Want to know how to throw a Red Carpet Party that is affordable and super fun? In this post, you will find everything you need to know when organising your next red carpet-themed birthday or event.
Whether you’re a movie lover, drama queen, or have always wondered what it’d be like to be a celebrity, this red carpet party will make you feel like you’re walking the red carpet!
However, it can be hard to find ways to achieve this high-end look without a movie-star budget. That’s why I’m excited to share with you DIY decorations, games, and more that are extremely affordable and easy.
This 16th birthday cost roughly $200 NZD or $118 USD, for a party of around 40 people.
Guests young and old had a great time and our very special birthday girl was the shining star of the night. After reading this post you will be equipped with some fantastic games and DIY ideas to use in your next movie star event.
DIY Red Carpet Party Ideas
Decorations
Decorations are the priority when it comes to a themed party like this.
you want your guests to walk in and instantly feel like a celebrity. That’s why there are a few decorations that are a must!
Red Carpet
A red carpet is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Hollywood decoration. The red carpet is a great first impression, as it can begin outside your front entry or door and will guide your guests into the party.
Whatever material you use for your carpet, keep in mind you want it to be thick enough that it stays in place while being walked over.
For this event, we purchased 10 meters of red felt as our carpet which worked perfectly fine.
Step-and-Repeat Backdrop
Having a step-and-repeat backdrop for your guests to capture their fantastic outfits is such a perfect photo booth idea for this event!
This photo booth was the first place all of our guests went. Here there was a photographer (paparazzi) ready and waiting for them to strike a pose!
When looking for our backdrop we found the only affordable options online looked nothing like the Ad style backdrops as seen on TV. Time for a DIY backdrop customized to your event!
Materials:
- Paint
- Fabric or Canvas
- Stencils – made by a Cricket machine. To keep a clean and cohesive design a family member with a Cricket made card stencils for us. We designed one stencil with the name of the event “The Abbys” and the other “AH” in a box as that was the birthday girl’s initials.
- Scissors
- Strong fabric or bonding glue
How to make it:
- Decide how high and wide you want your backdrop. For ours, we went roughly 3 meters high and around 2.4 meters wide.
- Choose a fabric. The fabric of the real backdrops is a canvas, however, to get meters of canvas would be out of our budget. We chose to purchase 9 meters of ‘black spun bonded fabric’ as it was only $3nzd a meter, wouldn’t need hemming, and was thick enough.
- Cut and join panels. We then cut our 9 meters into 3×3 meter panels and joined them together using a strong bonding glue.
- Evenly measure the spaces between where you want your words to go.
- Using your stencil and paint, carefully paint on your words. We originally tried to spray paint with the stencils, which I think would work if you used plastic or canvas and not fabric, but because of the nature of the black fabric, the white spray paint didn’t show strong enough.
- Let dry and display!
TV Camera
This was both a prop and decoration. As our guests came in they had their photos taken and then came to the camera for a short interview where they were asked questions about the birthday girl.
I know I could have done this prop better and I’m really not satisfied with the finished look, but hopefully you get the idea of how its done.
The film camera was made from a cardboard box, painted, and designed in a vintage style. The camera was then attached to a tripod as its legs. We left a camera lens opening in the front to place a phone inside.
Using the phone and a Bluetooth microphone the interviews turned out fantastic.
The Stanchions
We’ve all seen the stanchions that line the red carpet with their round gold tops and velvet red ropes.
To make these consider asking at your local craft store if they have any old cardboard fabric rolls. We then attached upside-down dollar oven tray bases, added a foam ball top to each of them, and spray painted them with gold.
Lastly, we used red streamers as our velvet ropes.
And voila’! You have your own stanchions!
Table Centre Pieces
Our main color scheme was black, gold, and red. These colors are very “old Hollywood”!
When arranging the tables we first put down black table clothes purchased from the dollar store. Followed by red tulle table runners that ran through the center of all the tables.
For lighting, we then added fairy lights draped over the tulle. Over the whole thing we then sprinkled gold star glitter.
