Mexican Themed Party Ideas for a Backyard Fiesta

Mexican Themed Party Ideas: a backyard fiesta with DIY party decor, and an amazing menu, including dessert ideas.

It’s that time of year when we love to get outside in the backyard and host family and friends, we hosted a fun Backyard Fiesta this week, turning your regular backyard BBQ up a notch!  We have lots of Mexican themed party ideas to share with you, including decor ideas, the menu, and easy recipes.  These ideas are great for any Mexican-themed party, birthday theme, Cinco de Mayo celebrations, or even just an amazing taco Tuesday.

Backyard Fiesta Party Decorations

When I think fiesta, I think yummy Mexican food, and bright, beautiful decorations.  We decided to go with a summery colour scheme of red, orange, and pink for our fiesta.  The party turned out colourful, fun, and delicious just like we had hoped so here’s how we put it all together.  Hopefully you’ll be inspired to host your own get together this summer!

We set up our backyard fiesta under our pergola, and my girls pitched in to help…along with my sister’s dogs who we were doggie sitting.  😉

DIY Papal Picada

Since we were under the pergola in our backyard, I thought it would be fun to use some pretty papel picado -the beautiful Mexican paper banners.  These make the best DIY Mexican fiesta party supplies.  We made our own Mexican decorations out of tissue paper in the vibrant colors of our color scheme.  

We used scissors and few different hole punches to create our DIY papel picado.  They’re really easy to make.  Cut out your tissue paper into rectangles.  Keep the tissue paper stacked and cut out many at a time to make it easier.  Use hole punches in different shapes and sizes, and use scissors, folding the tissue paper over to make the cuts as easily as possible.  Once the designs are all created just separate the tissue paper into individual flags.  These were inexpensive and add so much to the decor.  It was a little breezy for our party, but even blowing around a little they sure were gorgeous and the best Mexican party decorations.

We used a little twine to string them up over the table.  Ribbon or string would work well too.  This would also be the perfect spot to add some beautiful string lights.  They would look gorgeous with the papel picado also adding a glow to evening as it gets dark.

Table Setting

I wanted the table to feel really bright and festive.  We started with some orange fabric as a runner, and then layered on a few cutting boards for all the yummy food.  I didn’t have an orange table runner, but I went to the fabric store and picked out some gorgeous and inexpensive orange fabric.  Instead of hemming the fabric, I just folded the edges over and it worked perfectly.  This is such a good trick when you’re entertaining and struggling to find a table runner to fit your color scheme without breaking the bank.  Just buy some fabric at the fabric store and use it on the table.

At the place settings  we used our regular white everyday plates, and some beautiful gold cutlery.  We repeated the gold in a few different places to tie it all together.   We used some pretty cloth napkins in pinks, and oranges with the perfect gold dot details.  For glasses we used some pink recycled glass, that gave the perfect Mexican fiesta party vibes to our table settings. We also used these cute donkey pinatas that we picked up in the party supplies section of the store.  We filled them with a little candy.  These were such fun touches at everyone’s seats.  They’re a “sweet” take-home gift for guests and add lots of fiesta fun to the table.  Make them extra special by looking for Mexican candy at a speciality store, or online.

Centrepieces

On the table, we used some really inexpensive centrepieces.  I used old tin cans spray painted gold as the containers for the flowers.  You can save your empty tin cans to use them, or do what I did, and walk around your neighbourhood on recycling day.  Help yourself to empty cans in your neighbours recycling bins.  When you get home just clean them, and remove the paper labels.  Once they were dry I spray painted mine gold. They looked great, and were also really inexpensive.  

I filled the gold cans with water and then some flowers from my garden and bright orange, red, and pink carnations from the grocery store.  They were bright and fun and perfect for a fiesta.  I love how the bright colors look together.  They’re a real focal point for the table, and add so much fun.

I also used some Old El Paso tin cans -from the delicious refried beans and green chilies we used for our taco bar.   For these ones I left the colorful fun labels on the cans.   I planted them with some cute cactus, and they added a real Mexican touch!  Be careful when you’re replanting your cactus.  Wear gloves to protect yourself from the prickles, and also wrap the plant itself in newspaper, or use long salad tongs to handle the cactus safely.  These turned out so cute, and would also make great party favors.

Lastly we included some different lanterns and candle holders in our bright party colors.  These were from the dollar store, and worked perfectly.  They look so gorgeous at night as well.

