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Well blow me down! You are actually thinking of planning a wedding reception with a pirate theme? Arrrgghh! Well, after all, with the huge box-office smash Pirates of the Caribbean, the pirate theme reception has sparked new interest, of late. And by pillaging and plundering around, it will be really easy to steal yourself some great tips for your party! Below I have categorized most of every aspect of a wedding reception, through the eye patch of a pirate.
INVITATIONS - For starters, the wedding invitations need to live the gimmick. Print them up on antique looking paper-stock, or age the paper yourself by cooking it on a cookie sheet. For the intro, start with an eye-catcher like,"Ahoy! Come walk the plank" or, "Shake your Pirate booty!" Chart a course to your reception with location, time and date in the form of a treasure map. If you want to be REALLY creative and can afford a little extra postage, go to the dollar store and put the map-like invitation into bottles with corks and mail them out!
Any Pirate reception invitation will look more authentic when printed on tan paper at the edges, and maybe made wet with coffee or tea stains. This is normal. You can literally dip each invitation into tea or coffee water and then let it dry to make each invitation look antiquated with age. The older they look, the more convincing they are! You can also add some sand and little tiny decorative seashells or gold covered chocolate coins to each invitation.
COSTUMES - Guests invited in costumes... You gotta do it! Nuff said!
PLACE CARDS - On each of the place cards, you can opt to write each guest's name by adding "Pirate" or "Buccaneer" before their name (for example: "Pirate Paul" or "Buccaneer Bob"). You can also make up Pirate-related sounding names like "Peg-Leg Pete", "Captain Carrie," "Long-Tooth Larry", "Blind-Eye Barbie", "Scarface Sammy", "Dirty Dog Donny", and so on and so forth.
GUEST BOOK - You can also have your whole guest population sign their good luck wishes in a book with a huge feather pen... Or how about on a real Pirate flag, posted to the wall. If it's a typical Jolly Roger flag with the white skull and crossbones on a black flag, it's best to use a white-out, fabric pen or one of those metallic silver pens for their writing. These can then be attached to feather sticks and left on the tables.
DECORATIONS -To decorate your hall, you know what to do, matey. Think about sailing the sea! You can use anything from sand and sea shells, to bowls of live gold fish. Also, remember to hang pirate flags and fishing nets all around the reception, for that extra finishing touch.
For that scary "One-eyed Pete" pirate atmosphere, make sure to take out some of your Halloween decorations like cobwebs, and skeletons. On a skeleton you can put an eye patch around it's head, a bandanna and/or hoop earring, color a few of the teeth with a gold marker, and hang Mardi Gras bead necklaces around the neck.
GUEST TABLES - It would also fun to disperse those gold foil-wrapped chocolate coins, plastic jewels, and a bit of sand and seashells onto your tables. You can also use fishing nets over any kind of tablecloth for your tables. Stick rubber fish, seahorses, plastic oyster shells, lobsters and crabs in the fish net.
PIRATE BOAT PICTURE BOOTH - Picture booths are HUGE at weddings now. Now add pirate theme, and BANG! You have a Kodak moment in the making. Have each of your guests pose as a Pirate at a ship wheel with some kind of mast or pirate flag in the background. (If Uncle Jerry didn't come in costume, remember to have extra pirate hats or bandannas around.) Make sure to have each guest ham it up and say, "Aaaargh" while posing for the shot.
If you are creative, you can also make a whole Pirate ship out of cardboard. You'll need a few refrigerator boxes. Use a hot glue gun and/or duct tape to attach everything together is probably your best bet. It won't take much, just decorate the Pirate ship with a Pirate flag, a mast, a plank (just a piece of long cardboard) and you should be good to go.
MUSIC - Music will really help the atmosphere and set the mood to your pirate wedding reception. You can either have the DJ mix in music from any kind of Pirate movie you can think of, or throw in an occasional Peter Pan track, or Jimmy Buffet. (Just make sure to only do it here and there between good songs, to add to the flavor.)
GAMES AND ACTIVITIES - should be lots of fun for everyone, if many guests arrive in costume. You can add pirates to any line dance with instant success. Also, you can try some kind of pirate Scavenger Hunt, or something to do with walking a plank, or picking something up with a hook set to music.
CANDY TABLE - BOOTY BAGS -You have seen the candy tables, right? When the reception is over, thank your guests for coming with booty bags filled with goofy prizes pirate booty such as toy compasses, foil-wrapped candy coins, or other treasures.
FOOD - Good seafood, of course, needs to be at least one of the choices! Ask your caterer on this one.
BEVERAGES - Pirates love their bottles of rum. It won't be a pirate-theme without beverages inside real sweet treasure chests. If you're not up to making your own treasure chest, here are a few really nice Treasure Chests can be found online. You can, however, easily make your own. Take a Styrofoam cooler and paint it brown. You can use gold ribbon to trim the lid and the base of the chest. Then take craft foam and glue panels on to the center of the lid in the front and the other directly below to make the lock. Around the treasure chests, throw around your gold chocolate coins, gummy fish, Starburst candies (they look like little treasures), colored beaded necklaces and whatever cool treasures you can find. Then add the ultimate treasure, beverage bottles that only pirates would like. (Maybe Pete's wicked Ale?)
PUNCH BOWL - Serve your sea faring guests grog or bumboo, made with Caribbean coconut rum for the adults and make soda based for the kids, from the bowls marked with or without an "XXX".
PIRATE LANGUAGE LIST - You may wish to name your tables, or just have pirate language printed out for people to get into the spirit. Here's a list full of Pirate phrases that could liven up the party:
Avast! (Hey!)
Aye (another way to say - "Yes!")
Ahoy, me Hearties! (just like saying - Hello, my friends)
Blow me down! (expression of shock, disbelief, strong emotion, surprise)
Booty (treasure)
Buccaneer (a Pirate)
Dead men tell no tales (expression indicating to leave no survivors)
Fair winds! (goodbye, good luck!)Thar' she blows! (whale sighting)
Grog (generally, any alcoholic drink Pirate's drink)
Grub (food)
Heave Ho (give it some strength and muscle)
Jolly Roger (a Pirate's flag - one with a white skull and crossbones over black)
Lookout (someone posted to keep watch on the horizon for signs of land or other ships)
Swab the deck (to clean the deck)
Shiver me timbers! (expression of shock, disbelief, strong emotion, surprise)
Sea-dog (an experienced sea-man)
Me (my)
Me Hearties (a typical way for a Pirate to address his crew)
Shark bait (foes)
Sail ho! (I see a ship!)
Shipshape (well organized, finished, under control...)
Yo-ho-ho (something Pirate's tend to say, whether it actually means anything or not)
Have fun with whatever you do, and don't be afraid to be different. Non-traditional wedding receptions are the ones people always remember, and isn't that the point?
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