One weekend a year is filled with horses, roses, hats, pie and mint in the state of Kentucky. I can remember in elementary school having stick horse races, eating derby pie, and decorating my derby hat for the big day. We would have festivities all day long at school the day before derby. One fun fact though, most Kentuckians I know have never even been to the Kentucky Derby. I know many who have worked it, including myself, or even have friends who work for Churchill Downs, but most Kentuckians I know would rather enjoy watching the festivities from the comfort of their own home. Although going to the Kentucky Derby is on our bucket list, a few years ago we decided to bring the Kentucky Derby to us!
Three years ago we were living in Kingsport, Tennessee amongst some of the best people we know. We were moving away from the area in a few short months, we had four-month old twins, and you could say we were getting a tad homesick as the derby neared. I had a bright idea to host a Kentucky Derby party for our friends from church. I’m not sure what I was thinking because Isaac was working round the clock and so was I while tending to the twins, but we made some pretty awesome memories that day. Most of our Tennessee friends knew little to nothing about the Kentucky Derby so it was fun to share everything with them.
For this Kentucky Derby party I focused on three things:
Decorating for this party was so much fun! I kept it simple and focused on a few areas to jazz up. I used many things I already had on hand and made some fun things too.
The entry table housed all the glasses for party guests, mason jars of course, and some décor. I glitter spray painted the derby letters and made the blue ribbons. All the other décor I had on hand as décor in our house.
Each glass had a nametag and straw so guests could find their glass and fill up on sweet tea or my version of a mint julep. I used the Disneyland recipe that you can find by clicking here. This year I plan to make a pitcher for us at home and I think I try this recipe, click here.
I made a banner of each jockey’s silk running in the derby race. I simply printed off blank jockey silks onto cardstock and customized each one. You can find the blank jockey silk page by clicking here. While this décor was free, it was time consuming! I loved the end result and definitely think it was worth it, but give yourself plenty of time to do this or have your older kids help you. The only downfall is the horses running the derby can actually change up until time of the race so be prepared for your banner to not be perfect. I completed this project the night before the party and there were two changes to the running by the time of our party. Of course it’s just decoration, but it was a nice visual for guests as we watched the race trying to keep up with which horse was which.
For our party menu I took care of the big items and asked guests to bring a Kentucky inspired dish. This was a great idea because I was able to make the obvious foods you think of when thinking of the Kentucky Derby and it was fun to see the dishes the guests came up with.
I made a few hot brown casseroles, mac-n-cheese, a few derby pies, sweet tea, and my mint julep. Since I had guests bring a KY inspired dish we had lots of yummy food! You can find my mac-n-cheese recipe here and my hot brown casserole recipe here. I adapted it from the Brown Hotel’s Hot Brown recipe that you can find here.
This was the easy part. Any time you got this group together we always had fun but we had even more fun than normal with a few activities, like the stick horse races!
Isaac made a quick track for me out of supplies I got. I purchased a few cheap pennant banners and picked up some free paint stir sticks, he was able to create a track in about thirty minutes out of just those supplies. Thankfully, my dear friend Renee created the cutest stick horses ever! She used pool noodles and I put her cute creations in a tomato cage I had on hand. I crafted the horse stable sign quickly with wooden letters I hot glued onto a blank canvas.
The track was cute, but watching grown men and women race while riding a stick horse was hilarious! We all laughed until we cried and it was so much fun.
We didn’t have any betting going on at this party but each guest did draw a number upon arrival. The guest who drew the winning horse went home with one of my homemade derby pies! A nice yummy prize!
Although outfits were not one of the focuses I had, we did ask guests to dress in their best Kentucky Derby attire. This turned out to be one of the best things about the party seeing everyone all dressed up with hats and bowties on! I also had a little fun dressing the twins, they were passed around all during the party.
We have many great memories of Kingsport and our Kentucky Derby party is definitely one of them. Everyone getting together celebrating all things Kentucky for the greatest two minutes in sports will always be a great time!
Now I just have to convince Isaac that we must have a derby party next year!