Fiesta Drinks

Off to the side we set up a little drink cart.  This is such an easy way to serve drinks at a party, especially with a large crowd.  Even with smaller numbers, it’s nice that guests can help themselves whenever they want throughout the party, and that having the drinks off to the side frees up more space on the main dinner table.  I made strawberry lemonade, by just adding some strawberry puree to regular lemonade.  It was quick and easy and so yummy!

My fun little plastic donkeys had to make an appearance.  They’re just from the dollar store, but such a fun touch for a fiesta and so perfect for our party theme.

And since it was a hot sunny night, we also served some water in pretty glass bottles.  Another great option would be some Mexican beer with some fresh lime wedges.  Or a tequila tasting could be a great idea too.

Backyard Fiesta Menu

Now on to the menu!  I wanted a casual feel for our party food, and guests to be able to help themselves, and eat and talk and eat and talk the night away.  So, I set up the taco bar down the centre of the table.  It was so delicious, that we really did sit and eat and talk, and eat and talk and eat again.  We had a great selection of party food that the guests all loved.

From the grill for our main course, we had some grilled peppers and mushrooms, along with grilled chicken and steak.  We used a little taco seasoning for a dry rub on the meat, and it was simple and so, so good.  We made sure everything was sliced and easy to add to plates before we served it.

I also added lots of fresh veggies, like tomato, avocado, shredded lettuce, limes, and cilantro.  The food added lots of bright colour to the table, and looked so delicious arranged on the different cutting boards.

I made some guacamole, and we had some chips too.

We also had some Mexican rice, and refried beans, along with bowls of sour cream, salsa, caso cheese dip, and my homemade baked beans.  It was the perfect backyard menu, and fun being outside together grilling, and then feasting.

Backyard Fiesta Dessert

For our Mexican party dessert table, I set up a fun ice cream sundae bar at the edge of the patio, with delicious Mexican inspired toppings.  We used a low bench that worked perfectly, so that everyone could easily help themselves.

The bowls made amazing ice cream bowls, especially after we fried them in hot oil and coated them in cinnamon sugar!  They were crunchy and sweet and the perfect way to enjoy ice cream with grilled pineapple.  Everyone raved about them, and they’re an easy recipe to make.

Along with the cinnamon sugar tortilla bowls and grilled pineapple, we had a few other yummy additions.  You can’t have an ice cream sundae bar without ice cream!  We had some coconut ice cream and vanilla ice cream, both flavors worked really well with the pineapple and cinnamon sugar.  To help keep the ice cream from melting, I didn’t bring it out until serving time.  I used a metal pail and filled it with ice, and then placed the ice cream containers on top.  This really helped to keep it cold and helped keep it from melting.  

We also served some different toppings for the sundaes.  I toasted some coconut flakes in a dry skillet.  These went so well with the other flavors.  We also served some caramel sauce.  Use store bought or try our homemade caramel sauce recipe here.  And we also included some sprinkles in all our party colors of red, pink, and orange.  I picked these up at the bulk store, and they were a great colorful addition that the kids especially loved.  

Guests could help themselves to make their own ice cream sundae with whatever toppings they liked.  Everyone had a great time making their own sundaes, and even going back for seconds.  If you were celebrating a birthday party, you could add candles to the ice cream for the birthday boy or girl, or serve some birthday cake as well.

It was a great way to finish off our fiesta theme party.

This was the ultimate fiesta, with endless fun and great food.  I hope these Mexican party ideas have inspired you for your own Mexican fiesta theme party.  Whether it’s birthday themed, or to celebrate Mexican culture, the festive colors and incredible food are perfect for celebrating and create such a happy atmosphere.  All that was missing was the mariachi band!  Thanks for coming on this figurative trip with us.  Viva la fiesta!

With an amazing Backyard Fiesta like this one, life really is a party!

More Inspiration

You might also like our Valentine’s Day Fiesta here.  Check out the DIY party decor ideas, and fun Valentine’s Day games, as well as an incredible fiesta menu with recipe links from this family friendly Valentine’s Day party

Also check out our Mexican Fiesta Dinner Party here.

You might also like our Backyard Pizza Party here.  Create a make your own pizza party in your own backyard using a gas outdoor pizza oven.  Different pizza ideas included, plus a dessert pizza idea you’ll love.