How to Throw a Princess Party on a Budget

Posted on January 29, 2018

It’s not impossible to throw a princess party that’s beautiful, fun, and memorable when you’re working with a small party budget. With a little planning and improvisation, you can come up with an amazing princess party to rival any with more money behind them. Check out these ideas to help you plan the princess party of your little girl’s dreams.

Budget-Friendly Princess Party Decor Ideas

It’s natural to want to have one of those magazine-worthy princess parties with all the bells and whistles when it comes to decorating. However, if you have more realistic expectations about what you can achieve with your smaller budget, you can come up with something equally as special. These princess party decor ideas will help you put together the most magical birthday party ever.

Start with things you might already have around your home that can be turned into princess-themed decor! You might have fancy old candlesticks, dishes, tablecloths, wedding decor, or items from parties past that you can set out as is, or spruce up with some DIY tricks. If you don’t have anything already that you’d like to use or repurpose, you can hit up some garage sales, thrift stores, dollar stores, or the closets of friends and family.

Something else to try in order to keep yourself on budget is making your decorations. Use Pinterest tutorials, blog posts, and videos to figure out how to craft your way into a full set of party decor. This works best if you have lots of time before the party to try out different ideas, but don’t be afraid to experiment! You’ll be able to come up with some really great ideas when you decide to make your own decor.

If you’d prefer to buy party decor and supplies, opt for cheaper versions of popular products. If you want to buy a plastic tablecloth, balloons, and streamers, go for solid-colored ones instead of the ones branded for your little girl’s favorite princess. Select popular princess colors like pink or purple, or go for a color scheme that matches the princess she chose as inspiration for her party.

You don’t have to do all the typical “princess” things to make your budget princess party successful. Steer clear of the more expensive decor items and supplies to stretch your money further. When you really think about it, your little one is going to be enchanted by anything and everything about the party, and won’t even notice that you’ve opted to save some money on your decor.

Easy and Cheap Princess Party Food Ideas

If you’re looking to save money, one easy way to save a big chunk of change is not to serve food, or at least not to serve a full meal. If you plan your party for the time between lunch and dinner, you’ll hit the sweet spot of being able to get by with serving only light snacks and desserts. This will free up the rest of your budget for other uses throughout the party planning process.

If you do want to serve food at your princess party, there are so many options that will fill out your menu and still stick to your royal princess theme. It will be fun for the little ones to eat food that makes them feel like royalty themselves, so give them something to remember when it comes to what they ate on such a special day!

An easy way to make any food a little more princess-like is to use shaped cookie cutters to cut them into shapes for a fun touch of magic. This works great for sandwiches, pizza, cookies, and brownies! As a bonus, this portions out the food for your little ones, making it a smart way to serve only what you’re sure will be eaten. This Pillsbury recipe to make tiara-shaped pizzas will be perfect for cheap-yet-magical snacks.

For drinks, pretty colored drinks like pink lemonade, Kool-Aid, or punch are all relatively cheap and very easy to make. Serve them in teacups or clear plastic cups with extra decorations glued on to add to the magic of the selection. Making a big batch of drinks will be more cost-effective than serving individually packaged drinks, so not only will these ideas be pretty and princess like, they’ll also be budget friendly.

No matter what you serve, setting the food out on a tablescape that evokes royal enchantment will elevate your spread, and you don’t need to spend a lot of money to make the magic happen. Rely on pretty, elegant dishes you may have packed away to add a little extra sparkle to your table scape, no matter what is served on them! Color-coordinated paper products for your food will be just as special as glass or other kinds of dishes.

Whether or not you choose to serve a meal or snacks during your party, there are plenty of ways to make your princess-themed party grand and elegant on a budget. Your food, whatever you serve, will be delicious, and the kids will love it.

Inexpensive Princess Party Games and Entertainment

When you’re working with a tight budget, you likely won’t opt for a princess performer to join your event, but that doesn’t mean your princess party will be boring. This day is all about your little one, not the princess they’ve chosen as the theme of their party, so don’t worry that it won’t be a “real” princess party if there isn’t a princess performer there. There are plenty of ways to turn up the magic for your little girl even when you don’t have unlimited funds.

Princess party games are often inexpensive, or even free, to put together. A lot of the popular ones are magical takes on classic party games like Duck Duck Goose, Simon Says, Bingo, and Freeze Tag. For many of these games, you don’t need to buy any supplies, so having a fun afternoon full of games will be simple and inexpensive. Look for ways to adapt games you already know or have to become more magical and princessy.

Turn a game of musical chairs into musical magic carpets as suggested by Events To Celebrate. This would be great for a Princess Jasmine-themed birthday party! Placemats or small rugs make the perfect “magic carpets” and you likely already have those things around the house. Another take on this popular party game is musical thrones. Dress up some standard chairs with tulle, glitter, and costume jewelry to make them more royal! Play the soundtrack to your child’s favorite princess movie to get the game started!

Another idea for an easy, inexpensive princess-inspired party game is Frozen Freeze Tag, which uses a can of silly string to represent Elsa’s magic powers, though you could easily remove that element from the game if you don’t have silly string on hand. Essentially, if someone gets hit with the silly string, they’re frozen, and they need to get a hug from Olaf before they can unfreeze! This is a fun, simple game that will give everyone extra-special princess party memories.

Have the Best Princess Party Ever

The best way to throw a princess party on a budget is to make sure everything you include in your party is special and something worth spending time and money on. This way, you can be sure that what you choose to put extra funds or effort into will be worth it, and ultimately will help you throw a better birthday party.

Keep in mind that your princess party is going to be special for your little girl no matter how much money you spend, how intricate your decor, how royal your food, or how elaborate your games. This day will be special because you put it together for her. So go as crazy as you want, or as crazy as your budget allows, and feel good about all your efforts. It’s going to be a day to remember, and your little one is going to love it!