Farewell parties can be organized to bid goodbye to one individual or a group of individuals. These parties convey a general message that the individual or people leaving will be missed and remembered; those attending also intend to wish them luck for their future endeavors. PartyJoys provides some ideas that would help you make such parties fun and memorable.
Play Some Games
To add fun to any farewell party, introduce some party games like musical chairs, darts, pass the parcel, tail the donkey, etc.
A farewell party is generally hosted to wish an individual good luck for his/her journey ahead, it is also a cheerful way to bid goodbye. In case of office farewells, they usually are occasions to thank and bid goodbye to employee/s.
We all are familiar with school farewells and most of us have fond memories of attending them as teenagers. These are held when a batch of students graduate and have to leave for college. These parties should be organized in such a way that they are exciting and memorable for the ones leaving.
Here are some great ideas to organize a farewell party; the ideas have been classified into the three categories: family, office, and school. Take a look!
Family Farewells
A family farewell party is generally hosted when one member of the family is leaving home for education, work, or any other long-term purpose. A party is a means to bid him/her goodbye in a cheerful and happy way, and also convey to him/her that he will be missed at home. Family farewell parties can be a casual affair hosted in a backyard, or it can be a day trip, or it can even be organized at a restaurant.
However, the best venue, ideally, is the person’s (who is going away) home. A house party is the best way to celebrate family farewells. So, how are you going to plan this event? Take a look at our suggestions. When planning a party, you can either disclose it with the said person or plan it as a surprise. Everybody likes surprises, so think about a surprise going-away party to make the event even more exciting and memorable.
Decoration
Keep the decoration simple but sweet. You can use some colored balloons, or confetti. You can even decorate a wall with some memorable photographs, in the form of collages or mosaics. You can also introduce party hats or trumpets to add to the fun.
Also, you can make nice invitation cards to invite loved ones, friends, and people close to him/her. You can refer to some sample invitation card templates given above.
Template 1
Template 2
Template 3
Drinks and Food
This is one of the most important aspects of any party. Guests never hesitate to ask for a drink, so make sure you have all the bases covered in that department. You can pop a champagne, and ask the guests to raise a toast for him/her. Alternatively, you can have some wine or beer on the counter.
You can have a barbecue grill in the yard to take care of the appetizers. Likewise, you can have some more finger food for the guests to enjoy. The meal can include favorites of the going-away person, or can include your or your guests’ eating preferences.
And yes, don’t forget about desserts. A good dessert after a yummy meal is a must. You can include homemade brownies with some vanilla ice cream, some caramel pudding, jelly with cream, and more.
Favor Ideas
Office Farewells
Although an office party seems all sophisticated and formal, one can surely add some fun to it. Office farewells are mostly held for retiring employees. However, a lot of casual parties are also hosted to say goodbye to one or a group of dedicated employees.
Here are some ideas to organize a great office farewell party.
Decoration
If the party venue is your office, avoid too much decoration. Stick to a few balloons and confetti. However, if the venue is a banquet hall, you can use a lot of options to decorate. Alternatively, in case of the latter, you can very well hire a professional to decorate the venue for you. Considering that the venue is the former, you can introduce party hats and trumpets to make it more fun, and entertaining.
Additionally, you can also play some party music to freshen up the mood.
Drinks and Food
In case of office farewells, drinks are a must. Food can be secondary, and can include light snacks or appetizers. Keep an assortment of drinks, like wine, champagne, beer, whiskey, rum, vodka, and anything more you can think of. Raising a toast for the leaving employee is a good idea to cheer them up.
For food, as mentioned earlier, keep light finger food. Avoid a heavy meal as it is more of a formal event, and not a bash. You can include stuff like french fries, mini-burgers, canapés, sandwich rolls, cheese poppers, chicken wings.
Also, you can keep some quick desserts like tarts, pastries, ice cream sandwiches, chocolate-coated berries, mini-brownies, meringue pies, and the like.
Favor Ideas
You can gift small trophies mementos to the employees as a token of appreciation and gratitude. You could even engrave each employee’s name on the respective memento along with an apt phrase or message. Additionally, you could also think of gifts like wrist watches, wine glass sets, dinner sets, etc.
School Farewells
These farewells should be really grand. This is because, once you are out of school, you may or may not meet your school friends again. Therefore, spending some of the last moments of school in a very exciting and fun way amidst friends is the whole purpose of a school farewell. If you have a big event hall, you could host your party there, or you can also host it at a hotel.
Here are some decoration, food, and favor ideas you should consider.
Decoration
Use lights, drapery, balloons, and confetti to decorate the hall. You can announce a dress code, or even arrange for masks and party hats. Also, you can allot some space for a dance floor, and play popular numbers.
If the event is a bit on the formal side, you could include a screening of a compilation of different memorable clips of the students at school. Further, you could even ask some of the students to convey their feelings about school including their best and worst moments, their friends, how much they’ll miss school, etc.
Drinks and Food
Include colorful cocktails, wine, beer, and champagne (optional). For non-drinkers, you can arrange mocktails or juices.
Try to include the maximum variety in food. Keep yummy appetizers, like fries, poppers, canapés, spring rolls, chicken wings, meatballs, nachos, tacos, etc. For the main course, you could either keep some American or Chinese fast food, or a regular three-course meal.
Favor Ideas
If you’re planning to gift every student a token of love and appreciation, you can think of something that is in some way related to the school. Ideal gifts can include books, decorative artifacts (candles, idols, etc), a sweatshirt with the school emblem and maybe an ex-student badge, a coffee mug with the school emblem, or anything more you can think of.
These were some farewell ideas for three different occasions. Go ahead, organize a cool farewell party and enjoy.
