Farewell Party Ideas For Your Exchange Student
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This past school year we hosted 2 exchange students. One from Spain and one from Italy. We had the best time with them but unfortunately all good things must come to and end. In honor of them returning home today, I am sharing what we did for and epic farewell party for them both. It was also combined with a grad party for the one who was a senior so you will see a little of that thrown in as well!
Party Decor:
For decor I chose to do the classic gold, silver, black and white since it flowed well with grad decorations too. Let’s start with the tables. Since we had quite a few guests we chose to put out tables for them to sit and eat. These “We will miss you” tablecloths from Amazon were perfect.
On the tables I placed flower arrangements with photos of each of the girls. Some were from their experiences while here in the states, like Prom, vacations, etc. To hold the pics I purchased these metal wire floral picks from Amazon. Then glued the photos onto black shimmery card stock.
For other decor I purchased floating foam letters from Etsy to place in my pool. You can get these to say anything you want. Since it was also a graduation party I chose to do the “#GRAD”. You can purchase these here. If you want to decorate with moss or flowers like we did for a wedding at our home you can see how we did that here.
I am all about using my chalkboard with quotes that pertain to the event. This time I put these 2 quotes on my board: "How lucky we are to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard" and "Goodbyes are not forever. Goodbyes are not the end. They simply mean we'll miss you until we meet again."
Food Tables:
For food we just grilled burgers and hot dogs but throughout the food tables I tried to add foods that the students loved while here that they can’t get in their own countries. Like veggie straws, LOL.
But the super fun part was the dessert table! For this I chose to use food in the same colors as the decor:
Black and White popcorn from Amazon
White yogurt covered pretzels
Gold rock candy from Amazon
Reese Cups with the gold wrappers
Custom cookies from a local baker. These said “goodbye” in each student’s language. Some were in the shape of the US and another the shape of a suitcase. I also added some grad cookies in the same color scheme.
Bundtinis from Nothing Bundt Cakes. They have toppers and flags you can add on that say, “Congrats” or “You’ll be missed” They come in black, white and gold so they are perfect for this color scheme.
For the dessert table decor I used black curtains. Then made custom banners with the words goodbye in their home languages and their names. You can get these custom banner kits on Amazon. Then hung these honeycomb paper fans above the banners. Again, I’m all about quotes so I placed another chalkboard with the saying “Getting to know you has been so SWEET”
Photo Booth:
Every farewell and grad party needs a phot booth so you can have great pics for memories. For this I used white table cloths and pinned then around my backdrop holder. Then for the decoration I added 2 sets of these paper flower decorations. To secure the flowers I used double stick tape attached to these pins, which I then pinned to the cloth. I also hung a gold sparkle banner that said, “Miss you already”.
Placed next to the booth was a table with a polaroid camera, scrapbook, markers and a sign that gave instructions on what to do. You can purchase one to download here. Make sure to have extra film on the table as well.
For a little graduation decor for it I filled these cardboard numbers with balloons as seen above.
Thankfully with technology nowadays it will not be a definite “Goodbye” just a “See you later”. Goodbyes are always hard but turning it into a celebration that you have built a relationship you value with that person is a beautiful thing. Cheers to memories!
