It must be Kentucky Derby Day if it’s the first Saturday in May. We have plenty of creative Kentucky Derby party ideas to share with you, whether you’re celebrating at home with friends or with family and children. Free Derby printables are included in many of these ideas.
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Party Decorations
Decorate your venue in vivid hues to match the jockeys’ silks, which are colorful uniforms. Tablecloths and napkins in bright colors are a nice touch.
Kentucky Derby Party Decoration (Credit: theribboninmyjournal)
Hedge and Balloon Arch
Set up a balloon arch in the garden with artificial greenery in the colors of your Kentucky Derby party. This can be used as a backdrop for photos or as the location for your main table.
Banner
Across your venue, hang a banner with a Kentucky Derby theme. It may be titled “Talk Derby To Me” or “Run For The Roses,” for example.
Horse Races Theme
Make a stall, a watering hole, or a grandstand out of everything you can think of. It’s even possible to make all three! Construction paper or cardboard can be used for these. Making a stall-themed door will make your visitors grin.
Another simple technique to enhance the mood of the party is to label your drink station as a “watering hole.” Miniatures of these works of art might be displayed on the main table or the food table.
Roses
“The race for the roses” is how the Triple Crown is referred to. As a result, roses are a must-have for any Kentucky Derby celebration. Roses can be used as centerpieces or purchased fresh and placed in beautiful vases.
Consider arranging roses in traditional silver julep cups if you want to go really creative. Beautiful roses should be available at your local florist.
Food and Drink Ideas
Cupcakes
Why not make Derby cupcakes out of a typical Derby pie (similar to pecan pie)? All of your guests will be able to try Derby pie as a result of this. Regular vanilla cupcakes topped with crumbled nuts and small chocolate chips taste remarkably similar if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to do this. You can even choose a cupcake topper to complement these sweets.
Cookies
Make cookies in the shape of horseshoes, silks, and other Kentucky Derby emblems. These would be a wonderful addition because they provide that sweet touch that every celebration needs.
Kentucky Derby Party Cookies (Credit: The Cookie Couture)
Hot Brown Dish
This dish, which features a gravy-like sauce poured over toast and turkey, is the essence of Southern celebrations. The dish is then topped with some delectable bacon.
Ham Biscuits
A Kentucky Derby party isn’t complete without a delicious appetizer of ham-filled biscuits. This is a really simple recipe that only requires a few ingredients. Make a few with honey mustard, a few with dijon mustard, and a few with butter if you want to give your guests a choice.
Mint Julep
The Kentucky Derby’s signature drink is the Mint Julep. Woodford Reserve bourbon, crushed ice, sugar, water, and fresh mint make up the official Derby recipe. Use a real silver Julep cup or metal cups to serve your beverages.
You can include the custom into mint delicacies, like mint cupcakes or ice cream, in addition to drinking the Mint Julep straight.
Party Games & Activities
Bluegrass State Trivia
The official Kentucky Derby website has a number of fun facts regarding the race. Look through these facts and ask your visitors trivia questions based on them! You can ask these questions all night long or turn it into a competitive trivia contest with a winner.
Lawn Games
Lawn games are a fantastic complement to any party, especially if there will be youngsters present. For added excitement at your party, you may add a Derby flair to a variety of lawn activities. Cornhole is a popular yard party game, and a custom-made Kentucky Derby set will wow your guests. To keep the Derby theme alive, put up a game of horseshoe.
Kentucky Derby Party Activities (Credit: kentuckyderby)
Let’s Bet
Make partygoers booklets including all of the horse contestants’ statistics and information. After that, they can go through the booklets and choose the winner. Create a betting window where people can come up and place their wagers. This can be done with monetary wagers or simply by awarding rewards to the winners.
You might even award a prize to the person who correctly predicted the losing horse! This game can easily be combined with other adult party themes!
Game of Luck
You can link each of your guests with a specified horse instead of betting, or perhaps in addition to betting, to make things a little more exciting. Put all of the names of the horses in a hat and let your guests choose a name at random. A prize is awarded to the winning horse!
Kentucky Derby Party Invitations
Add two classic Kentucky Derby icons to these invitations to get down and derby. You may even include a small gift with your invitation!
Remember that during a Kentucky Derby celebration, everyone must wear a hat, so include a hat-themed element in your invitation.
In addition, I’ve made or left a pretty large space, so you can freely write or type your party information and it can be crystal clear enough to be easily read by your guests.
Firstly, choose your favorite design, then right-click that preview image.
Select “Save image as” and Locate where you want it to be saved in your device.
You can leave it as it is, and open it later when the download is finished.
Open the file with third party apps such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Paint, Corel Draw and so forth.
For beginner: it’s better for you to use Ms. Word, and it’s capable of doing that flawlessly and there are many features to help you, like inserting text, changing the font styles and so on.
Party Dress Codes
Because guests will follow the host’s lead on what to wear to a Derby day party, you have permission to go all-out: big hats, complete suits, spectacular dresses—the Derby is not a time to be understated.
Sharing a few style recommendations with guests can also be beneficial: for the ladies, a bold hat or festive fascinator, as well as a bright dress or patterned set, are necessary. Men can dress up in a bright suit (perhaps a pastel?) or keep it simple with Derby-specific accessories like a needlepoint belt or a pocket square.
Hold a best dressed contest by letting everyone anonymously vote for their favorite outfit if you want to encourage your guests to improve their style game and aren’t frightened of a little friendly competition. The winner then receives the biggest prize of all Derby days: bragging rights.
I tried something a little wild: water gun painting. And oh my goodness, it was a hit! Like, laugh-out-loud, parents-grabbing-their-phones-to-take-pictures...
