How To Plan a Sweet 16
Throwing a sweet 16 birthday party for your daughter can be an extremely enjoyable experience, but it can also be quite challenging if dont know how to plan a sweet 16. There are many things to consider when planning this special event, such as picking a date, finding the right venue, selecting the color scheme, and event vendors for such a big event.
In this detailed guide, we will help how to plan a sweet 16 step by step, so that your daughter’s sweet 16 birthday party is truly memorable!
Pick a date for the Sweet Sixteen Party
First, for your sweet 16 party plan you will need to decide on a date for the big event. This may seem like a daunting task, but it is important to choose a date that works well for both you and your daughter.
How long ago do u have to plan sweet 16? Ideally, the party should fall somewhere between two and six months after or before her 16th birthday. So I would start planning 12 months before the event.
Budget
it’s time to set a budget for your daughter’s sweet sixteen party.
Sweet 16 parties can cost as low as $500 to as high as $25000. So you can have any party style or size depending on your budget. We have a guide of the total costs for a sweet 16 party right here. That guide can help how to plan a sweet 16 on a budget.
How Big Will the Birthday Party Be?
Next step on your sweet 16 party plan, you need to figure out how many guests will there be at the party.
This guest list will affect a lot of things going forward with your planning and budget.
20-40 party guests you are having a small party.
60-70 party guests you are having a medium-sized party.
80-100 party guests you are having a big party.
On average, Sweet 16’s fall on the 40-60 guest range.
You need to check with your daughter how many close friends she plans on inviting and add your friends and family members to this number, plus your husband’s friends and his side of the family.
Your daughter’s close friends will be the minority at the party, most of the people on your guest list will be adults.
Picking Venue
A very important part of your sweet 16 party plan is the venue.
There are several options available for a sweet sixteen party. A simple google search will give a quick overview of halls near your location.
If they have a website you can leave a message asking for quotes. The venue salesperson will reach back at you with phone calls or email messages.
But don’t limit yourself to your area when looking to rent a hall.
Again, using Google but this time on ‘Google Maps’ type ‘event hall’ search nearby towns and cities. You can look at photos and read reviews to give you a feel about the venue before contacting them. This can help you if you plan a sweet 16 party on a budget.
Tour the Venue
So you got contacted by a venue and the price and accommodations sounded good on the email/phone call. The venue salesperson will arrange a tour of the event space with you. Most venues will be pretty much all the same so here are the most important things you should be looking out for.
These are somewhat important for your sweet 16 party plan.
What is the stage area for the birthday girl? She will seat there for most of the night in her throne chair. Is this area clean and nice-looking? Your guest’s eyeballs will be staring at this area for a long time because most of the Sweet 16 ceremonies will take place there.
How is the dance floor? The father-daughter dance is the highlight of the Sweet 16 party and this area needs to look neat and clean.
Bathrooms? Take a look at the condition of the bathrooms your guests are going to use throughout the night. A dirty old bathroom will bring down the overall positive experience for your guests.
Entrance? Keep a lookout for wheelchair accessibility. Some of your guests may be of senior age, and too many stairs will be a problem for them.
Parking? Take a look at the parking situation outside. As I stated above, most of the guests for a Sweet 16 party are adults. Where are they going to park? Is there enough parking available?
Setup time? Find out from the venue how much time you have to set up and remove decorations. Most venues will give three or even four hours to install your decorations. That should be ample time for any size or type of decor. But on rare occasions, some venues will only give you only an hour to install decorations. Every venue will give you an hour to remove your decor after the party is over.
Picking Party Theme
Plan for the sweet 16 party theme? This will mostly be the birthday girl’s decision. There are plenty of sweet sixteen themes she can pick to make her party unforgettable.
So many that it’s impossible to list them all here, but you can find the most popular sweet sixteen themes here.
If your daughter is still having a hard time picking a sweet sixteen party’s theme. Just pick a theme around her favorite colors. It’s the most common type of Sweet 16. Plus, it’s easier to find decorations when there is no theme and only colors.
Vendor Decorator or DIY Decorations
The hardest physical part of how to plan a sweet 16 party. You need to decide if you are going to decorate the hall yourself or have a vendor decorate the hall for you.
If decorating the hall yourself you will have to have some knowledge of setting up backdrops, taping things around, and blowing balloons. You can buy decoration items on Amazon or rent them on Facebook Marketplace.
