Of all the party themes I’ve come across I would say it’s the wild west party theme that has the most cool stuff, costumes, decorations, food and music to make it an awesome party all your friends will always remember. Hopefully this page will enable you to throw the best party you’ve ever been to!
The wild west specifically refers to the old frontier towns deep into Indian territory while the union was expanding westwards.
Towns like Deadwood, Tombstone and Yankton are famous old wild western towns. You need to go back in time to the later half of the 19th century for your party.
Take a look at the following wild west party costumes, wild west party decorations, wild west party food, drink, music and invitations!
Wild West Party Costumes
No wild west theme party would be complete without wild west party costumes, so make sure you go to a big effort with getting or making a great costume. You should also assign all your guests a character to come as before the party so there’s no confusion with costumes! There are many great characters from the past you could dress as such as:
1. Billy the Kid
2. Wild Bill Hickok
3. Wyatt Earp
4. General Custer
5. Buffalo Bill
6. Calamity Jane
7. Jesse James
8. Doc Holliday
In addition to all these famous characters from the past you could also dress up as one of the following; bartender, cowboy, Indian, cowgirl, sheriff, deputy or a saloon girl.
There are many accessories you can have for your costumes! Why not consider some of these; gun belt with pistol, or two pistols, cowboy boots, cowboy hat, sheriff badge, handcuffs, harmonica, bandanna to be worn round your neck, lasso, spurs and even a whisky bottle would be great.
Also don’t forget that in those days it was common for the vast majority of people to carry around their own six shooter!
Wild West Party Decorations
It’s your wild west party decorations that will really make your party feel like you’ve gone back in time! There are many things you can do to transform your venue that don’t necessarily cost much. Take a look at the following list and carry out as many as you’ve got a budget for:
1. Cover your floor with straw.
2. Have a wanted sign with each of your guests face spread around your venue.
3. Create some western street signs with western towns written on them such as; Lead, Yankton, Denver etc.
4. Try and create an old wagon! You could do this by piling up chairs by a wall and covering them with a white sheet. Get other items such as rope, pans and lanterns to complete the display.
5. Create saloon doors for your main entrance to the venue! You can do this with the doors of an old wardrobe of otherwise with cardboard.
6. If you have an old piano stuffed away in a room then give it pride of place for the party.
7. Create western style sign posts for your rooms! Your main room could be the saloon! Don’t forget the barn, jailhouse and blacksmith.
8. You should get plenty of cacti, large ones and small ones and spread them about the place.
9. If you choose to create a jail house then create bars using aluminum foil.
10. Further decorate your venue by strategically placing around; metal buckets, lanterns, ropes, pans, pick axes, shovels, oil lamps, bales of hay, wagon wheels and pitch forks.
11. How about creating a gold coin display with chocolate coins.
12. If you have any Jack Daniels whisky bottles then place them on display. Out of the reach of the kids of course!
13. You can order outhouse door covers online which you could cover your doors with.
Wild West Party Games
You should set up as many wild west party games as your budget will allow for! There are so many things you can do, for example, have a look at the list below:
1. You should have a gun drawing contest. To do this you could use water pistols. Have a knock-out tournament until only one shooter remains. If you want to make it look more authentic then you could use cap guns.
2. How about having a game of lasso? Set up a wooden post or something similar in the yard and see who can lasso the thing.
3. For the adults you should set up a game of poker! Remember that Wild Bill Hickok, one of the most well known law men who ever lived died whilst playing poker. His hand was “Aces over Eights” which is now known as “dead mans hand!”
4. How about a game of Pin the Tail on the Horse? I’m sure you all know how to play this game!
5. If you have a budget you could hire a Buckaroo! This would be so much fun for both girls and guys, adults and children alike!
6. If there’s many kids at the party, or adults for that matter then there are many great wild west themed Playstation games you could get.
Wild West Party Music
Your wild west party music is very important, no theme party is complete without relevant music to transport you into that setting. How about downloading some of the following songs:
1. Deadwood – Big and Rich
2. Dead or Alive – Bon Jovi
3. Rawhide – Frankie Lane
4. Cowboy Song – Thin Lizzy
5. Cotton Eyed Joe – Red Nex
6. Ghost Riders in the Sky – Vaughn Monroe
7. Deadwood Stage – Doris Day
8. Anything by Johnny Cash
9. Buffalo Gals – Malcolm McLaren
10. Wild West Hero – ELO
11. Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Wild West Party Food
The best food to cook up would be classic American food preferably a BBQ! Here are some things you really should not be without for the party; hot dogs, chicken wings, spare ribs, burgers, corn and cornbread, eggs, tortilla chips, watermelon.
You could also serve your snacks in upside down cowboy hats, of course line the inside with tin foil first.
Wild West Party Drinks
It was whisky that was very popular in the wild west, in fact it was about the only thing anyone drank; men and women.
You could serve all your drinks in whisky bottles, of course they could be a range of drinks in reality!
You should also serve root beer and ginger ale.
Wild West Party Invitations
Don’t forget to send out some invitations well in advance! This is where the party actually starts. If you use the copperplate Gothic bold font then you’ll have an actual western feel to your invites. By the way, you really should use this font for any and all writing for your party.
You could send out invites in the style of a “Wanted” poster! For example you could write “Wanted For A Wild West Theme Party” and then you could have a photo of your guest printed on the invite!
You should use yellow or light brown paper for these! You could brush tea over the paper to give it an aged look and then leave it to dry over night. You could even singe the corners!
Why not use the template below, feel free to print it out!
What you should also do is create a Facebook group! You’ll be able to invite all your guests via the group and hype it up as the day draws near. Doing this tends to also increase attendances as everybody will be able to see how many of their friends are also coming. Finally, a Facebook group will be a permanent reminder of your party, since you and all your guests will be able to upload all your photos and videos to the group at the end.
If you have any more wild west party ideas then please share them by leaving a comment below!
