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Put on your bowling shoes and travel back in time with a last-minute Retro Themed Bowling Birthday Party! In this exciting blog post, I’ll share all the details about a last-minute kids’ birthday party, complete with retro vibes and incredible extras that will make it a party to remember.
A last minute Bowling Bash
My daughter just turned 7…
For months I asked her “what do you want to do for your birthday?”
The response was alway the same, “I don’t want a birthday party…I just want a puppy!”
Why did I believe her?!
After months of telling her that a puppy was “NOT gonna happen”, the reality of NOT having a birthday party kicked into high gear and she began to panic, lol! I explained to her we didn’t have a lot of time to find a location and with other parties already on our calendar for the bulk of the month, our party date availability was narrowed down into 2 possible days. There wasn’t a whole lot of flexibility or choices.
I basically had a week to pull it all together. YIKES!
The Venue
With very little time to spare and not a ton of ideas, we quickly settled on a bowling birthday party at Bowlmor Lanes. Bowlmor was a great option for a last minute party.
To start with it was available…CHECK! ✔
I was also able to book and pay for the entire party with their online booking. That was a huge help, especially since time was a factor. I liked that they offered several packages to choose from, as well the flexibility to add anything to our party on site. The packages included unlimited food and drinks, as well as the shoe rentals. It all seemed to be the perfect fit for a birthday party.
The Retro Theme
I think you guys know by now, I am pretty much a go big or go home kinda gal. I wish I could just book a party and then just show up, but the truth is that’s just not how I roll. Haha!
Honestly, after all the Pinterest images and google searches I did… I see y’all are EXTRA party people just. like. ME. And if you are reading this right now, perhaps this means you, so please let me just say “Thank you <3!”
To pull off a last minute shindig the first thing I did was pick a theme. The retro theme seemed to be the way to go and I loved the color schemes that went with it: turquoise, red, black and white. So a Retro Bowling Bash Birthday Party was the plan.
Once I had the theme, I hit up Etsy for shops with readily available downloadable files. This way I could just print the items at home (or at my local print shop) and cut them out. All you need to make these signs is a hot glue gun, dowels, scissors, and/or paper cutters. Use a Cricut cutter if you have one. I did not have one at the time of this post .. but would totally go that route today!
An absolute must have if you're a crazy party planner like me!
A Bowling Bash Photo Station
In addition to being really cute party decorations and in keeping with the “retro” bowling theme, I used the cut outs to create an instant photo station for the girls using our new Fuji INSTAX 8 Camera.
I placed all the photo props in a bucket next to a sign that said “Strike A Pose”. The girls were too cute holding up the signs and taking pics with each other. The film for this camera can get a little pricy, but for special occasions like this it is totally worth it!
The goal was to keep them busy in between turns, as well giving them a photo memory to take home.
Bowling Theme Party Favors
In addition to the pictures, I picked out these adorable BPA free bowling pin water bottles on Amazon. With my Amazon prime, I received them in 2 days. I decided to have my water bottles personalized by my friend Syndi from @synthialacedesigns.
Another option could be to write the names yourself on the favor tag using a chalkboard pen. The bowling ball accents were cutouts that came with one of the file downloads I purchased and the ribbon I had on hand. But you can find this ribbon on Amazon as well.
As an added treat I decided we would give each guest a mini bowling pin game set along with a sleeve of colorful gumballs, that matched the color of our party. These treats were placed in black paper bags, that were folded down and clipped together with a favor tag inserted into a instax sized picture frame, that said “thanks for rolling by”. I used a chocolate covered pretzel sleeve with black and white polka dot ribbon to tie each sleeve.
Bowling Pin Cake
The last but certainly NOT least detail was the cake. Of course Bowlmore’s package included a cookie cake, but I could not show up without our own themed bowling party cake. Luckily for me, I have some pretty amazing friends that make some pretty amazing cakes. This Bowling Themed Cake was made by my friend Gina of GG Cakes NY. If you live in the tri state area, please hit GINA up for a cake, you will not be sorry. And of course, tell her I sent you!
Bowling Party Success
I realize not everyone is a professional procrastinator like me and might need a little help in the “how’d she do THAT” portion of the party. Below is a list of what I used to pull this party off without a hitch. Keep in mind that the Etsy files will need to be downloaded, printed and then cut out. You can print these at home or at your local print store (like Staples or Kinkos).
You will need a glue gun, some good scissors, a round paper cutter and a little patience.
Just click below for the items that you are interested in. Happy Partying and roll on!
No Gutter Balls here! A list of Vendors and items I used to get this party started ….
CAKE: GG CAKES NY
Artist: @SYNTHIALACEDESIGNS
Camera: Fuji Instax Camera
Frames: Fuji Instax Photo Frames and Clips
PRINTABLE SET: Bowling Party Printable Set
Photo PROPS: Bowling Party Photo Props
FAVORS: Bowling Pin Water Bottles
FAVORS: Bowling Pin Game Set
Favor Bags: Black Lunch Bags
Ribbons: Polka Dot Ribbon
Ribbons: Turquoise Ribbon
Supplies: Glue Gun
Supplies: 2″ Circle Cutter
Centerpieces: Pails
For the gumballs: Pretzel Sleeves