One of the biggest challenges in planning any event is creating a design that feels cohesive from start to finish. Whether you’re hosting a wedding, baby shower, corporate gathering, or another Orlando celebration, every detail should work together to create an experience that is both beautiful and memorable. The most successful event designs contribute to the event aesthetics, functionality, and guest experience.
One of the easiest ways to create event design cohesion is by choosing a theme! A well-executed theme serves as the foundation for your event, helping inform decisions about décor, food and beverage, entertainment, and more. Themed events can be as subtle or as immersive as you’d like! We’ve seen some Orlando celebrations feature a simple design through line, such as a garden party inspired wedding, while others go all in with a theme, like a Hawaiian luau! No matter if your themed event is more subtle or overt, a theme can transport you and your guests to another world, turning your celebration into a true experience.
Let’s explore some of our favorite recent themed events to show you what we mean!
Hawaiian Luau Themed Event
Our Orlando event venue, Celebration Gardens, is a botanical garden haven, teeming with lush Florida foliage and flora year-round. Wherever you roam on the venue grounds, you’ll take in the colorful flowers, like bougainvillea and hibiscus, and smell their sweet fragrance, like the scent from our star jasmine hedge wall. Celebration Gardens already feels like a slice of paradise, so that’s why it was the perfect setting for Justin and Belkis’ Hawaiian luau themed wedding!
They had been dreaming of a luau themed event to celebrate their love with all their family and friends, and really took this fun theme to new heights! They started by incorporating tropical touches throughout their event decor, including monstera leaf charger plates and vibrant floral centerpieces on the reception tables. Our team at John Michael Events worked with them to create a completely customized luau menu that brought the flavors of the islands to Central Florida!
Luau Themed Event Menu
While the menu offerings from John Michael Events are already incredibly diverse and delicious, themed events call for an extra special culinary experience! We love getting creative by designing custom menus that complement the event theme, helping to immerse guests even more in the celebration. For Justin and Belkis’ luau, we crafted an authentic Hawaiian dinner menu of:
- Garden Salad with Papaya Dressing
- Huli-Huli Chicken
- Kalbi Ribs
- Hawaiian Fried Rice with Mango and Coconut
- Traditional Macaroni Salad
- Sweet Potato Casserole
- Roasted Vegetables
- Soft Sweet Yeast Rolls with Honey Butter
- Pineapple Upside Down Cake
We even customized the bar offerings, adding more juice and syrup options for tropical drinks and of course, extra cherries for Mai Tais! The signature drink for the evening was a rum punch, which our servers hand passed upon guests’ arrival. Paired with a warm welcome from hula dancers who greeted each guest with a fresh floral lei, these experiences immediately set the tone for an immersive Hawaiian themed event.
Hawaiian Themed Event Entertainment
Later in the evening, this couple surprised everyone with a traditional performance by Hawaiian fire dancers from Uso’s Polynesian Entertainment! This show helped put the luau theme over the top, making everyone feel like they were truly experiencing the local culture in Hawaii.
Extending the theme to every element of the celebration ultimately allowed this themed event to be so successful. It was a night filled with unique food, tropical cocktails, and unforgettable entertainment in a breathtaking setting, all of which came together to create an immersive experience and lasting memories for everyone.
Garden Party Themed Event
Celebration Gardens hosts countless garden themed events each year, and for good reason! Their botanical gardens are filled with winding pathways and vibrant blooms, making a garden party theme feel right at home there. Since the venue is already equipped with gorgeous landscaping, it’s easy to let the gardens inspire your event design. You can choose to enhance the venue’s natural beauty with additional décor, or keep the rest of your design simple and let the gardens take center stage.
One of the best parts of a garden party theme is that it’s incredibly versatile. You can lean into the theme with a seasonal menu featuring garden-inspired flavors or simply serve your favorite foods and let the décor and setting bring the theme to life.
To help you easily achieve this theme, we’ve designed a special Garden Eats menu that’s exclusive to Celebration Gardens! This is a specially curated casual dining experience that features bright, seasonal flavors using our onsite pizza oven, char grill, flat grill and deep fryer. Every dish is made-to-order and designed to encourage mixing and mingling within the gardens. For more info and full Garden Eats menu options, connect with our team below:
A garden party is also a theme you can embrace year-round! In the spring and summer, you might draw inspiration from the garden’s softer hues, like lavender, butter yellow, sky blue, or blush pink. For fall and winter events, the garden naturally features richer colors of marigold, orange, emerald, and red that you can weave into your themed event’s color palette.
