If you’ve been tasked to plan a friend, a family member, or a colleague’s retirement party, you probably feel excited but maybe even a little nervous. Let’s be honest, planning a party is never exactly a cheap activity.
If you are planning your own retirement party, you face the dilemma of splurging to celebrate the milestone, but also keeping in mind that during retirement, you will need to live with a little less. After all, as they say: the hours of retirement are great, but the pay not so much.
Fortunately, planning or hosting a retirement party doesn’t need to be a source of stress, especially not financial stress. With a little bit of creative thinking and planning, you’ll be able to throw a spectacular retirement party on a smaller budget but without skimming on the fun.
Read on for our top tips on how to plan a retirement party on a budget so you can focus less on the finance part and more on the person that’s about to embark on a fantastic new adventure.
Before diving into the tips, remember that the party is about celebrating a milestone and the retiree’s life. So planning something that’s personalized and sentimental will always be more memorable than a flashy party with overpriced drinks and decor.
1. Set a realistic budget
Don’t start planning until you have set your budget. Even if you are planning a retirement party on a budget and you actively will try to opt for inexpensive options, you still need a rough idea of what you can spend.
Don’t be shy to approach those close to the soon-to-be-retiree to chip in. The person’s friends and family also want the party to be a special celebration, so they would most likely be more than happy to split the costs. If the party is for a colleague, it’s even more expected that you would ask your other team members to contribute.
Besides, as this opens up the conversation about the party and the associated cost, maybe someone will already offer up a venue or party decorations.
2. Pick a free venue
Choosing the right venue is often the starting point for planning any event. Unfortunately, it’s also usually one of the most significant expenses, so if you are looking to do things on a budget finding the right venue should be your first port of call.
You can loosely divide free venues into two categories. The first category typically includes public spaces open to everyone or someone’s private home or garden. So, for example, you could consider the following outside locations: a park, campsite, lake, beach, garden, sports fields or park. Or simply the office or the local church.
If you are picking a public venue such as a park, we recommend you get there quite early so you can make sure no one takes your desired spot.
The second category of free venues relates to local businesses such as a restaurant or a brewery. These businesses are generally more than happy to host large groups as people will be spending a lot at the business itself. Hence, no need to charge a venue fee.
You can think about venues such as a gallery, lounge, dance club, ice-skating rink, ranch theater, bowling alley, pool hall, golf course, hotel, resort, boat or yacht, museum, winery, banquet hall, theme park, zoo or hookah lounge. Always call in advance to check if reservations are required, as this is a pretty common requirement for bigger groups.
3. Choose a budget-conscious theme
Firstly, choosing a theme for a party is absolutely not necessary. A retirement party is all about celebrating the person that’s embarking on their new adventure. It’s certainly not about a showy event with expensive decor.
However, if you would like to add some sort of a theme, opt for something that both suits the retiree as well as your budget. Avoid buying unnecessary party items that are often nothing more than single-use plastic items.
Instead, see what items you already own can be repurposed. Also, don’t hesitate to reach out to some of the guests that you know love a good party. Many people have party decor items in a box somewhere in their homes.
A good starting point is to consider the career of the retiree. What elements of their job can you bring in to the party? For example, for retiring teachers, you can hang up a chalkboard and let everyone write their retirement wishes on it.
Or even better – can you use their hobbies to decorate the venue? For example, if you know they will spend a lot of time painting once they retire, grab some supplies and let attendees paint something sweet for them.
Choosing a theme that considers the personal interests and past career of the retiring person is much more touching than expensive balloons or single-use party decor. Lastly, you can also ask attendees to send in photos and print this out. This serves both as decor and as a keepsake to take home after the party.
4. Keep the guest list to a minimum
Sometimes the most straightforward way to keep the costs down is to keep it small. Trim down the guest list to only those people that really had a close relationship with the person retiring.
You also have to keep the venue in mind – how many people can comfortably be accommodated? If you are having trouble cutting people from the guest list, a smaller venue can really help make those decisions easier.
5. Serve snacks instead of dinner
No one ever expects a full three-course meal when attending a party, so most people might not even be expecting food at all. However, it’s always nice to have something to nibble on, especially when you are having a drink.
