22894

Purple Dance Party -16yr- Dinner and a DJ

June 2011

Tif in San Francisco, California, USA

Special Mention

Since my daughter's favorite color is purple, we decided to have a purple-themed sweet 16 party. Our family owns a steakhouse/seafood restaurant so we had the party in the banquet room there to cut down on costs. It was a great night and my daughter, as well as all her party guests, really enjoyed it! 

INVITATIONS: My daughter wanted to pick out the invitations herself, so she looked all over online for her favorite purple invitations. In the end, she picked a flat invitation with purple and pink polka dots with purple envelopes. The top of the invitation read: You're invited to a CELEBRATION!" Then it said that it was for "[my daughter's name]'s Sweet 16". After that it listed the party details such as the date time and location of the party. We sealed the envelope with silver sticker with colorful balloons on them. My daughter hand-delivered the invitations a month and a half before the party date. 

DECORATIONS: For decorations almost everything was purple. The dining table was U-shaped and my daughter sat at the middle facing the dance floor. We went to the local florist a week before the party and ordered a low and long head table centerpiece to put in front of her table setting. We also ordered a small wristlet corsage for her to wear. (They were both made with mainly purple flowers and a bit of pink.)

We also had 4 balloon centerpieces; 2 on each side of the U-shaped table. We bought silver gift box shaped balloon weights at the party store and ordered lavender and purple balloon bouquets to be tied to the weights. My daughter mixed purple and silver star confetti (also from the party store) and we sprinkled that onto the tables. We also had 2 more balloon bouquets on weights that were placed on the buffet tables.  

ACTIVITIES/GAMES: At the beginning of the party my daughter set up the guestbook that we bought at Hallmark on a small side table along with some colorful pens. We asked her friends to write and/or draw a little something in the book so that she would have something she would remember the party by. The guestbook was mainly signed at the start of the party while people were still arriving but it was also passed around during the end of dinner so that the people who hadn't signed it yet could sign it. By the end of the party it was filled with little memos from her friends.  

We had hired a DJ who played music throughout the entire party. He also took requests and everybody had fun with picking out songs for the DJ to play. After dinner everyone got up and danced on the dance floor. We turned down the lights and turned on a spinning disco ball. The kids loved it and many said it was the best part of the party.  

COSTUMES: My daughter wanted to wear a purple (of course) dress so we started looking for dresses a few months before the party. She wanted a dress that was cute but not too formal because most people coming would be in casual clothing. She ended up wearing a short purple floral dress with a black flower belt with flats (for dancing).  

FOOD/PARTY SNACKS: Food was one of the main parts of the party so we made sure to make it great. For appetizers that were set up at the beginning of the party we had fries mini fried shrimp and fruit. For drinks we had punch in a big plastic punch bowl as well as 2 liter bottles of Sprite and Coke. Water was also set up on the tables.   For the actual dinner I worked together with my daughter to create a menu. There was prime rib fried chicken a mixed greens salad mixed steamed veggies mashed potatoes and pasta in red sauce. It was set up buffet style and everyone got up and served themselves.  

Another big part of the party was the chocolate fountain. We looked around at chocolate fountain rentals but they were very expensive and were too big for the amount of people we were going to be serving anyways. We decided to buy our own "home-sized" chocolate fountain and chocolate for half the price of renting a bigger more expensive sized one. For dipping items we bought lots of strawberries marshmallows pretzel sticks and Rice Krispie Treats. We cut the Rice Krispie Treats in half so they would be bite sized.

We also bought bamboo skewers so that the dipping items could be stuck on the stick to be dipped in the fountain. We laid out the chocolate fountain dipping items (on trays) sticks paper plates and napkins on a separate table. It was a popular table during the party and tasted great! 

CAKE: Her birthday cake was simple but delicious. It was a full sheet sized strawberry shortcake. It was bordered by lots of sliced strawberries and had purple colored floral accents. It read: "Happy Sweet Sixteen [name of daughter]!" in purple cursive. It was topped with two candles - a purple 1 and 6. We served it on purple paper plates (that were also used for the chocolate fountain).  

FAVORS: I also worked together with my daughter to decide on party favors. She wanted something that included candy so that it wouldn't just be thrown in the trash two days later. We bought cone shaped candy buffet sets from the party store (in the wedding area). It included plastic cone shaped bags pre-cut white ribbon and round stickers that read "Thank You!". The stickers were cute but we wanted to make it more personalized so we ordered some (purple) personalized labels online that said "[name]'s Sweet 16" "Thanks for coming!" and had her first initial in the middle.

For candy we went to the candy store and bought two 5 lb. bags of M&Ms - one light purple and one purple. We mixed those together to make a light purple/purple mix. I helped my daughter put the favors together one day - we stuck the stickers on the plastic bags mixed the candy filled the bags and tied the tops with the white ribbon in a bow. It was a lot of work for favors but they looked very professional and cute! My daughter laid out the favors in a circular bowl. Towards the end of the party we brought out the party favors so that the guests could each get one to take home.

Everyone was very impressed with them and it was great way to end the party!  "

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