You can find decor vendors by searching for ‘decorators’ on google. You can also just look for the decor items on Facebook Marketplace and message the seller. Ask them if they can decorate the halls too. You can also ask the venue for their vendor list. That list will have decoration vendors on it.
You will have about 3-4 hours to set up the hall before your guests arrive.
Throne Chair
The sweet sixteen Thorne chair comes from a vendor and you can not do it yourself.
A team of 2 will bring the chair to the rented venue in a van. The decorating vendor will most of the time have this item covered for you.
Birthday Girl Sweet 16 Dress
We have an extensive guide on Sweet sixteen dresses here.
You can buy sweet 16 dresses at several online stores, but it’s best to buy at a local bridal store.
By buying locally, your daughter can try many dresses out and find the perfect fit.
You can also look for only-used-once dresses on Facebook Marketplaces from other teens’ Sweet 16 events.
Food
Some venues offer buffet service for all your guests, but for most venues, you have to bring your food.
You will need to assign a family member to do all the cooking and purchase several disposable chafing servers with covers plus candle fuel cans.
You can also hire catering services that will do all the cooking. You can assign someone to go and pick it up when it’s ready.
DJ Vendors
You can google for DJ vendors in your area, or search on Facebook Marketplace for DJs.
Websites like bark.com offer a range of DJ vendors you can hire for the birthday party.
You can also try finding DJ’s thought friends and family.
The venue will also have a list of recommended DJ vendors you can hire.
You can rent a speaker system from a Rent-A-Center you can plug any smartphone into the speaker and have a playlist play music throughout the whole event. Don’t forget to rent a microphone too for speeches and announcements.
Photographer
Same info as the DJ above. A professional photographer for a Sweet 16 party is not cheap!
If are struggling to find an affordable one. I recommend hiring an amateur photographer looking for practice. Look around your circle of friends and family members.
Invitations
About 3 months before the event you need to invite people by sending out the sweet sixteen invitations to all your guests.
Websites like Zazzle let you design your sweet sixteen invitation cards. They even have premade Sweet 16 invitations so all you have to do is change the address, date, dress code, and birthday girl name.
Party favors
You can order them online but most likely you will have to do these yourself about a week before the event.
Cake pops, sweets, or trinkets with sweets inside decorative bags.
Birthday Cake
About a month before the event you will have to find a local baker to bake the birthday cake.
Most bakeries will require you to place your order at least one week in advance.
Transportation (Optional)
You hire a limo or a party bus to transport the birthday girl to the special occasion.
Party Planning 1 Month Before
Buy a new dress for yourself and a new suit for your husband.
Order the birthday cake.
Write your speeches and practice for the special Sweet 16 ceremonies.
Party Planning 2 Weeks Before
Check your RSVP guest list to get an accurate count of your guests to order the appropriate amount of food and party favors.
Check with the venue, decorators, vendors, and catering service to see if they are all ready for your upcoming event or if there are any upcoming issues.
Make preparations to book a hairdresser for a few hours before the event for yourself and especially the birthday girl.
Party Planning 1 Week Before
Assign roles to people in your team. Decorating, cooking, and setting up are all important tasks that need to be done before the party can start.
Finalize the party timeline and make sure that everyone knows what they need to do.
Make sure everyone knows what they need to do and when they need to do it.
This will help things run smoothly on the day of the party.
Big Day
On the day of the party, make sure that you have everything you need.
Go to the hall to check on the decoration vendors. They are always the first vendors there.
Go to the hairdresser with the birthday girl before or after checking with the decorators at the hall.
Check with the person assigned to make the food or to get the food from the catering service.
Help your daughter with her dress and any other issues she may have. She will be very nervous this is a very important day in your daughter’s life.
The cameraman should be ready in the hall so there is no need to check on them. They require little time to set up so don’t worry if it seems he is coming late.
DJs do require some time to set up their equipment, so I would check on them if they are running late.
Be at the event hall at least 30 minutes before the party starts. The birthday girl can be a little bit late but you need to be on the ground to make sure everyone and everything is in place.
ENJOY THE EVENT!!!
Party is over!
Make sure that everyone helps take down all of the decors, and clean the trash out.
Have some room in your car. There’s always leftover food and party favors. They cannot stay in the hall even if you don’t want them.
Take some extra trash bags. All venues let you use their trash barrels but won’t give you extra bags if you need them.
Make sure the people who are supposed to pick up the Thorne chair are on time.
This guide should help on how to plan a sweet 16.