You can shop around for caterers or, even better, prepare your own snack platters. A quick search online will present you with a ton of ideas. Of course, you need to keep the location in mind for this – you are not going to show up at a restaurant with your own platters.
An inexpensive and tasty idea is to have different kinds of bread (and a gluten-free option) and an assortment of dips and spreads. This is also the easiest way to cater to all dietary requirements without having to check it upfront with all the attendees.
A bread spread like this still looks elegant, it is inclusive and pocket-friendly as you don’t have to splurge on expensive cured meats and cheese. A good tip is also to have the party start at a time that’s just after lunch or dinner. That way, it’s implied that you won’t be serving a main meal, and guests won’t arrive hungry.
6. Make dinner a potluck dinner
There’s no rule that says you can’t have all the guests contribute to the party. Planning the party as a potluck one means everyone brings a plate of food to share with other guests.
If you like, you can plan it in a way so that specific people bring a specific course like appetizers or the main course. The best way to do this is to create some kind of a shared spreadsheet so it’s easy to keep track of who will be making what. Alternatively, you can have everyone just bring whatever they like to make and serve it all in one go.
As you are the one planning the party, make sure that all the additional things like utensils and serviettes will be present. It might also be a good idea to take charge of the dessert so you can be sure there will be something sweet to finish off the evening.
7. Plan free entertainment
The entertainment for the night can actually be completely free! With a little bit of planning, you can prepare a number of easy-to-play games that will guaranteed be a crowd pleaser.
There are a lot of games that will enable you to truly celebrate the retiring person’s journey. For example, the game “Who am I” involves the attendees writing down special memories they shared with the retiree without including their names. The retiree then needs to read these out loud and guess who wrote them.
Seeing them scratch their heads before breaking into laughter (or shedding a tear) when they recall the memory is really a fun and beautiful way to celebrate this milestone.
8. Skip the live music
While having live music at any party or event is always a crowd-pleaser, there’s absolutely no reason that you need to include this in your party. Opt for a ready-made playlist instead. Spotify and even Youtube have everything you need.
What would be even better is if you could create your own playlist ahead of time. Include some of the retiree’s favorite songs and ask party guests to send in songs that remind them of the honorary guest. Afterward, you can share the playlist with the retiree as a special souvenir of the evening.
9. Send out invites online
Sending out paper invitations can be charming, but at the end of the day, it always costs more than expected. So keep it straightforward and create a digital invitation. You can make this as fancy as you want to or simply create an event on Facebook.
Besides, these days everyone is so reliant on their online calendars that a paper invitation will most likely get misplaced, and you’ll be answering non-stop questions about the details of the event.
10. Bring your own booze (BYOB)
Almost like the potluck meal, you can ask people to bring their own drinks. Alcohol quickly becomes one of the most expensive items of planning any party, so cutting out this cost will have a massive impact on your budget.
We recommend still planning to bring a few extra drinks to in case some people end up drinking more or simply completely forgot to bring anything. Very often people underestimate the amount they’ll be drinking, so you want to be prepared so that the party doesn’t stop at its peak.
To further lessen the costs of the alcohol you take to the party, you can choose to make one signature drink. This could be a punch or any type of cocktail. Generally, preparing for one type of drink will save you a lot of costs.
Don’t forget to also take something non-alcoholic for guests that can’t drink or choose not to. You don’t want them to stand around empty-handed at the end of the night.
11. Buy a retirement gift together
Asking some or all of the attendees to chip in for a gift is a very standard expectation. If you don’t know what to get as a gift, you can always opt to put all the money towards an online voucher. While some people may see that as impersonal, the receiver is usually very pleased with this.
Whatever you choose to give as a gift, buy a card upfront and try to have as many people as possible sign it. You can still have people sign it at the party before presenting it over a toast to the retiree. If you decide to buy something like an online voucher, you can also consider buying flowers or chocolate so you can give something tangible with it.
12. Select a budget-friendly retirement cake
You don’t need to go to the fanciest baker in town to get the perfect retirement cake. Instead, shop around to see if there are any department-type stores that also make themed cakes. Some can even print a photo on top of the cake.
When talking to party guests, ask if they know of a place to get a cake. It could be that one of the guests actually loves baking cakes, and they offer to make it. Or if you know one of the guests is a good baker, you can always ask them if they could make the cake and offer to buy the ingredients for them.