Iron Man Themed 16th Birthday Party

Our son just had his 16th birthday party!! We let him choose the party theme and without hesitation he chose Iron Man! I had a great time planning this COVID- approved party.

Iron Man has been a favorite comic book and super hero character for our son his entire life. It simply made sense that he would pick this as the theme. The challenge for me was to envision a special day fit for a 16 year old!

I navigated through many inspirational images on Pinterest but sadly came up with next to nothing by way of teen Iron Man party themes. So with a few colors in mind, and my son’s help, here is our take on an Iron Man Themed 16th Birthday Party.

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Iron Man Party Decor

The color palette for the party consisted of:

Hot Rod Red
Black
Gold
Steel Gray

I used black and red buffalo check paper as a table runner on the food table. Then simple paper products from Amazon, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby to cover the rest of the party surfaces. I also hung a simple black garland on the food table.

And we even tried a small big balloon arch for the first time! With careful direction following set up was a synch. Pro tip, if you use it outside, be mindful of the wind.

The big impact for the decor was the life-sized Iron Man figures we placed throughout the main floor of our cabin. They are each hand made by our son. I donned them with party hats and memorable Tony Stark quotes.

Party Food

Party food was the easy part. We chose a casual meal. I was inspired by Charming Touch Parties party pictures and set up a concession style hot dog bar.

The menu for the party was:

Hot Dog Bar
Assorted Chips
Fruit Kabobs (red watermelon, and gold pineapple)
Various Flavored Waters in a Cooler
Small Sweets Buffet

The ideal silverware pouches from Cutlery Couture made the party even more COVID friendly and detail-oriented. I wrote funny Iron Man quotes on the chalk board style set and the kids had fun guessing which movie they were from.

Sweets and Treats

For the sweet part of the menu I filled a tiered tray with three select items chosen by our son. He chose Rice Krispie arc reactors, fun size Snickers, and custom-made sugar cookies.

To make the arc reactors we used colored icing with a #3 decorating tip. My son freehanded the arc reactor design on top of each Rice Krispie treat.

I was thrilled to partner with April from April’s Sugaree Cookies. She made beautiful custom sugar cookies to deck out the tiered tray of sweets! Her artisanship is beautiful, and the cookies arrived perfectly right on time (all the way from Texas!). They were absolutely delicious and were the finishing touch for our concession style buffet.

For the cake I chose tiered for the first time ever! I asked a dear friend who makes custom ordered cakes as a hobby for friends. Her Iron Man inspired chocolate birthday cake was just beautiful and put the entire party over the top!

Party Favors

Since our party was for teens I gave the kids a fun memento from the event. I quickly took a group picture of them together at the beginning of the party. Then with simple frames, during a lull in fun, I printed the picture and stuffed the frames with the printed image.

Additionally each of the guests was given a cardboard Iron Man faceplate to paint. So each of my son’s friends had two party favors.

Fun For All

Our son is a very talented artist with an engineer’s mind. He has been making masks out of cardboard as a hobby for years. As I said earlier, all of the full size Iron Man suits (yes the entire suit) used as decorations were made by him.

He made each guest a simple faceplate out of cardboard using this template. After cutting out the pieces of cardboard he hot glued them together.

Imagine the fun half a dozen teenagers had spray and hand painting and their very own Iron Man mask. It was a great activity for our COVID- approved 16th birthday party.

Iron Man Party Supplies

Over the years we have only done a few group birthday parties for our son. For his 16th birthday party, and with his permission, we went big. I’ve compiled a shop-able image to help if you want to use some of the same products I did.

Gold Balloons // Cookies // Balloon Arch // Tiered Tray // Party Hat // Plastic Tablecloth // Cups // Iron Man Decal // Buffalo Check Paper // Buffalo Check Plates // Stark Industries Tee // Marvel Tee // Iron Man Gauntlet Tee // I Love You 3000 Tee

You can also watch a quick video tour here of the whole party put together.

As I said before, we don’t typically have large birthday parties. But for his 16th birthday party, we wanted to celebrate the young man our boy has become. I hope you enjoyed this peek into our celebration.