NYC Style Party -16yr- Hot Dogs & Knishes

On April 18 we had a sweet 16 birthday for my daughter Gabrielle at a hall in our area.  My daughter loves all things having to do with NYC so we decided to have a NYC theme party.  We decided to go a little crazy because she is the youngest so this will be our last sweet 16 in the family.  We hired a dj and booked the hall and then the fun began.  We planned for almost a year.  We were very excited.

We had her invitations made with Live from New York" it's Gabrielle's Sweet 16 on the front with a picture of time square.  The writing is on the marquee. We decided to go crazy with decorations.  My husband made a bridge that is 12 feet long so that all the guests could walk over it when they entered the party.  He made it out of plywood and plumbing pipes with plywood over the pipes to get the bridge effect.  He put lights on it because all bridges were lit up at night and the party was at night. He made it so the pipes popped out so we could transport it. 

We also bought metro card place cards so when the people got over the bridge they could pick up their place card and make their way to their seats. We made the centerpieces for the tables with stiff felt and foam core board. 

We made buildings out of the felt and cut statue of liberty heads out of the foam board.  We sprayed the liberty's head silver and stood it all on a silver painted cardboard cake round with the statue of liberty in the middle and the buildings surrounding it.  Because it was a kids party we also put styrofoam in the middle and added skewers with candy on them sticking out of the top of the centerpieces. 

Also on each table we printed out pictures of NYC area attractions and sights and put the table numbers on them and put them in a frame and put them on each table so everyone would know where to sit. 

For decorations we also purchased a black skyline border and used black paper underneath it for one wall and we purchased a NYC mural and a scene setter of NYC for two other walls.  We used the mural as a great back drop for pictures throughout the night. 

We had all the guests stand in front of the mural and took their picture for a nice take home gift from the party. We made chocolate sweet 16 lollipops for all the guests as well as candy tins with a NYC picture with the words "thanks for sharing my special day with me" on them.  My daughter wore a short dress in the beginning of the party to greet her guests then changed into her ball gown and was escorted into the hall with her godfather to the tune of New York New York. 

We tried to have some of the foods of New York also like the pretzels and hot dogs that are sold on the streets of NY.  We also had popcorn and knishes.  I made the sweet 16 candle holder that we used for the ceremony with strofoam and wood.  I also used a set of bridge bookends that I found and a set of battery operated lights to light up the bridge on the candle holder.  I also cut out her name out of the foam board and attached it to the candle holder.  You can find them on e-bay under sweet 16 candle holders too. 

On the cake I had a copy of her invitaion with the "Live from NY" on it and also a baby picture of Gabrielle. We had "gangster" hats on the table for all the guests to wear as well as glow necklaces glow bracelets and bead necklaces. 

I also thought of a cute idea for the birthday cards.  I wanted some sort of taxi cab for the party decoration but I couldn't find anything with a taxi cab on it so I bought a pinata of a car I ripped all the paper off of it I painted it yellow added checkers for the checkered taxi theme cut open the trunk and wrote on the license plate "please place cards here." 

It was a decoration for the present table and a great place to put the birthday cards.I bought almost all of the things for the party online. There are so many party sites out there that you could find almost everything you need.  I just look on yahoo or google and type in what I am looking for and most of the time I could find something similar to what I was looking for or I looked for photos for ideas. 

I hope this gives you some ideas for your sweet 16.  I hope you enjoy your party as much as Gabrielle enjoyed hers. "