Birthday Bash -13yr- Party Planning Details

This is an idea for a great 13th birthday party but trust me this also works for 14th, 15th, or 16th. So lets get started! 

Step 1. Pick a theme.  Your theme should be 2-3 of your favorite colors. Some nice combinations are light pink, gold, and silver; light blue, gold, and silver; silver, gold, and white; light orange, pale yellow, and light pink; purple, black and silver, 

Step 2. Decide weather or not you are having your party with a friend. 13 birthdays are fun to have with a friend because first off the prices are lower because your family splits it with the other person's family. On the other hand people might be somewhat annoyed that they have to go out and buy two expensive gifts. 

Step 3. Location. Decide where you would like to have your party. Great locations for a birthday bash are: a hall, a clubhouse, a country club, a hotel, a community rec center, your own house/backyard, or even a gym (some local gyms have party rooms) 

Step 4. Invitations. For invitations you have so many options! Some very pretty yet slightly expensive options are: go to a local stationary/card store and buy shimmery card stock in one of your theme colors, using a computer program such as Microsoft Word scan your information onto your cards in a pretty font in another one of your theme colors. An inexpensive way of making cute invitations is to take colored construction paper or card stock and use a gel pen to write your info. Then tie it up with a pretty ribbon (these are usually hand delivered) On your invitations you should write the occasion, the date and time, the location, and the attire 

Step 5. Decorations. At the entrance of your ballroom/grand hall you should have a large and beautiful balloon arch (this should only consist of balloons in your theme colors). Fill up about 100-200 balloons with helium and tie silver ties to the end, then let them float to the ceilings. Blow up about 100-150 balloons with regular air and strategically place them around the room on the floor. Depending on the number of guests, set up as many as needed, round tables around the room, cover these with a cloth table cloths and surround them by chairs, a great idea is to drape white fabric over the chairs and tie one of your theme colors colored ribbon around it.

For centerpieces put a color tinted glass vase in the middle and fill it with water, now put one on your theme color flowers in it (if one of your theme colors is unnatural for roses like green, purple, orange, or black there is an easy solution. A week before the party place many white roses in a vase of water, in the water put many drops of whatever color food dye after a few days the roses will have absorbed the dye and will have changed color!)A great and more mature replacement for streamers is to use Chiffon or Silk or Satin or Velvet or even a shimmery cotton and drape it around the walls.

One last thing is at the entrance of the party room you can place a table with small cards indicating seating. EX. If someone named Mary is attending your party and you want her to sit at table 16, you would place a small card with the text: MARY table 16 or MARY AND FAMILY table 16. 

Step 6. Food. There are two major options you could have for food. The more expensive option is to give each person a menu and have a private chef prepare the food. On this menu some options could be for appetizers: queshes, egg rolls, deviled eggs; for entrée it could be steak, pasta, salmon; for desert it could be cake, eclairs, cream puffs. A less expensive option is more like a buffet style. For this you could have plates of microwavable sushi that look and taste fresh and easy bake pizza (so it looks freshly baked instead of straight out of the box.)

Don't forget a cake and for the second option as people are clearing onto the dance floor after dinner some staff could set up about three chocolate fountains with assorted snacks for dipping such as: graham cracker, chopped fruit, and marshmallow. 

Step 7. Cake. You want your cake to be big and bold. Consider getting your cake from a private bakery such as the ones on television shows. The colors of your cake should match your theme colors. Also you could do a candle lighting ceremony where you say a short speech about important people in your life and ask them to light a candle. Such as: mom you have always been there for me and I will never forget you. I am what I am because of you, please come to the stage and light candle no.1.  

Step 8. Activities at the party. After dinner something great to wind down with is dancing, at a party people tend to be less shy and can really let loose and be themselves. Don't forget an awesome DJ!  

Step 9. Favors. Since the guests are both boys and girls the best favor is a few chocolate bars and a thank you note.  I really hoped I helped you have an absolutely amazing birthday party!!!!! "