Chocolate and Football Party Ideas

One of the things that my family loves most about the fall is watching football. My husband is honestly kind of a football fanatic. However, it feels like once football season starts, the only time I see my girl friends is when we get together with our families to watch a game. So to prepare for the upcoming football season and our inevitable lack of girls nights, I decided to host a girls night dedicated to something other than just football – chocolate. And today I am so excited to share with you all of the details of my “Girls Need Chocolate Like Guys Need Football” party. Aka, a last hurrah before our lives are taken over by football. One of my favorite football party ideas ever!

For the party, I invited a handful of my girl friends over and told them to save plenty of room for dessert that night. And I wasn’t kidding. We started the night out enjoying tons of chocolate that I setup at the main dessert table. To tie into the theme of the night, I made the dessert table my “Team Snickers®  table because Snickers® is my all-time favorite candy (and my mom’s and my brother’s; maybe it’s a genetic thing). Those tissue paper letters from Sheer Bliss Designs in the background made the absolute perfect backdrop and got the theme across in a big way.

I started the dessert table with store-bought items like Snickers bars bundt cakes, and brownies that I picked up at Sam’s Club. I love buying store-bought items and adding a fancy little twist, such as the little pendant garland from Tutus & Bowties Events that I added to the bunt cakes and the cupcake toppers designed by Jess Kasteler Designs that I added to the brownie tower.

In addition to the store-bought items, I also had some of my favorite people make me delicious goodies just for the occasion including a gorgeous two-tier chocolate cake from Kima’s Konfections, a delicious assortment of chocolate truffles from The Sugar Cube, SNICKERS® cupcakes made by my friend Katy, and last but not least, custom cookies made just for the party by Shauna from Cara Bella Creations. She also made the picture frame cookies for my Splash and Splatter party, and these ones were just as cute. The Team Snickers®  jerseys? Pretty much my favorite cookies ever. And I’m definitely on Team Snickers®.

I also added a couple of items of my own including my “better than football cake“, chocolate raspberry crostini, and chocolate milk served in chocolate rimmed glasses. The chocolate glasses were a huge hit and the easiest thing ever! Just dip the rims of bottles into some melted chocolate then immediately dip into sprinkles, chocolate jimmies, etc. Such an easy way to make a huge impression! My girl friends seriously had no idea where to even start, but there’s no such thing as too much chocolate right? Sounds like #Chocolate4TheWin to me!

A dessert table can’t be just food so I added some fresh flowers (it was a girls night after all) in gorgeous gold glitter mason jars that Always the Occasion made just for my party, a tissue garland from Funky Monkey Designs, and of course, the phenomenal Snickers® tissue letters.

After the girls had gotten some chocolate treats, we all sat down at a table to enjoy Snickers® inspired chocolate fondue – melted chocolate, caramel, marshmallow fluff, and peanuts. I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the fondue (fondue + camera don’t mix), but I did take some pictures of the table setup before everyone arrived. Some of my favorite elements were the glitter silverware made by SK Designs, the glitter fondue sticks, and the darling menus from Jess Kasteler Designs. I also incorporated more of the gold mason jars and fresh flowers because I feel like fresh flowers just makes everything more girly.

Another party planning tip – think out of the box when it comes to planning your party. I picked up the 105 count variety pack of MARS® chocolate bars while I was at Sam’s Club and used those as the base for my glitter place cards.

It’s also a fun way to give your guests an extra treat, especially if it’s not a chocolate party like mine.

On the opposite side of the room, I setup my “Team Football” table, which was basically an ode to the guys who were so kind to let us have a girls night in the first place. I set the table with football cookies from Cara Bella Creations, the most delicious confetti candy kabobs from Sweets Indeed, mini eclairs I decorated to look like footballs, and of course, Snickers® bars. I decorated the table with a mini garland from Tutus & Bowties Events (the same one I used to fancy up the bundt cakes), cute signs Jess designed, and the most amazing glittery blue football from Fizzy Party! Along with all of the treats, I added green striped boxes from Pick Your Plum that the girls could fill up with goodies to take home to their football-loving husbands.

Since the guys were getting something, I of course had to put together something for the girls to take home as well. And my friend Megan from Confetti Couture Events came up with the perfect idea – a glam bag to hide all of their chocolate in. She made these gorgeous bags that perfectly fit a Snickers® bar (with plenty of room for other chocolate), and I added my own little party favor tags inspired by my favorite Snickers® commercials that said, “You’re awesome except when you’re hungry. Don’t be hungry.” I stuffed a Snickers® and a tag inside each of the bags for the girls to take home.

This was such a fun party to plan and even more fun to host because it included two of my favorite things – my girl friends and Snickers®. And I loved being able to send the girls home with a little party favor for the football guys too since they don’t get to come party very often!