Team Go Pokemon Party

Pokemon Go Party

This party featured and was centered around each of the three Pokemon Go Teams and their logos and colors.

The fabulous photography was done by the talented Megan of Megan’s Many Memories! She always does such a gorgeous job!

This party was a simple and fun approach to a theme my son picked out. I am a firm believer in letting the child pick the theme of their party. It is their special day and the whole point of the celebration is about theme. So their party should only be reflective of that. However, there are just some themes, let’s face it, that are harder than others, oftentimes because we as planners, don’t know much about them. My children have always enjoyed Pokemon. In fact, my son had already had a Pokemon party several years ago with the standard old school characters, games, etc. But they have really enjoyed this new take on the original. They love the scavenger hunt feel to the game. It’s like a weird animal treasure hunt. My sister even loves the game! So when she suggested that Aidan (or herself, haha) have a Pokemon Go party, my son LOVED the idea. But figuring out how to keep the game aspect a part of the party was a little tricky. We wanted to incorporate the actual game into the party and because we live in a rural area, we opted to host the dinner/sweets portion out at a restaurant. Our local Pizza Hut was AMAZING to work with us! I almost think (and jokingly said) that every party will now be held there (maybe I’m not joking that much!). It was so nice not to have to scramble to get the party AND the house ready. They allowed us to use their whole back area, let us come early to decorate, and let us stay there most of the night – all while taking care of our drink and pizza needs! And their prices were incredibly reasonable! Seriously, we will probably go there again.
We sent out invites letting everyone know to meet at the restaurant at a certain time (sharp!). Once everyone was there, we collected their points that they already had on their devices. Then we gave everyone one hour to go and “collect” as many points as they could. The 2 person team who had the most points gathered while gone was the winner. However, again, since I personally don’t know anything about the game, and my kids are just now getting to know it themselves, there were tricky ways of gaining extra points along the way that other players had. Smart strategizing on player’s parts ahead of time!! So do your research before playing to try to make it as even a playing field as possible. But also consider this - those who do their research AHEAD of time for something show wisdom!! You could ENCOURAGE that in your guests (giving them hints that there are ways of getting an edge if they put themselves to it!).

We made each of the child guests a t-shirt of their current Pokemon Go Team. Since we didn’t have enough players of each of the different team, we just made two man teams. Each guest was required to have their own parent driver and device with Pokemon Go already downloaded and ready to play. We did have a few guests who did not have devices – so we did pair those with some of our guests who had one so that everyone had a chance to play (they took turns “catching).
Because I knew we would be limited on setup time (I had the hour they were gone), I kept this party setup a little more simple. Plus, my boy doesn’t care quite as much about all the details, extras, and “fluff” that some of the bigger setups can have. He just loves a good sweets table and some fun favors!

For our sweets table, I decided I would try to make a cake for him this year. I had seen some drip cakes with LOADS of candy and sweets piled on top and thought that would be a really fun addition. And it was – until I left the cake in too hot a spot and it melted slightly and part of the back of the cake slid off into the bottom of the container! Fun times! But with a little “coaxing” and lots of icing glue, I was able to secure most of it back on and just throw gobs more candy over the top of it. Plus, it helped that the slide was in the back of the cake so it made it a little less obvious (even if the cake still was a little crooked and we also had to put it in the freezer to help it set and stay – giving it a bit of a “wet” look). In the end it was still adorable and the kids thought it was pretty cool with all of the candy loaded on top! Candyfetti from at Sweets Indeed was one of my favorite topping additions we put on the cake! We also had purchased some cookies from Sparklesbaby and I used a couple of those to top the cake as well. I made some large cracked chocolate slabs with candyfetti sprinkled throughout by smearing black chocolate candy melts on waxed paper and then sprinkling the candyfetti over it and placing it in the freezer to cool and harden. I also bought a package of sour jelly beans and picked out our Team Go colors of the party and placed those around and on the cake – pulling in some of the color schemes of the party. I also placed some of our sour lolly’s atop the cake, along with some of the red and white ring gummy candies we had (that I think look similar to a pokeball).

There were several other yummy items on our sweets table as well. We ordered some adorable pokeball donuts from our local Krispy Kreme. These were a special order item that our local Krispy Kreme had made up just themselves. They were delicious! (I loved donuts – especially Krispy Kreme!).

There were also the fabulous chocolate covered oreos that Sparklesbaby had made for us! We ordered some of the Pikachu oreos and she was so sweet and threw in a few of her Pokeball oreos as well! These were a definite hit with the kids. I displayed these atop a platter sprinkled with Candyfetti from Sweets Indeed.

