Movie Night Party for Grown-ups (with Video)

 This post is intended for an audience of adults age 21 and older. This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and Bacardi. All opinions are mine alone. #SignatureSips #CollectiveBias

Movie Night Party

I’ve never really been a fan of going to the theatre to watch a movie. Now that most theatres have comfy lounge-styling seating, I can be convinced to go, but I still prefer a movie night at home with cocktails, good food and the ability to chat with your friends without being shushed.

I thought it’d be fun to throw a casual movie night and invite over some friends for a low-key yet elegant get-together without the kids. Grown-up food, grown-up drinks, and a grown-up movie!

There was no occasion for our party, but this would be perfect for a chill birthday or celebrating a special personal achievement. The food and themed decor look impressive with minimal effort. I love to go above and beyond for my parties and really make everyone feel special, but that doesn’t mean you need to break the bank or spend hours party planning.

For a movie night, people aren’t really expecting more than a bucket of popcorn and comfortable seating, so it was fun to surprise everyone with a bit of glamor when they walked in. It made the night a bit more fun and special – but the low-key menu kept it grounded and casual.

Movie Night Party Decor

I decided to stick with a classic black and gold theme for the movie night. It’s elegant and easy to tie everything together when you stick to a simple color palate. And luckily, I found lots of Old Hollywood-style black and gold decor that fit our theme perfectly!

I wanted to decorate the dining room table as the “main event” and then have a few cute touches in the living room for the actual movie.

The night before the party I did a couple quick DIYs – a glitter clapboard, dip-dyed silver and gold serving trays, and cute gold and black “popcorn vases” with yellow and white carnations. These small touches gave the decor a bit of added interest and a personal touch.

I love doing small, creative touches for my parties but I also didn’t want to turn this into a whole production and end up spending a week DIYing everything like I tend to with my daughter’s parties. So, beyond the DIYs mentioned, I purchased a cute light box for a marquee sign and a letter board for a cocktail menu which both made a big impact and got the most compliments, and surrounded our TV area with bouquets of black, gold and silver star balloons. Star confetti, an elegant table runner, and on-theme coasters also helped fill up empty space on the food table and helped it look full and polished.

As an optional, fun activity I taped some gold wrapping paper up on the wall and purchased some cute photo props.

Also, as a bonus, most of the decor items are re-usable so they can get stored away for the next movie night, or used for a variety of other elegant themes.

Here’s a full list of everything I used for movie night party decor:

• Gold table cloth (splurge for cloth if you can)
• Black and gold art deco table runner
• Seven silver serving trays (half dipped dyed)
• Black and gold “popcorn” vases with yellow and white carnations
• Two pretty plastic popcorn buckets (one for popcorn, one for a cake pop stand)
• Three clapboards – one glitter-fied to make a cute staging area for the night’s cocktail options
• Gold cardboard chandelier
• Individual gold popcorn boxes
• Gold plastic plates and pretty napkins
• Black and gold “Cheers” coasters
• Star confetti (one package silver and one black)
• Gold wrapping paper for the photo booth area
• Cute photo props
• Light up sign for marquee
• Letter board sign for menu
• 10 Star balloons in black, gold and silver
• Small black tablecloth

Movie Night Party Food

Beyond popcorn, everything else for a movie night party is flexible!

My main priority with planning this party was for it to be stress-free and easy. It’s already hard enough to coordinate getting together with your friends now that we all have crazy mom-schedules and we were all just looking forward to hanging out, so any effort I put forth with decor or food was a bonus.

To keep things easy, I decided to make a couple quick desserts with items I already had on hand, and purchase the rest of the night’s menu at Wendy’s.

We love the All-Natural Lemonade at Wendy’s – it’s made with real lemons and cane sugar – so I grabbed three of each the regular lemonade and the Strawberry Lemonade and figured they would be perfect for cocktail mixers!

(And they are only available at Wendy’s – I’ve checked around!)

