.

(The 90’s candy bar and the sign made from City Craftery)

Outfits

I told everyone to dress up in 90’s themed clothes for the party. This could be a character from their favorite movie or tv show, or just some of the trends that were popular back then. I had people dress up like Zenon, Saved by the Bell, Hanson, Clueless and others. I personally went with every girl’s favorite stationary character from Lisa Frank. My friends know that I always go all out for events like these, and this costume was a hit. It did run a little on the smaller side like most costumes do, so I suggest wearing a tank and leggings underneath. If you have a 90’s themed party, you have to make sure people dress up as well.

(The goodie bags)

(Bestie/Roomie)

(Awesome 90’s sayings from City Craftery)

Games

Like I mentioned above, I was able to bring several games from my parents house that I grew up with. We had Twister, bop it and this fun 90’s trivia game. Bop it was a hit and is actually a lot harder than I remember when I was younger. It was so fun to watch people pay close attention to this and really get into it. We also played this 90’s trivia game and broke it into 3 different groups. This game had several categories including sports, tv shows, and pop culture. We got very competitive with this game and will for sure play it again. It was also fun to try to guess what band was singing the songs on the playlist. The 90’s were all about some boy bands, girl divas like Britney, and some good hip hop.

(The group!)

This was probably one of my favorite parties that I have ever had. I loved the 90’s and it was so quirky and easy to make this event come to life. I personally loved having it as a house party and enjoyed the laid back feel to it. I hope you will be able to use some of these ideas to make your own 90’s themed party if it is for your birthday or any other fun event!