Western Inspired Themed Events
Another popular themed event idea is Western-inspired! Perfect for celebrations with kids (or fun-loving adults!), a Western theme is playful, unique, and can be interpreted in a myriad of ways. You can take it more literally by leaning into a cowboy motif, complete with Western imagery like cacti, horses, and lassos. You could also execute this theme more subtly by incorporating the colors, textures and elements associated with a Western style. For example, you could utilize cowhide rugs to line the wedding aisle or have centerpieces with desert foliage adorn the dining tables.
No matter which way you choose to carry out this theme, it’ll definitely be memorable, encouraging guests to kick up their spurs and have a good time!
Holiday Themed Events
If you’re planning an event towards the end of the year, a holiday theme is a great way to make the most of the season! It gives guests a chance to enjoy the holiday atmosphere while also celebrating your special occasion. We’ve catered some amazing Mardi Gras, Halloween and Christmas themed events that range from subtle to all-out, and it’s a crowd-pleasing theme every time! Check out these examples:
Mardi Gras Themed Events
New Orleans is known for its city-wide parties and festive atmosphere, so why not bring that same energy to your next themed event? Guests will be ready to have fun from the minute they receive their themed invitation! To successfully pull off a Mardi Gras theme, start with a base color palette of the famous purple, green and gold. You can use these hues in your linens, signage, floral, and even signature drinks.
Don’t be afraid to be bold with your decor! Aside from using Mardi Gras colors, you can use masquerade masks to decorate the bar and tables, create balloon arches and pillars that frame the dance floor, and you can’t forget the beads! Scatter multicolored beads throughout your event as both decor and favors, and guests will walk away happy.
We can even create a New Orleans cajun themed event menu with dishes like gumbo, jambalaya, beignets and more to really drive the theme home. Guests always love trying different cuisines, especially when it helps immerse themselves further into the themed world we’re creating at the event.
Halloween Wedding
For a spooktacular time, consider throwing a Hallo-wedding! Believe it or not, Halloween is a highly coveted wedding date. We’ve had a lot of fun over the years with our couples to include a little Halloween fun in their celebration! We’ve worked with couples to set up a Halloween candy bar as a dessert enhancement that doubles as favors. Other couples chose to rent a fog machine to bring a bit of magic to their first dance. Some brides have even chosen to wear a black wedding dress as both a nod to Halloween and a way to make their wedding completely theirs!
Christmas Wedding
As the song goes, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year! It’s cozy, exciting, and extra romantic as everyone grows nostalgic towards the end of the year. Winter itself is an advantageous season to get married here in Central Florida. By December, we’re past the rainy season and temperatures are milder, making this an ideal time for an outdoor wedding!
At Celebration Gardens, the Grand Pavilion comes with anything you need to keep guests comfortable no matter the weather. If it’s a warmer December day, it has built-in fans to keep the breeze moving, but if it’s a chillier day, they break out the heaters to ensure everyone stays warm. This is also the ideal time of year to use the fire pit there! You can have a full s’mores bar and set out blankets, making this the ultimate cozy spot for your Christmas wedding.
Other fun ideas to infuse the Christmas spirit in your themed event include:
- Having a red & green color palette
- Including evergreen branches, berries and pinecones in your floral arrangements
- Giving guests personalized ornaments as favors
- Having guests ring jingle bells for your first married kiss
- Entering the wedding ceremony on a horse and carriage
- Wearing a fur stole over your wedding dress
Themed Event FAQs
What are popular themed event ideas?
Fun themed event ideas include: Hawaiian luau, garden party, Western-inspired, Mardi Gras, Halloween, and Christmas. You can execute any of these themes as literally or subtle as you’d like!
How do I plan a themed event?
First, decide on a theme. Think about the purpose of the event, the wants and needs of the guests who will be attending, and how versatile your theme idea is. You can then carry out the theme through every event element, including the signage and stationery, florals and decor, food and beverage, and even guest attire.
Can John Michael Events create custom menus for my themed event?
Yes! Even though John Michael Events has pre-set menu options that include the most popular dishes, we are always happy to create a completely custom menu. We’ve created personalized menus that range in different cuisines and themes, from Hawaiian-inspired to New Orleans Cajun inspired menus, for example.
