Custom Photo Party Hats

the idea

Create custom party hats printed with old photos of the guest of honor at different ages

custom photo party hats showing a man now and as a baby

birthday party photo cone hats showing a senior man now and as a young man in military uniform

the how

Choose single photo or collage style design
Upload photos of the guest of honor at different stages of their life to print on the hat
Add text or patterns if required
Hand out to guests on arrival
Alternatively, leave on a table in the welcome area and display a printable ‘Please Take One’ sign (see link below)

two women wearing party cone hats with an old photos of their birthday girl as a young woman and girl on them

birthday party photo cone hats showing a senior woman now and as a young child

the why

This Idea

Personal; celebrates the guest of honor if a fun and unique way
Photo-worthy; a great photo-op for guests to share and tag on social media
Custom photo; opportunity to show the guest of honor when they were younger or at different ages ‘through the years’
Funny; guests may not have seen funny or embarrassing old photos of the guest of honor
Surprise; a great way to surprise the guest of honor
Keepsake; creates a fun keepsake that will bring back memories
Unusual; a less common party idea to impress guests
Inexpensive; a cost-effective party idea that won’t blow your budget
Bestseller; an idea that’s proved popular with my site’s visitors

anniversary party photo cone hats showing the the happy couple now and on their wedding day

two young women wearing party cone hats with an old photo of a man on them

party activities

Engagement; essential for creating atmosphere and ensuring people have a good time
Circulation; activities encourage circulation, which raise energy levels
Atmosphere; keeping guests moving, exploring, and discovering creates a lively atmosphere
Mingling; activities help prevent guests clustering in corners with people they came with
Flow; giving guests things to engage with diffuses crowds, prevents bottlenecks, and helps flow
Introductions; allows guests who arrive alone or don’t know many people to connect with others
Ice-breaker; arrival activities let guests ease in gently before walking into a room full of people
Conversation-starters; funny, creative, or quirky activities give guests things to talk about
Interactive; allows guests to participate so everybody feels included
Bonding; a shared experience creates a bond and unites different groups as one; people that are all important to the guest of honor
Entertainment; activities keep guests entertained and prevents boredom or leaving early
Distraction; gives guests an excuse to change the subject or extract themselves from awkward conversations
Memorable; gives guests something to talk about, photograph, share, and remember
Experiential; guests leave feeling as though they’ve had an experience

birthday party photo cone hats showing a senior woman now and as a younger woman in the 1970s

ADVICE FROM A PRO

Matt’s tip

“These are so much more fun if you use a mix of old photos showing the guest of honor at different stages of their life, rather than making them all the same. Therefore, I would purchase these in smaller batches so you can do say 10 with a baby photo, 10 as young adult, and 10 using a present day photo etc.

If you need to convert old printed photos to digital format, check out the links below.

These hats look great in black and white or color and I like to embellish them with a little sticky gift bow; silver works best with black & white photos or gold with color photos.

To ensure the best placement of the image once the hat is folded into a cone shape, use a landscape ratio photo that has some background / space either side and above the guest of honor’s face.

To upload and layout your image click the ‘Single Photo Hats’ button below then follow these steps:

These instructions are for editing on a desktop computer, steps may be different on a mobile device.

Click on the photo hat > ‘Edit Design’ > Click ‘Layers’ tab on far left menu

Click ‘Background: Images & Text’ drop down > Place cursor on photo layer here and delete

Click ‘My Files’ table on left > ‘Upload Image’ > Then stretch corners of your image to fit the template

If you want to lay text over the image (optional), click ‘Layers’ > Front: Images & Text > ‘Text’ tab on left

The important thing to remember is to add the main image in the ‘Background’ layer so it fills the entire cone shape.“

where to buy

SHOP photo party hats

For more info and prices check out the links below

where to buy

alternative party hats

Personally, I prefer the single-image style photo hats because I think one larger photo looks more stylish and is easier to see.
However, you can also get busier collage-style photo hats (below) or more fancy felt ones (below)
For more info and prices check out the links below

photo collage hats

felt hats