Ideas for a 'Sweet Sixteen' for My Daughter in February...help!?

T.F. knows everyone in town- she has some great ideas!
Do you live in a subdivision with a nice club house at the pool area? I have been to some really nice parties in those locations, they usually have bathrooms, a small "kitchen" and plenty of room for sound equipment.

What about a "casino" party. We have been to several events where small banguet halls were decorated to look like a casino and the kids played various games. You can rent the poker tables and roulette machines.

Congratulations!! My daughter turns 15 at Christmas time. A surprise party sounds fun for Sweet 16.

We have 3-4 BIG parties a year. I currently have a Halloween/Fall party planned for 10/30.

In a couple of weeks, the party will be at our home. We have a very large wooded lot and it works well with a group of teens. We had an end of year party in June and it was great.

We hire DJ's from Bill Cody's Party Time Texas www.partytimetexas.com He has great DJ's. You can spend from $400ish up to thousands. We have worked with DJ's from both ends of his spectrum. There is one the teens especially like and I think I paid him $500 in June and will be paying about the same for him on 10/30.

My daughter's bday is 12/27 so the weather is very unpredictable. For those, we go to Geleneagles Country Club to have her party. MOST country clubs will rent a venue out for you even if you are not a member of the club. Granted, the $ might be a little more. We've been members for years and daughter's bday time happens to be in the midst of a very slow week, just after Christmas and gearing up for the New Years parties.

When we go to the club, we have foods that teens like....unlimited sodas, chicken fingers, mini pizzas, chocolate fountain. I think my cost per person was around $20+/- a couple of $. You do use the club catering services and staff.

Other venues could be a nice hotel banquet room, Rec center, some churches and public golf courses rent out areas as well.

When we have parties at our home, I serve small snacks. For Halloween Im's having assorted salsa's, cookies, etc, very simple. I have 2, 2 gallon thermos jugs. I keep one full of water and 1 full of lemonade. I also provide the 2 liter drinks and the teens serve themselves.

I like using the 2 liters sodas better because....last year, I had indivisual bottles of water and soda available and I was very irked to continue finding 1/2 or barely used bottles. It was WAY too much waste.

In June, I did a nacho bar and it was a hit with the kids. They came over a little earlier in June and I felt the need to have a little heavier appetizers than I do for 10/30.

Finally, one of the rules at the club if there is a teen party is to have an off duty police officer there to make sure things do not get out of hand. If someone leaves the party for some reason....THEY DO NOT COME BACK IN PERIOD. This is helpful so that things such as alcohol, tobacco, or worse drugs are not brought in.

I also have this rule when parties are at my house. For 10/30 I have 2 Allen police officers hired for the night. It is far worth the $200 for officers to have some security at my home and know that they will and can enforce law.

I am a bit nervous for the 10/30 party. One note to add is that MOST parents will not volunteer to help you in any way with chaperone. They drop off and pick up at the pick up time. I hired 2 officers for this party because at this age, friends talk and word gets out about a party and when I was checking my daughter's myspace and FB, teens were talking about her party. After seeing that, I got an extra officer because we will monitor how many teens come in and who is or is not invited. I have a detailed list with parent emails and phone numbers for the RSVP's so far.

Oh, and don't expect a lot of RSVP's. Most people ignore it and show up anyway. Manners have gone away for many.

We've never had an issue and teens know my rules before they come over. If they leave the party they are GONE.

I'm sorry for being too lengthy. I am use to doing this 2-4 times a year.

Good luck and don't forget to ENJOY yourself.

TF

S.,

We recently attended a wedding and one of the big hits of the evening was a photo booth. It was set up with a timer and guests had 2 minutes (i think) to dress up in the props provided (army helmet, boa, crown, masks, etc) pictures were taken and then printed out and provided for guests that evening. People could pose individually (with or without costume) or in groups and the bride got a cd of all the pictures that had been taken that evening. I think that might be a fun activity for a group of teens. We had discussed that a photo booth would be a great idea for an after prom party.
Good luck with the party!
S.

We took our kids to play broomball and they had a blast.
Most ice skaking rinks are set up for this. Just be prepared that it usually takes place kind of late. This is so family friendly that everyone can participate.

Hi S.,

I bet she would love our Glitter Art tattoos. These are great because they stay on for 5-7 days and they sparkle brillantly. They are appropriate for all ages (even teens) and genders.

My husband and I are professional Clowns living in Anna. We also offer facepainting, balloon sculptures, comedy magic shows,friendship bracelets, along with fun interaction and games. We've entertained at birthday parties and large events like the Plano Balloon Festival.

Our prices are very reasonable (we have four great kids of our own so we know how expensive things can get)and we do our best to work within a person's budget.

Please feel free to take a look at our website at www.freewebs.com/bubblesandwowza for samples of our work.

I know your daughter may not want a Clown at her party, we also perform as Happy Humans.

Give us a call at ###-###-#### if you have any questions at all.

Hope you have a great party whatever you decide to do.

Hope to hear from you,
K. Schmidt
Bubbles the Clown
Bubbles and Wowza, LLC

Hi S.!

We just threw my daughter a sweet sixteen party 2 weekends ago (her birthday was Oct. 12) and it exceeded our expectations!! I don't know the budget you have planned already, but after looking into several venues, my husband and I decided that the Spaghetti Warehouse was our best value. We did it at the Spaghetti Warehouse in Plano, Tx and it ended up costing us $340 to feed 25 people. The manager (Ed Ramey) prepared a special menu for us at a discounted rate for kids and adults and people had to order off that menu. They also have a very nice private room and the tables are set up in a horseshoe and we had awesome service throughout the night!! Also, the best part was that they offer a huge white screen that was set up for us and I put together a 25 min Powerpoint presentation/slideshow that we showed during dinner of my daughter growing up! It was a huge success. But you will need to bring your own projector and laptop to play it with...however, the setup was very simple and we had no problems. I told my daughter that we were going to a bridal shower and all of her friends and our family were already there at the restaurant and she walked in and was sooo surprised. You should video it no matter what!! It was priceless and she will always remember it. If you want to see pics or want more info, please let me know and I can send you a link of her pics. Good luck!!

Ps - If you have more of a budget to spend, I also looked into this venue located in Dallas. It looks really cool, but it's around $500 just to rent the space!!
Link: http://www.thequixoticworld.com/

-J.

What about a Paparazzi party? I work in the interior design industry and several of the furniture parties I have been to have had photo booths present and they are a huge hit. the party could be a costume party or you could have costumes available for them to dress up like different celebrities. Then let them pose for pictures in the photo booth. You could have current and past celebs. You could decorate with movie posters, fake movie tickets, red carpet, etc. and then put disposable cameras out for the kids to take candids. Have a collection basket at the exit so they turn in their cameras for developing. Then send out a snapfish or shutterfly slide show to each kid after the party so they can print pics they like at their own cost.
You could show a movie and serve movie type refreshments- candy, popcorn, nachos and of course- cake.:)
I know in Denton, the Pour House has a rentable room with tiered seating. It is intended for game watching parties, but you can show movies as well. It has doors to close off the room and keep the party private. I bet you could find other locations like this in DFW.

Also, it looks like the Oscars will be on TV in early March. You could possibly incorporate that into the date and it could be an Oscar Party instead of Paparazzi. :)

Good luck!