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Health & Fitness

Hosting Your Own Backyard Movie Night

Host a backyard movie night party worthy of an Oscar.

A few years ago we hosted a backyard movie night for the Tesoro Entertainment Units (marching band and dance guard). With over 80 teenagers the evening was a lot of fun and something I always wanted to do again for our family and friends.

Not knowing what we needed back then we rented the equipment for the event which included an inflatable screen, speakers and a projector.

The menu for the night was pure concession stand nostalgia: hotdogs in paper boats, boxed candy, drinks in paper cups with lids and straws. We even rented a popcorn machine and served the popcorn from paper tubs.

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A fellow band mom had the great idea of grilling the hotdogs before the band members arrived and keeping them warm thorough out the evening in a crock pot. This worked beautifully and freed us from being behind the grill while the movie was playing. The kids were able to help themselves to whatever they wanted during the night.

Fast forward to an August night this summer—instead of renting the screen, projector and sound system this time around we made the screen from a twin-sized sheet, used pvc pipes for the support ($20), hooked up a couple of our own speakers and a projector we use for work presentations. With my techno sons at the helm, my laptop was hooked up to run the DVD. It turned out to be a great system. What’s especially nice in having our own setup is the flexibilty to host other movie nights without the expense of a rental system which runs $200 for the night.

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You’ll see from the photos our homemade screen (the morning after and missing a few clips) was anything but fancy and I had my doubts when my husband came home from Lowe’s with long pvc pipes a couple hours before our guests were to arrive but in the dark all you see is the movie playing not the pipe supports or the few wrinkles in the sheet that were visible during the day. In the future, I’d like to grommet the sheet so it can be easily put up to the support frame with rope but surprisingly a few black metal clips from Staples with string worked perfectly well. Even the perfectionist in me was quite impressed.

The simple menu for our friends and family movie night included my recipe for the with brioche buns (my secret weapon) that I bought from Hannas. They are incredibly delicious and add tremendously to any bun-worthy meal. Trust me. Just call ahead of time and place an order with the chef. To accompany the burgers we served macaroni salad and grilled local corn (husks on until charred, the corn will be perfectly cooked and the silks will slide right off when the husks are peeled away), homegrown tomatoes, vegetables and fresh lemonade. For dessert, we made fout flavors of ice cream to choose from the day before and of course, popcorn.

"Action!"

I’ve listed some resources to get you started on hosting your own backyard movie night:


Tips:

  • Set up all power equipment before dark.  This includes a sound and screen check.
  • Remind guests to "B.Y.O.Chair" and bring a jacket.
  • Placing a vase of flowers in popcorn boxes make festive table decorations.
  • Print out a movie ticket image and secure to a sandwich pick to place in the top of burgers.
  • Burger baskets make great serving pieces for a variety of chips on the table or individual corn-on-the-cob holders.
  • Have something warm for your guests to drink if the evening turns chilly.

 

I'd love to know if you've hosted or attended a backyard movie night and what ideas you have to make the night fun. Please share!  :)

For the ultimate, unqiue and spooky outdoor movie experience there's the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in LA.  This is their 10th season of outdoor movies.  Not all of the movies shown are of the fright-night variety but this Saturday happens to be "Psycho". The Cinespia website has more info.

"The End"  :)

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