The centerpieces were inspired by glamourous tall vases with feathers and pearls in them. It would have been extremely expensive to buy so many vases, ostrich feathers, and pearls.
Instead, we made the vases from glitter foam purchased at the dollar store. We cut the foam into long rectangles and glued them into cylinders.
Lastly, we added cardboard bases and plastic gold beads as trimming around the base.
As substitutes for the ostrich feathers, we used a type of pampas grass. This gave the look, while also fitting with our color scheme.
Lastly, we draped strings of plastic gold beads over the grass.
Other Decor
A few other props we added were large stage lights along the side of our red carpet and a gold curtain backdrop for our stage where people received their awards.
The stage lights were made from cardboard painted black and curved into a half circle, then we covered the top in colored cellophane.
Lastly, we put large torches inside, which when on shone through the cellophane for a warm yellow stage light.
The Curtain, we made by making a super basic frame from scrap timber, then draping and fixing down the yellow satin fabric where it looked right.
Movie Star Themed Games
The Autograph Game
This game is so easy, requires no setup, and is super fun! It perfectly works with the theme as everyone is going to feel very famous being swarmed for their autograph.
This is also a fantastic ice-breaker to get your guests up and mingling.
What You’ll Need:
- Paper
- Pens or pencils (1 per person)
- Scissors
- Hat or box
How to Play:
Before the game starts make sure you have a list of all your guests’ names. Cut these out so all the names are on separate slips.
You will then mix these up in a hat or box ready for the game.
Hand out one piece of paper and one pen to each guest.
Everyone then is asked to collect 6 different names/autographs at random from 6 guests. Every guest should be both signing and trying to collect names for their paper.
Once everyone has collected 6 names ask them to be seated.
The host will now draw names one at a time from the hat, reading out the names as they are drawn.
The guests must cross out the autographs when they hear the name. The first person with all 6 names crossed off is the winner.
What’s it From?
This game again requires no setup and is easy for everyone to do. Young and old alike can win at this game.
This game can be done with either movie quotes or movie songs. You can choose a wide range of movies that someone in the room will be likely to know.
What You’ll Need:
- List of quotes or songs. If you choose to do music you’ll need to put together a playlist and have a speaker on hand.
- Pen and paper, to keep score of points.
How to Play:
Explain to the guests that you (the host) will be playing a song or reading aloud a quote from a movie. When someone recognizes which movie it is from they must be the first to shout it out.
The first person to guess the song or quote correctly gets a point.
This continues until you have gone through your whole list or playlist.
The Most Likely To…
Hopefully, your guests are all vaguely-well acquainted with each other and are up for a game with a little teasing.
This game is sure to make them laugh, and all the guests leave as winners!
What You’ll Need:
- Voting Printouts for each guest (click for free voting sheet template).
- Pens, enough for each guest.
- Printable Certificates (click here for free certificate templates).
How to Play:
Before the event, you will need to know the names of all your participating guests.
Open the free voting sheet template and edit the names in the right-hand column. Edit the template to the number of guests who will be attending. If you have more than 36 guests, you may need to think of more “most likely to’s.”
Print enough of these voting sheets for each guest to have one. I included a black-and-white version of the template for anyone not using color printing.
Also, print all the certificates before the event.
To begin the game, give every guest their voting sheet and pen.
Referencing the names on the right, the guests decide who they think most fits each “most likely to” category.
The host will then gather up all the sheets and score the votes. We did this by going through each category and counting who got the most votes. We then wrote down the category winner on a list and continued.
Write down all the names of the winners on a scrap piece of paper and then if there are double-up winners, or people that weren’t clear winners in anything, use your discretion to decide the winner.
Lastly, write the names of each winner on their appropriate certificate.
Now you’re ready to hold the awards ceremony! Call up the names of each guest and what they won, one by one to collect their certificate.
Prizes
One last tip is to get a few ‘ gold’ statues as your prizes. They look fantastic on display before the activity and then are a great memento of the night for the game winners.
You can also add extra categories for judging where you could give these away, such as best dressed.
And that’s it! All my top red carpet party ideas you can DIY!
