Having a few easy luau party ideas in your pocket when you’re starting to plan is party gold. Since this is a theme that is so wildly popular, there are tons of luau party supplies you can just go BUY for pretty inexpensively instead of having to make every part of your party. For affordable decorations (and decorations in bulk!), Oriental Trading is always a great place to check out. In fact, I got almost all of the luau party decorations you see here at Oriental Trading!
Oriental Trading provided me products for this Easy Luau Party Ideas post.
These ideas are mostly about setting up a tiki bar at your luau party. At the end of the summer, I’m gearing up to throw a really large (like 100 people!) luau, so this was the perfect way to get a few ideas in place, and my focus for that event is really about where we are serving drinks and food. All these ideas are going to scale for a larger party.
When to buy luau party decorations
Time cramped? Massive number of people at your party?
You probably DON’T want to DIY every little thing for your luau. If you’re one of those people (I know I am!) that needs everything to feel unique and special at your party, I give you permission to let the guilt go over not crafting your Hawaiian party loving fingers to the bone. This is a theme easy to pick up at just about any store. A couple of the major things I used for this party you can order from Oriental Trading:
- Tiki hut
- Luau hibiscus decorating kit
- Jumbo satin flower leis
- Coconut cups with flowers
- Stand up Palm Tree
- Inflatable Surfboard
- Aloha Surfboard cut outs
- Hibiscus cut outs
- Grass table skirting
- Bamboo paper straws
- Hibiscus garland
- Hibiscus flowers
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what you can order from the comfort of your home!
How to Build a Tiki Hut
Nothing says “I’m ready to bust out a grass skirt and do a hula” at a luau party more than a tiki hut. There are tons of tutorials on how to build a tiki hut from scratch all over the internet, but I’m not going to show you that. Yes, it’s easy enough, but requires you go to the store, cut things, paint things and come up with a thatch roof. If I needed one 15 feet long, I’d for sure do a DIY, but for a 6 foot table, the tiki hut they sell at Oriental Trading is a winner. It comes in deceivingly small box with easy instructions included.
The thatch roof? It comes with it.
Pipes–all cut and painted for you, and there is a handy little picture that shows you how all the fittings and tubes go together. This Tiki Bar is one on my luau must buy list for a less than six foot table. It took me 8 minutes to assemble, which also fits my time crunch requirements…so you get to the party faster and with less stress!
The Luau hibiscus decorating kit from Oriental Trading comes with the flower garlands that are perfect for draping across the front of the tiki bar. It also comes with the monstera leaves that are great for adding a tropical vibe! I used them on our tiki bar to line the top of the table and cover the pipes from the tiki bar that touched the table.
Easy Luau Tiki Bar Decor
After building a super cool Tiki Bar on your table, you are going to want to give the stuff on the table a luau look. This is easily done with leis, natural looking serve ware (think wood and monstera leaves) and a few Cricut-made vinyls to make it a little personal. A tiki face on a bucket made great containers for popsicles (or drinks or leis or snacks or anything else that needs a big open container). Learn how to make DIY Tiki drink buckets here!
Every tiki bar needs some appropriate garnishes. Paper parasols for drinks are imperative at a luau. Bonus points if you can put them in a coconut for your guests to grab for their drinks.
You can also make some custom glasses using the same tiki faces from the tiki SVG file available in this DIY Luau Tiki Glasses post.
Where do you get said coconuts? Oriental Trading, of course! You can pick up these REAL COCONUT cups there. I took the flower off the one I used for my paper umbrellas, but they do come pre-decorated.
A grass skirt for your table is also a must! This grass table skirt from Oriental Trading went almost all the way around three sides of my six foot table. I used a white tablecloth as the base, a teal tablecloth folded on top and then used long straight pins (like corsage pins) to attach the table skirt to the table. As a little garnish, I found this leaf and flower garland to string across the front. It made for the perfect little pop of color!
Probably the biggest color impact item was the backdrop. Using cut outs of surf boards and hibiscus flowers, you can easily (and inexpensively) make a super colorful and festive luau backdrop. Level of effort to make? Nearly zero. Sometimes tape can be tricky.
Easy Luau Food Decor
One of the last things that is included in the Luau Hibiscus Party Kit are individual hibiscus flowers.
I made a few fruit skewers and popped them on the top. Conveniently, there is a tiny hole in the back of the flowers that makes it really easy to slip onto the skewer. And off of the skewer for your guests that will be eating the fruit.
The last thing I made was not an original idea AT ALL, I saw it all over Pinterest, but it’s really too cute not to use. A few natural items in the display will make it feel more organic, and these pineapple centerpieces did just that. The party kit monstera leaves, a flower lei, a pair of fun sunglasses and one of the party kit hibiscus flowers make it up. It’s really a no-muss no-fuss project to put together, like less than two minutes work time. I’ll be using these as luau pineapple centerpieces at our party later this summer, but they look great on a tiki bar as well!
Easy Luau Party Ideas — You can do it!
With a few smart purchases, you can put together a luau without stressing for weeks over a billion DIY projects with all these easy luau party ideas. It might even make you enjoy the party more. Plus, with all that extra time, you’ll be able to take a few hula lessons to impress your guests!
For more luau party ideas, be sure to visit my surf’s up post!
Don’t forget to pin this post for later!
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