Ready to Tango Party -16yr- Latin Dance Teacher

Invitations: I found a website where I could send invitations, so I picked one with latin dancers dancing around in the background while the party information scrolling across the screen.  I called my friends and told them the party information over the phone.

Decorations: My parents rented a big tent from a contracting company for the night, just in case it rained. (My party was being held in my backyard.)We set up four long tables under the tent and covered them in pink tablecloths. Down the center I placed peach roses, beaded necklaces in different colors, confetti, and those colored rocks that are usually put in the bottom of fish bowls. It was really pretty.

The color scheme was pink, red, yellow, and orange as I felt those colors went with the latin theme. We hung a net above the tables and filled it with balloons in the color scheme so it looked like they were floating above the eating area. Then we hung white Christmas lights so it made a really pretty glow.

Prior to the party, I had printed pictures of latin dancers off the internet and, by hand, blew them up on to black paper, to make life size silouettes of latin dancers. I put these on the sides of the tent. In the windows, I put colored life-size pictures of a couple dancing and another of three men wearing sombreros and playing instruments. I found these at my local dollar store.

On the food table, I put a red tablecloth and bought sombreros and morracas to place around the food. Later I turned a couple sombreros upside down and put chips in them.

Food: Snacks- several different kinds of potato chips, pretzels, and tortilla chips with various toppings to put on them (salsa, sour cream, cheese, guacamole, cooked ground beef) and a big bowl of punch to drink.

Supper- Tacos/Burritos (Buffet-Style so everyone could make their own), green salad with various dressings to choose from and virgin margaritas. Cake- a boughten ice cream cake from Dairy Queen with a cartoon picture of me in a latin dress.

Activities: I have lots of different groups of friends that vary greatly in age and in personalities, so I knew not all of them would enjoy it if we played too many games. Because a lot of them didn't know each other, we started off the party by playing a spanish name game. Then we got into groups and each group got a list of Spanish words and they had to guess what they meant. The group who got the most words right the fastest won.

After that, I let my guests mingle and get to know each other. I have a swing set, a trampoline, a fire pit, and a basketball hoop, so there were lots of things to do. I had latin music playing in the background. My parents hired a latin dancer to come teach us how to dance, so later on, when she showed up, we quickly moved the tables (we had already eaten at this point) and she set up her stuff in the tent.

We partnered up and she taught us to merengue, cha cha, salsa and tango. It was really fun. The girls outnumbered the guys by far, but most girls were fine with dancing with each other. I was surprised how much everyone got into it.

Later we had a pinata (in the shape of a chilly pepper) and a lot of people were excited because they hadn't broken a pinata in years. Prizes: The prizes for the word game were flower hair pieces for the girls and a boutinere for the boys.

Favors: I didn't give out favors, but later on in the week, I sent out hand-made thank you cards that match the theme.

People still talk about my party and are excited to see what I do this year. The overall cost of the party was about $500, but we got $150 back when we brought back the tent. The latin dancer cost $10 per person and I had 20 guests, so this party could be a lot cheaper with less people. Hope you like my idea.