So my daughter, Clara, and her two best friends are turning 16 within the span of a week. They are notorious for not being able to plan anything in advance... so they've just now decided that they would indeed like to have a joint Sweet 16 Party at our house the first weekend in November (I've been asking them about this for a month now!). It will be an all girls party. Any ideas of how to make this low key special? They don't want anything extravagant, but they don't want it to be just another Saturday night hanging out with friends type of thing either. A few years ago for her birthday, I set up a DIY photo booth here for her party, I could do that again with Sweet 16 props. We also have an outdoor fireplace, so we thought s'mores could be fun too. I'm going to talk to the other two moms today to start planning, but I would love some ideas to get started! Thanks!!
Great timing!!! My dd is turning 16 in December, Christmas day actually. She is already asking if we are doing a Sweet 16. So post ideas as I am in need!!
@BevG So jealous that you get to plan in advance! I guess the plus side of last minute, is once we get started, there's no time for them to change their minds!
My neighbor had one at her house - it was set up under a tent outdoors, but a wild storm blew the tent down just before the party got started. They ended up in their finished basement and the girls still had a blast. They catered, had a DJ, had a photo booth/prop thing like you mentioned, a smoke machine, and a fun shiny disco ball - they also had lots of glow stick items so when the lights were turned down it was fun to take selfies and videos of them dancing. Might not be quite as low key as you had in mind? My daughter went to another sleepover sweet 16 last weekend - they had fire pit and fireworks (but the cops ended up at their house! lol! they only had 1 or 2 more to set off and the cops let them finish quickly.) Another sweet 16 sleepover my daughter went to - they had a direct sales jewelry co come in - Origami Owls and they each made a custom filled locket pendant. Maybe something like that where the goodie bag gift is part of the party? They all were fun parties!
I was so glad that my DD chose a trip over a party! I hate organizing parties. What about a night at a fun local hotel with a pool or something like that?
Well, we planned my daughter's Sweet 16 in advance! It was a luau, with a photo booth, and Hawaiian food. Hubby played DJ and I got a photo booth company to do their thing. I got to design the sheets the photos got put into, which was pretty cool! We used all my photoshop skills for that party, making the invitations and thank you notes match the designs from the photo booth... I digress... My daughter's friends loved Karaoke, which turns a low key good time into a raging wild party in 3 minutes flat! I love the glow sticks idea, and think that is brilliant!! My daughter's friends always got a kick out of drinking from "adult glasses" so I sometimes did apple cider in plastic flutes, or my mom's wedding punch in plastic margarita glasses, and they would all pretend to be so grown up... Makeovers with photo boothing is always fun. Also, one time at a lock-in, we had a midnight fashion show, where the girls got in groups of 3 and had masking tape and newspapers to create amazing fashions on each other for a runway type show. It was SO FUN and AMAZING to see what the kids could do once they got past the absurdity of creating with such bizarre materials, lol! My neighbor across the street had a progressive dinner for her daughter's sweet 16. She had appetizers at one friends house, salads at another, main dish in her back yard (served in pie tins), and dessert in my front yard. Every place had twinkle lights, and it was really cool. At each stop, people were able to give a toast to the birthday girl and talk about how much she has grown, etc... When the same girl graduated high school, she had a joint party, and it was really neat that they had a bunch of speakers chosen to talk about each of the girls and the two of them together! (Maybe you could surprise them with a "This is your life" kind of presentation- surprise speakers, and photos of their lives, people coming to talk about how much they love them or on video talking about them if they can't make it. That would be so special. A bit of work, but really where it counts!) Huggles!! ~Sarah~
I'm no help. My daughter was at camp for her 16th birthday and they celebrated there. But I'm thinking food, food and food. Sometimes not having things too structured can be fun. I'll pop back her if I think of something.
Glow sticks could be fun! You had so many good ideas but I'm not sure I can pull them off in Chicago in November! If Clara had a summer birthday, we definitely plan a party on our rooftop deck... but I can't count on the weather the later we get into fall. I like the necklace idea... I'll ask the girls about that. I actually love planning parties... I just hate the day of and the actual party! lol! Oh... that's a good idea! I'll talk to the girls about that one! That's another good idea! Yes... lots of food! Last party Clara had here we got food from Chipotle catering, there were 16 girls coming and the minimum order from Chipotle was for 20. I thought we would have lots of leftovers... but, man, those girls could eat!! And I'm with you on not being too structured. I more just want to have some things available for them to do... like the photo booth so it seems a little different than a typical Saturday night. Maybe it's just as simple as setting the dining room table for them to eat at?
My motto when the kids were little was the 3 Bs: Balloons, bubbles and balls. Give the kids those and they'll be entertained forever. Simple, but it worked and there wasn't any huge planning involved. So, set a fun table. Get a bunch of balloons and let them go to the ceiling letting the ribbons hang down. Get a fun cake for a centerpiece and those silly blow-outs scattered around for them to use (my kids still love those things!). Have a make-your-own-sundae station. Get a bunch of bubbles and let them at it . Hide a bunch of things around the house like candy, nail polish, hair ties, those silly glasses with the noses attached and such, and have them find them (i.e., I let a couple of dads hide little green army men around the first floor for the kids to find. The kids loved it and we were still finding those things months afterwards!) Rent/watch a movie. Just ask your DD what little things she likes and go from there. And I simply adore the idea of a photo booth! Those things are so fun!
my daughter and her bff turned 16 within weeks of each other so a joint party made sense. We had all the guests wear black & white and the 2 birthday girls wore bright pink. All the decorations were pink - including the M&Ms (which is great due to breastcancer month in Oct) I ordered flashing pink ice cubes to place in the punch bowls - we rented our neighborhood's clubhouse for a VERY reasonable price and it was great
I don't have anything to add except to say that whatever you do, they'll have a great time! Actually, I will say that kaoroke could make for great photos!
Oh how fun! I told the girls about this and they're now adding pink to their colors! And you're right... I should be able to find pink candy and stuff since it's breast cancer awareness month. We have made great progress and are pulling together a simple but elegant party! We have got to get an invite out ASAP, so I used a photo I took of the three of them from a "photo shoot" we did this summer in Michigan. Just added one of Just Jaimee's gold glittery alphas and some text. Printing them as 4x6 photos at a one hour photo (Walgreens if I have to, but looking for a better option). I happen to have 4x6 photo envelopes on hand. So the girls should be able to hand them out on Monday. They decided on baked pastas (something with tomato sauce and meat and a baked mac and cheese) with salad and bread for dinner.... so the other two moms and I will split those up. They kept the invite list small, so we should be able to decorate the table really nicely and use my wedding crystal which hasn't seen the light of day in years. They don't want a cake... just donuts. That makes things super easy. They want a candy buffet which will take some doing, but is still reasonable. And then the DIY photo booth (I forgot to ask about karaoke). The fun with the photo booth is that it's just with my camera, so they take a TON, then I switch out the cards after a while. When I switch them out, I put them in a shared album which my daughter puts up on the Apple TV... they go through them and laugh hysterically! So it's kind of two activities in one! Now I'm off down the rabbit hole of party decorations on Amazon.... so many choices! Thanks for all of your suggestions!