Bacardi has a light, balanced flavor profile of vanilla and apricot and is extremely mixable. I planned on using Bacardi Limon and Bacardi Superior in my cocktail recipes, but I also purchased Bacardi Gold and Bacardi Banana in case my guests had a preference.

Here’s a full list of our Movie Night Party menu:

• Movie Night cake pops
• No-bake burger cookies (recipe below)
• Fruit candy “film reel” (fruit candy dyed with black food spray)
• “Red rope” licorice
• Cute burger and fries gummies that I found and stuck on candy sticks
• Honey Bee Cocktails made with the All-Natural Lemonade and Bacardi Superior (recipe below)
• Spicy Lemon Clubs made with the Strawberry Lemonade and Bacardi Limon (recipe below)
• Wendy’s Chili (3)
• 4 piece Chicken tenders (2 orders)
• Apple Pecan Salads (3)
• Spicy Chicken Sandwiches (2)
• Dave’s Singles (3)
• fries and popcorn, of course!

This was the perfect amount of food for six grown-ups – I had a few items leftover but everyone was able to eat what they wanted and it was a good mix of meats and treats!

No-Bake Burger Cookies

These no-bake cookies pay a cheeky homage to our Wendy’s menu in a fun, bite-size dessert. (And bonus, this dessert tastes even better the next day!)

Ingredients:

• Vanilla wafer cookies
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2-2 1/2 cups powdered icing sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 Tablespoon milk or cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Red and yellow gel icing
• Shredded coconut, optional
• Green food dye, optional

How to Make No-Bake Burger Cookies:

In a large bowl, combine the butter, 2 cups icing sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla extract. Mix for two minutes before adding the cream, then adjust as needed with additional icing sugar.

Scoop the chocolate frosting into a piping bag and snip off the edge.

Optional: if you want “coconut lettuce,” combine the shredded coconut with a bit of green food dye.

Make a large dollop or swirl of frosting on one wafer cookie, then drizzle the red and yellow gel icing overtop as your “ketchup and mustard.” Sprinkle the green coconut overtop, as desired, and top with a second vanilla wafer to form your burger cookie.

Repeat until you have enough burger cookies – makes approximately 40-50.

Honey Bee Cocktail

This a riff on the Prohibition classic “Bee’s Knees” cocktail and its actually similar to a less popular Honeysuckle cocktail recipe. I’ve made the honey optional as it’s really just for taste – the lemonade is sweet enough on it’s own not to need the added honey.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 oz All-natural Lemonade, or more to taste
• 1 oz Bacardi Superior Rum
• 1 Tablespoon runny honey (optional)
• Ice
• Rock candy “stir stick” (optional)

How to Make a Honey Bee Cocktail

Place the honey and rum in the bottom of a cocktail shaker and stir until fully mixed. Add a cup of ice and your lemonade. Shake well.

Strain the cocktail into your serving glass and garnish with the rock candy.

Spicy Lemon Club

Another fun riff on a classic, the Lemon Club nods to the pre-Prohibition Clover Club, with it’s frothy egg white topping and fresh pink color.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 oz All-natural Lemonade, or more to taste
• 1 oz Bacardi Limon Rum
• 2 drops habanero hot sauce, optional
• 1 egg white
• Ice

How to Make a Spicy Lemon Club Cocktail

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add in the lemonade, rum, egg white and hot sauce.

Shake vigorously for 1 minute until the egg white is very frothy.

Strain out into your cocktail glass.

 

Pin this Fun & Easy Movie Night Party Plan:

This Classy Black & Gold Movie Night Party was zero-stress to plan and it was just a blast to have friends over for a little soiree and not worry about every little detail.

For more examples of how to use Wendy’s and Bacardi to plan your own get togethers, click here.

For more delicious cocktail recipes using Bacardi, check out our Frozen Mojito Slushies recipe or our Shimmery Purple Cocktail.