Thursday, February 21, 2008

How To Throw A 'LOST' Themed Party

Well, last month for the Season 4 premier of LOST, we decided to throw a themed party and pull out all the stops. It was such a success I figured, 'Why not share it with the whole world?' So here you go...

The first thing any self-respecting LOST party needs is 'DHARMA' food logos ... especially on the beer. The beer labels are already available online here. Simply print and affix to standard longneck beer bottles (will work best if you remove the existing label with a razor blade).

Next, if you're really serious about surprising your guests, the food itself needs to be LOST or ISLAND themed. In our case, for dinner we did 'Taco Night' with mango salsa & chips as an appetizer. For desert, we painstakingly created 'Fish Biscuit' cookies and served them with tropical flavored sorbets from Costco. All I can say about the cookies is good luck! I used Pillsbury pre-made sugar cookie dough, dyed it the right color using mostly red & some yellow dye, and cut them out with a 'Fish Biscuit' cookie-cutter that I hand-bent from what was originally a large heart. Lastly, when the cookies came out of the oven, I cut the fish mouths out (for authenticity) and quickly used a cake-icing letter-guide to imprint the word 'DHARMA'. This was truly a pain in the ass, but in the end ... worth it. So, like I said, good luck! Here's someone else's post about making the cookies that I found to be helpful.

Here's the stuff you'll need along with the final product

Decorations are a must and you can get as creative as you want. We did quite a few things including: Placing SUITCASES full of clothes and BACKPACKS full of dynamite around the television, Scattering COCONUTS, MANGOES, and PAPAYAS around the house, Stacking DHARMA BOXES in various places like supply drops, and Taping 'QUARANTINE' signs on all the exit doors. I even re-created a few Publisher Images from the BRAINWASHING scene and loaded them into my digital picture frame.

The dynamite was created by wrapping red paper mache around candles

The large logo was printed on multiple sheets of paper and taped together.

Poster board painted first with metallic, and then black over letter stencils

Lastly, if your group is totally obsessed and awesome like ours, you can open it up to LOST-themed costumes and props. In our case, we held a 'Prop Contest' and voted on the winner. Some people came dressed up and the props were awesome. The winner won a Beanie Baby Polar Bear.

Pictured: A diorama with real sand & power cable along with the 2 characters that found it.

Pictured: Pearl Station Pneumatic Tube, Tropical Fruits, Hurley's Comic, Connect4

Pictured: Backgammon, Bottle w Notes, Ranch Composite, Handcuffs, Kate's Plane, Virgin Mary Statue w Heroin Bag, Apollo Chocolate Bars, Golf Ball, Charlie's Guitar, and yes ... MUMMY YEMI !!!

Nice job on the 'Dexter Stratton' ring! You can't see, but she's wearing Charlie's checker board Vans too.

I love the syringe!

Now I know you're thinking we all need to get lives, but c'mon ... you only go around once. And when all was said and done, everyone had a blast being TV geeks for one night. To view an entire gallery of pics, click here. Also, to be as helpful as possible, I'm including a brainstorm list of Party Props & Decorations. Have Fun!


PROPS & DECORATIONS
Handcuffs (Spencer's)
Toy Plane (toy store)
Sand & Shells w Power Cable (Home Depot/Lowe's/Michael's)
Luggage w Clothes
Backpacks w Dynamite (spray-paint or paper-mache candles)
Tropical Fruit (coconut, mango, papaya)
S.O.S. Bottle w Hand-Written Notes
Dharma - Ranch Composite, Beer, Supply Boxes, Cans, Boxes, etc
Other Hidden Dharma Logos (toilet paper, remote control, etc)
Stuffed Polar Bear
'Driveshaft' album
Guitar w 'Driveshaft' Stickers
Pearl Station Pneumatic Tube & Notation Booklet (create using a large water bottle)
Stuffed White Rabbit painted with 15 or 8
Diorama scene (sand & shells for beach)
Digital Photo Slideshow (screenshots & pics using your computer or digital picture frame)
Quarantine Signs on Exits (use a textured spray-paint for cool effects)
Boardgames: Backgammon & Connect 4
Hurley's Comic Book (purchase online or re-create)
Download Hatch Computer Clock (recommend Yahoo widget version here)
Fish Biscuit Cookies
Apollo Chocolate Bars (print and wrap around Hershey bars)
Virgin Mary Statue w Heroin bags (obviously fake)
Hurley's Golf Flag (long branch with red surf shorts)
Caged Sawyer & Kate cut-outs (dog kennels work well)
Strap a homing beacon to your dog
Eko's stick (good luck)

FOOD & BEVERAGES
Fresh tropical fruit (pineapple, mango, papaya)
Themed drinks (daiquiri, pina colada, mai tai, mini liquor bottles, MacCutcheon Scotch, served in halved coconuts)
Taco Night
Mango Salsa
Mr. Cluck's Fried Chicken (slap logos on KFC or Church's)
Dharma products
Apollo Chocolate Bars
Tropical sorbets
Sushi (sea urchin? ...eww)
Airplane food trays (could use frozen dinners)

DRESS UP IDEAS
Dharma workers (jump suits, syringes, beer)
Charlie (F.A.T.E. on fingers, 'Not Penny's Boat' on hand, hoodie, checker vans, guitar)
Kate (plane in envelope, handcuffs, orange juice w white powder, wedding dress)
Jack (shaved head, scratches on face, mini liquor bottles, black suit)
Locke (khaki pants, bald head, large knife, bowl of orange paste, wheelchair)
Sawyer (long hair, suitcase full of monopoly money, hoard of medicine, hand-written note)
Sayid (long curly black hair, tank-top, transmitter, pictures of Nadia)
Rousseau (rifle, tank-top, music box, notes)
Ethan (crazy hair cut, Wisconsin hoodie, syringe)

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5 Comments:

At February 25, 2008 4:39 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

i love it
i love it
i love it

 
At February 29, 2008 6:47 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

My heros.

 
At March 07, 2008 4:20 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

You guys are freakin' awesome! I am trowing my boyfriend a lost birthday party, I am doing it at the lake (since we don't have a beach in Dallas) and I want to buy scrap metal and paint it like pieces or an airplane and use it to make roofs on little tents YAY!!

I also glued some bugs inside jars and I will use those as decorations

I love, love love your fish biscuits, I have seen some online but yours are by far the best.

I want to be friends with you guys ;)

 
At November 30, 2008 5:53 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lots of creativity and you guys did an awesome job--although, yes, I was thinking the whole time they should get lives!!!! Ha Ha Ha.. Seriously, you guys know how to throw a party!
Tamara

 
At February 01, 2010 2:17 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

this is literally the best thing i have ever seen! thanks for the ideas!

 

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