Several months ago I had the opportunity to plan my best friend’s son’s first birthday party. If you know me, you know I love to plan a party and I love a good theme so I was ecstatic to plan his birthday and have the freedom to literally do whatever I wanted. (In case you missed it, I planned my other best friends’ safari themed baby shower) We decided to go with Luke Mastered His First Year since his dad is a huge golf fan and the ideas on Pinterest were soo cute.
I fully admit that I didn’t take as many photos as I should have to show you all the behind the scenes of putting it together but I will link everything and try to share as much detail as possible so you can plan your own golf or Masters themed party. So many of these ideas and decor are perfect even if you are planning a Masters watching party or a kids golf themed party.
The overall vibe was a Masters golf theme so we incorporated a lot of green (In the Masters shade of course) with hints of blue and white and a tiny sprinkle of yellow. We didn’t incorporate a ton of yellow because I felt like it made the decor look cheesy. The invitation I used was from Canva and since I had a pro subscription, I didn’t have to pay anything extra to use it and I could use the graphic elements in other signage and decorations at the party.
If you don’t have a Canva Pro subscription you can do a free trial and create all the stuff you need, then cancel your subscription before the trial ends. Using the same elements from the invitation, I also created signs for the food, which I put in white frames that I got from the Dollar Tree (those were cheaper than buying from Amazon).
When it came to decor for the Masters golf themed party, the most time consuming thing to make was the balloon arch. It was my first balloon arch and after doing a ton of research the easiest way to make a balloon arch is using the cluster method, you can watch the video here. Whatever you do, do not use the strip and put the balloons through the holes in the strip. It will take you FOREVER that way. I used two different balloon arch kits (this one and this one), both in the same color scheme, and since it was golf themed, I added in a couple of large golf ball balloons from this pack.
You’re also going to want to get a balloon pump otherwise you risk passing out after blowing up the fourth balloon, when you have 96 more to go. The length of the arch will really depend on where you want to put it but I got two kits just to be safe and I’m so glad I did. I had some left over as well. You’ll also use this to connect the clusters.
We forced the dad to wear a caddy outfit that we made out of a white painters jumpsuit. He wasn’t the biggest fan, but I’ll do anything to make sure the theme is followed. To follow what the caddies wear at the Masters it had the last name on the back in big green letters and the and Masters logo on the front pocket. To add the Masters logo and last name we just printed something using a Cricut and ironed it on to the jumpsuit.
I also made these really cute golf tee decorations which were actually made from these 10 inch white paper lanterns, blow horns that I spray painted blue so they matched the theme better and put them in plastic pots that I found from the Dollar Tree, then covered the top of the pot with artificial grass. I’m not even going to explain how I made them because there are so many things I would have done differently but I will say this from my experience…
- First, put the Titleist logo on the lantern. I don’t recommend using a Cricut sticker because it won’t stick. Print the logo on a piece of paper, tape it on the inside of the lantern and using a Sharpie or fabric paint trace the logo
- Then using a hot glue gun, glue the lantern to the wide end of the blow horn
- It might be hard to find artificial grass, I found it at the Dollar Tree because they were putting Easter stuff out and it was supposed to be a table runner. Instead I would just use sand. Put a little in the pot then place the horn into the pot and put more sand around it. I would then add water to add more weight and ensure the horn doesn’t move.
My mom, who is so talented when it comes to flower arrangements, made 6 centerpieces of varying sizes and I got all my flowers from Trader Joes. Trader Joes has the best selection and price on flowers so if you live by one, I totally recommend going there if you need flowers. All the flowers in the cart were less than $100, which is insanely cheap for fresh flowers. As for the vases, I went to a couple of thrift stores in my area and was able to find them for less than $5 each. The Dollar Tree doesn’t have great options for this and they can be expensive if you are buying them from Amazon. Since the flowers were throughout the house, it didn’t matter to me if the vases were all different.
For food, we wanted it to be mostly finger foods so we wouldn’t need utensils. The menu was as follows:
- Subs and croissant sandwiches from Publix. Since they were assorted, I made little flags (again with the golf theme) using a toothpick and washi tape so people would know what the sandwich options were.
- Assorted chips
- Assorted dips (buffalo chicken and pimento cheese)
- Naked wings with assorted sauces
- Chick fil A chicken nuggets, which were a total hit
- Caprese toothpick bites (literally so easy to make and you can make them in advance)
Since there were a bunch of different dips, chips, and sandwiches, I created signage for the food and I put them in the Dollar Tree frames so people could easily identify what was being offered.
I like it when you have dishes at different heights so I used different cake stands and vases and filled them with plastic golf balls and put them under the platters. A tip that I have is to get out all the platters, without food on them, and put them on the table you are using to map out where to put things. Use post-its to label the platters and take a picture of it so when you do get the food, you know exactly where it goes. This mini Crockpot was perfect for keeping the buffalo chicken dip warm.
Now for my favorite part of the Masters golf themed party, the desserts! I wanted to create a bunch of different desserts because not everyone likes vanilla cupcakes or brownies so for desserts we had:
- Vanilla cupcakes
- I got these from the grocery store “naked” so they didn’t have frosting on them and made them in the shape of a 1. To decorate them so they were gold themed, I used regular buttercream (if you don’t want to make your own, most grocery stores sell buttercream in the bakery. Whatever you do, don’t use the canned Betty Crocker frosting) and dyed it green. Using piping tip 233 and piping bags, I made the grass texture. To make the sandtrap cupcakes, I grated some sugar cookies (using a microplaner) and iced the cupcake then covered the icing with the grated sugar cookie.
- A chocolate golf ball shaped smash cake
- This was a learning experience. I used this cake pan to bake the circular shape and baked up a box of Betty Crocker cake mix. I sliced part of the bottom so it wouldn’t move, crumb coated using buttercream icing, and put it in the fridge. After about ten minutes I did a thick buttercream coat (it needs to be thick because you are going to indent it) and put it in the fridge for a few hours. To make the indents, you need to use something like a metal tablespoon and push it in a little. Keep in mind you’ll have to keep putting it back in the fridge to get the buttercream to crust over so it doesn’t stick to the tablespoon. Just use black buttercream icing and a piping tip 10 to write the name.
- Assorted decorated sugar cookies
- I used my favorite cut out sugar cookie recipe from Hayley Cakes to make the cookies and different cookie cutters to make different golf course elements. You can use either tip 233 to make grass or a knife to spread it on the cookie and then cover with green sanding sugar. If you want little white golf balls, I found mine at Michaels but you can also order them on Amazon.
- Brownies with golf ball toppers
- Make regular boxed brownies and with green buttercream use a grass piping tip 233. I used this golf ball mold and some melted white chocolate and placed it in the grass to make it match the Masters golf party theme.
- Mini french macarons
- I cheated and bought these at Trader Joes just so anyone who was gluten free could have a little sweet treat.
- Chocolate cake pops
- I loathe making cake pops because everytime I make them they crack once covered. Here is a tutorial on how to make cake pops if you want to make them.
- Rice krispie treats covered with buttercream
- Make rice krispie treats and once the marshmallows are melted, add in green food coloring. Slice them into squares and like the brownies, use a grass piping tip and some buttercream to make the grass and then finish off with a white chocolate golf ball. You could also use Lindt white chocolate truffles if you don’t want to use the mold.
If you are planning your own Masters golf themed watch party or golf themed birthday party, I hope you can use some of these ideas!
