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Oktoberfest Fun

Ach du lieber! It's starting to look like nature's paint box spilled from the sky, decorating the leaves in every shade of red, orange and gold, and you know what that means...time to getten zie down mit your friends at a good ol' fashioned German-style Oktoberfest! Get out the lederhosen, roll out the barrels of beer, get the oom-pa-pa player and have a grand ol' time!

The original Oktoberfest is held every year during late September and early October in Munich, Germany. It runs sixteen-days and is the world's largest festival, six million people attend every year! Your celebration may be a bit smaller, but it will be just as much fun with the right Oktoberfest ideas and party supplies (and beer of course!)

Oktoberfest Invitations

We have great looking Oktoberfest invitations that can be personalized with your party information with candy bar wrappers and bottle labels to match.

We have a great semi-custom caricature invitation with the host and hostess dressed as a German fraulein and herr host of the party. If it's a corporate gathering, we can feature your logo and guest of honor or company president. This same design can also be featured on welcome signs, programs and more!

Another fantastic invite idea are to send tickets to your Oktoberfest party. Personalized ticket invitations in blue and white are a great fit.

If you want to make your own invitations, the red, gold, and black of the German flag, or the blue and white of the Bavarian flag are both fantastic color schemes. Use a Fraktur font, which is a German style of blackletter, or a gothic font.

Oktoberfest Decorations and Party Supplies

Provide the atmosphere of an old German brau haus. Hang a Oktoberfest banner out front to welcome your guests. At the front door place an Oktoberfest life-sized cutout of the host or guest of honor.

Decorate the party space with strategically placed blue and white balloon bouquets with beer mugs as balloon weights. Place the balloon bouquets on the sides of the buffet, on tables, and at the front door.

Use Oktoberfest danglers and Oktoberfest garland to decorate the ceiling, doorways, and banisters. Since the party will inevitably spill outside, make sure you decorate the deck and porch; Ein Prosit banner and a few more balloons will do the trick!

Make flower bouquets using carnations, dried wheat and hops, and use beer mugs as vases. Finish off any blank walls with beer stein cutouts. Yodeler hats make great pretzel bowls, so set a few out!

The Bavarian oom-pah band is one of the most lively parts of Oktoberfest. CDs with German music and polka oom-pa-pas will add an authentic oomph to the evening. If there's an accordion player in town, he might be available for a live performance.

Oktoberfest  Table Decorations

Start by laying down an white table cover on the tables. Set each place with Oktoberfest paper goods and an Oktoberfest coaster,  or place them at the beginning of the buffet if you are not doing a sit down dinner. A light up beer mug for each guest is a nice touch.

Wrap silverware in Oktoberfest napkins and use Oktoberfest plastic beads as a napkin ring. The beads make an unexpected but appreciated party favor!

Decorate the tables further with Oktoberfest centerpieces. Attach more balloon bouquets to the centerpieces if you have a large room or your tables are outside; it will give the centerpieces a nice height.

Oktoberfest Food

Feed them and they will come! Your guests will savor each moment of Oktoberfest if you serve the best of the wurst. No Oktoberfest is complete without the finest sauerkraut, wurst, weinerschnitzel, kielbasa, crispy potato pancakes (served with applesauce and sour cream YUM!) and, of course, apple strudel and German chocolate cake for dessert.

And, as ol' Benjamin Franklin said, "Beer is God's way of showing us He loves us and wants us to be happy" (Really, he said that!) So, you want your guests to be happy, right? Have lots of beer (or Märzen, as it is called in Munich) on hand and you'll have your guests so happy they'll be singing for their supper! Many beer companies market their own "Oktoberfest" brew this time of year, so have a selection.

A basket with Ein Prosit beads should be set next to the beer. It will remind everyone to keep toasting:

"Ein Prosit, ein Prosit
Der Gemütlichkeit
Ein Prosit, ein Prosit
Der Gemütlichkeit!"

Personalized Oktoberfest beer labels are a really nice touch. (You'll probably also want to serve root beer along with water with personalized water bottle labels for those who don't want to sing for their supper.) Make sure to order extras, everyone will want to take a few home.

Oktoberfest Party Favors

It's always nice to leave a party with a special memento of the evening. You can set up a Oktoberfest photo op and let guests snap a few pictures of themselves as German fraulein or herr. Another great favor are these Oktoberfest vests (and one for the ladies as well!)

Personalized Oktoberfest candy bars are a nice way to remind your guests of how sweet the Oktoberfest was. They are available in milk chocolate or dark chocolate, and the personalized wrapper can match your invitations and bottle label, which ties the whole party together.