My husband is always awesome to me, so I use his birthdays to show him how amazing he is, in return. He's a Star Wars nut and always has been, so I wanted to make his birthday memorable this last November.

In summary, I did this:

Threw a surprise party, invited his nerd friends and they trained as Jedis.
Ordered him a custom Jedi Robe.
Special planning details for the event.
Shaped an Adult Party from a child's party.
Made lots of geeks happy, especially mine.
Also included - Star Wars Cheesecake ( Pimp Stormtrooper Cheesecake)
Williams Sonoma Star Wars Cookies
:)
--------------------------------------

Step 1: Venue

Basically, I lucked out. I found a fencing studio (Southern California), and they offered a children's Star Wars birthday party package at their fencing studio. So really, you need to try for fencing studios in your area to see if they can mold a class for your event. Amazingly, my studio had the basis down for the whole idea. Our teacher was dressed as Anakin and he was very fluent in the ways of the force and made easy choreography for the guys to learn.

It really was a work-out, so my tip is to bring an ice chest with ice and bottled water. That was a real life saver and everyone was glad that I did! They will need to rehydrate between all the combat battles!

You can ask the guys to bring their own light sabers or if the studio has them, they can just use them for the class. But, chances are, if you're reading my party idea, you already own one, or you will go buy one as an excuse if you ever throw this party. Hahah. :D

Step 2: Invitation

For an invitation, I just used my graphic design skills and threw together a nerdly invite to email to the peoples. I made sure to include stars, galaxies, favorite characters and so on. If you know someone who can do this, that's great. If not, you can hire me. Hhaha. :) But if you have it made in high resolution, you can have it printed and framed as a reminder of the cool party, if you wanted to. Take a look at my invite to get an idea of the text framework and how it works with the event!

Step 3: Jedi Robe

Okay, my husband is a big guy and he's always wanted a Jedi Robe but the ones on the market are small, cheap and flimsy. I don't like them! So, I took his measurements ahead of time and sent them to a company who does custom Jedi Robes and capes and everything else. They made it of sturdy fabric, amazing quality and very well-done. If you can do this on your own, you're amazing too! But I wanted to get him something perfect, without him knowing that I was making something for him. :) It turned out amazing and of course, I had to play with it when it arrived. ;)

Here is the place I went with - http://mystikmerchant.com/index.htm

If you want a low budget alternative, maybe for a child's party, you can buy the bulk sabers online *off-brand*, and brown fabric in one length, with an email coupon from joanns fabrics, cut them to equal sizes (at home) and just put strings on them for the kids to run around in. They can leave with the sabers and capes as their goodies from the party. :)

Step 4: Presentation

For the party, I was totally running low on time, so we just picked up mini cupcakes on the way to the studio and put them in the ice chest with the bottled waters. It worked out perfectly. I had Star Wars plates and napkins from WalMart and the table cloth too.

For the lessons, I asked Anakin to make a break in the training to present my husband with his Jedi Robe as his reward for becoming a Jedi through his training. So he called him to the front and presented him with the gift and he happily put it on. That was really cool! Plus, at the end of the session, he went against Anakin in a showdown and got a metal for beating him and getting the Jedi Master Status. I was so proud of him! *wink*

So it's all about fun, playing, atmosphere and making sure to keep the memories. I videoed most of the time and took some photos, happily worked with the studio to make this child-party into an adult-party and the guys got a total kick out of it.

Step 5: Pimp Stormtrooper Cheesecake

One year I made him a cheesecake, Star Wars themed. Keep in mind, these things take a long time to make. Overnight status. I basically chose a recipe to follow, but I divided the batter and colored it, then layered it into the pan so that I would get crazy effects when it was cut. It was pretty!!

I based my stormtrooper off of a fortune cookie and built up and around it. I made the toppings with marshmallow fondant *home made*, and shaped them into whatever I wanted after dying them.

So this was a Pimp Stormtrooper Cheesecake!! I made his medallion, head, "leopard print spots" and hat and feather. Bascially, I made it all from scratch and by hand. Maybe I will do an instructable for it some time. :) He loved it, I was proud of myself and it came out pretty!

Step 6: Star Wars Cookies

I wanted to make these so badly for his party, but I had made them the week before as a test and I had worn myself out. My tip is to wait until you need to make them, and PLAN to make them...and leave it at that. If it's really involved, you may have less of a chance of doing them when you need to, haha. That's what happened to me.

I LOVED them, they were adorable, and I made them my own, by using the colors that I wanted. I just followed the recipe that came with the cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma Star Wars Cookie Cutter set and everything went perfectly. My mom even liked the cookies, and she never pays compliments!

Another tip, if and when you make these with those awesome cookie cutters, is to flour the cutter lightly between cutting each cookie from the dough, because those detailed grooves take the dough and don't let go. That will result in deformed Star Warsians. :) Love them!

Step 7: RECAP

Wow, amazing party, tons of fun, everyone was happy. He said it was the best he's ever had and I believe him. He got his Jedi Training, his robe, he REALLY got to use his Force FX light saber and play-fight with it too. All of his buddies had fun and my favorite part of it all was making everyone happy. My original goal was to surprise him with an unforgettable party, themed to perfection, but in the end it was much more rewarding because other people had fun, too.

Thanks for checking out my instructable and I hope that you've taken what you would like to use from it, to implement in your own parties. Remember, it's all about the birthday kid. Or adult. haha. :)