I made some chocolate covered rice krispy treats in our 3 different team colors. I also sprinkled these with some of our Candyfetti. I LOVE candyfetti. And I love how putting Candyfetti on several of our treats ties the sweet table together! I usually will just buy a box of pre-made krispy treats to dip and sprinkle for my parties. Even though making krispy treats can be fairly simple, it is one less thing that I have to worry about making (and making a mess with), and I am all about hitting the easy button where I can. Each krispy treats was topped with one of my Team Go mini party flag toppers.

I have seen several candy shops featuring sour candy lolly’s. And I have always wanted to try them! So I picked up a couple bags of the sour strip candy off of Amazon to make my own. Mine weren’t as cleanly rolled as some I have seen. I think with practice I could definitely get the hang of it though! Plus, I could tell that it also depended on the quality of your sour strip. The blue strips were a lot easier to work with – though they were the same brand. They tended to be less wrinkled, had mostly full strips to work with, and didn’t fall apart. The others were yellow and red striped and just didn’t want to hold together quite as well as the blue. However, they still worked, still looked almost as fun, and they were completely as enjoyed as the others! Those our lolly’s were probably the hit of the party! I will certainly be making those again!!

I placed our sour lolly’s in 3 different candy bouquet displays on the table. I filled small round glass bowls in candies representing our 3 team colors in layers. And then just placed the lolly’s in for a fun finished look!

Our sweets table also featured cupcakes in our team colors. I made cupcake wraps with our different team logos placed on the front. And for the toppers, I made the Pokeball pinpoint symbol from the game and personalized it. I loved how these turned out!

For the backdrop, I simply covered one of my small backdrop board with a black plastic table cloth. Then I made and printed out large prints of each of the three team logos and placed those across the backer. I strung a name banner that I had made from the Pokeball pinner symbol. This was a simple, easy, yet striking look for our sweets table background.

The table was covered in a simple black pintuck tablecloth. And we draped my Team Go Birthday Banner across the front along with some handmade crepe paper tassels. I loved this look!

On each side of the table, we placed a bouquet of balloons. We ordered two Pikachu balloons off of Amazon and then had them, and some of each of our team colors blown up at Walmart. We placed on of each color balloon with each bouquet, and placed the other single colored balloons across our kids eating table.

The guests eating table was covered in a couple black cloths. We placed a plain black round plate (for pizza) and topped that with some mini dessert plates that we had stickered with each of our team logos. We scattered the table with different colors of the dessert plates to incorporate the 3 team colors throughout the table. Each guest also had a black cup stickered with different colored team logos, and also had a water bottle that featured wraps with all three logos. Each place setting also had a team shirt box with different team logos. These acted as our fork and napkin holders for each table setting. The kids were able to take these boxes home afterwards as well. The table was scattered with plastic pokeball favors that we had filled with individual popcorn bags, a juice box, and a gummy fruity pack. The favors were incredibly reasonable! We picked up the pokeball (plastic red and white balls) from Party City. We taped one edge of one of the sides with black tape (and trimmed so they would still close properly) and then placed one of our pokeball toppers on each one! So easy and so super cute! I had seen this party idea before on Pinterest and loved it and had to use it for our party!

Also across the table were scattered fun pokemon character treats boxes. The kids were able to use these to fill extra treats in to take home! I loved how each one looked on our table! And I was super please with how cute they turned out! I also placed 2” square cutouts of the 3 different logos all across the table as “confetti”. And I also made some 2x3 logo decal stickers for the kids to take home as well.

Overall, this party was a huge success for us! It was so easy – from the setup, to the game, to the restaurant and people who worked with us! And even though there was not a tremendous amount of costs, time, or details, the party looked and was incredibly fun!

Vendor Credits:

Photography by:
Megan's Many Memories
https://www.facebook.com/megansmanymemories

Party Printables and Décor:
Water Walker Events

Candyfetti:
Sweets Indeed
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetsIndeed
(She can even do sour lolly's for you as well!)

Pikachu Chocolate Covered Oreos & Pokeballs:
Sparklesbaby
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Sparklesbaby

Sour strips for our Sour lolly's:
Amazon

Pokeball Donuts:
Krispy Kreme

Plastic Containers for Pokeball Favors:
Party City

• What People Ate

  Pizza Hut Pizza

• What People Drank

  Soda & Water Bottles with our custom Team Go Bottle Wraps.

• Desserts

  Pokémon Go Candy Explosion Drip Cake, Pokeball Donuts, Cupcakes with our custom wraps and toppers, Chocolate Covered Pikachu Oreos, Candyfetti, Sour Lollies in candy bowl bouquets, Krispy Treats in our matching team colors

• Party Favors

  Each guest took home goodies from the table in their Pokémon Character Boxes, they took home their team shirt boxes that held their utensils and napkin, they each took home a Pokeball favor filled with a juice pack, mini individual popcorn, and gummy fruity. Also, they each had been made their own shirt with their current team logo they use on their device.

• Activities / Games

  The kids went on a Pokémon Go Catch to see who could get the most points.