Winter Wonderland -16yr- Photo Booth

Hey, my name's Tori and I love parties! I've always wanted to be an event planner so when I realized that my best friends Sweet 16 was approaching I jumped at the opportunity. My friends name is Maria and her Birthday was on January 3rd, 2013. Since most people were still on holiday break we had the party on the 12th (Saturday).   With the help of our friends and her family we threw the best Sweet 16 ever.

INVITATIONS: I made over 50 invitations on Microsoft word and got them printed at Staples. The invites were black, with blue and white snowflakes and white and silver font.  We also put silver and white glitter around the border and then rolled it up into a scroll and tied baby blue ribbon around each one. It read: You're invited to Maria's Sweet 16 Winter wonderland! It gave the time, address, phone number and dress code- guests were asked to dress semi-formal and to wear black, silver, white, or blue (which were the colour themes). We also invited people on the internet by making a Facebook group (it worked, and got people really excited).  This was also great because the pictures taken at the party were easily uploaded to the group where everyone could see them.

VENUE: Luckily Maria's mom has a friend who owns a banquet hall that was a decent size so we went there. They provided us with a kitchen, tables, chairs etc. The banquet was beautiful with white chandeliers, and hardwood floors which only added to the winter wonderland theme.

DECORATIONS: Since Christmas had just passed we had tons of decorations to choose from. The colours used were white, blues, silver, and clear.  Because of the set colour options it was easy to go to the party store and pick out plates, cups, napkins, and items in those colours.  The room was dark and we hung white Christmas lights up everywhere. We bought large, clear, plastic snowflakes from the dollar store and hung them by strings from the ceiling - it looked beautiful. We also had access to smoke machine which looked awesome when the lights were off.

In the room there were 8 round tables with bright blue table cloths. Each table had a cluster of three balloons with different colours from our theme (clear, blue, silver etc.) Party Packagers had a great deal so we were able to buy balloons in groups of 12 for $15. Also, each table had a blue or white centerpiece, blue and silver confetti and snow covered pine cones.  All the chairs also had white covers on them. We put clusters of balloons everywhere and around the head table we had giant 16 balloons that were silver.

The décor looked great but another element we were able to include was a photo booth. The guests enjoyed taking pics. Inside and we supplied them with props. We included blue boas, silver and blue necklaces, moustaches, blue afros, white and black top hats, and even happy birthday sunglasses. It was so funny and the pictures turned out great. 

FOOD: Maria’s mother happens to be a professional chef, so the food was amazing.  For appetizers we had; meatballs with parmesan (snow balls), quiche, white chocolate chip cookies, rice krispies, potato chips, spring rolls, churros and Spanish treats (she’s from Dominican Republic) marshmallows, blue coloured candy and a lot of other blue and white coloured food. For dinner we went buffet style to accommodate the 60+ people who were at the party.  Dinner included chicken, garden salad, bread, pasta, and samosas. The drinks were the typical party drinks coke, sprite, water, and punch served in clear martini glasses.  However, the dessert was the best part.

CAKE: The cake was a simple blue and white ice cream cake, and she served over 80 cupcakes all with different designs. The cupcakes were vanilla, red velvet, and chocolate and the icing colours ranged from teal, to royal blue, white, silver, and baby blue. It was beautiful and we got some great ideas by searching different cupcakes up online. I happened to have a snow cone maker at home, and to go with the Winter Wonderland theme we served blue snow cones as well. It was unique and everyone loved them.

MISCELLANEOUS: The party was from 6:30  12:00. The first half hour was a chance for people to mingle and arrive and take pictures in the photo booth, 7-8 was dinner and after that we had a special performance. Me, Maria, and 3 of our other friends are in a dance class together so we ended up changing into our costumes during the party and performing our dance after dinner. It went amazingly and the guests enjoyed it we tweaked the choreography so that Maria was in the middle. Maria also wore silver sequined shorts instead of the regular black shorts like the rest of us.  

After that Maria cut her cake and then had a father daughter dance that got everyone emotional. To Marias surprise, I had secretly put together a gift for her that was shown at the party. I love making films so I got at least 40 of our friends, her family, and even some of her teachers to wish her a Happy Birthday! I edited it together and played her favourite song in the background (Miss Independent by Ne-Yo). Tons of people including were crying and loved the video.

By the time we did all of that it was 8:30 and we spent the rest of the night dancing.  We had dance competitions, and the DJ was great.  It’s best to play a wide variety of music - not just what you like so everyone would get on the dance floor. We all had a blast and it was the talk of the school the next day.  I suggest picking a colour choice because it makes things much simpler and it usually ends up looking a lot more put together.  

FAVOURS:  For favours we order customized M&M’s with a picture of her face on it from a website. The M&M’s were blue (of course) and put into little baggies, the teens loved that. Her little sister also made cute little thank you notes with blue construction paper sand glitter.

It was a great party!