Super Sixteenth Birthday Party

I had so much fun planning the big, double 16th birthday party for my twins. After spending weeks going down the "Pinterest rabbit hole" where I'd pin photos after photos of party decoration ideas, themes, food, designs and other details, I narrowed it all down and made a party plan!

Since the birthday party was for a boy and a girl I didn't want it to be confused with a Sweet Sixteen with a lot of pink, so I chose neutral colors of seafoam green, royal blue, white and silver. 

My first DIY craft idea was of using various size"16" numbers for decoration. I purchased flat, large wooden numbers at my local craft store. Then I pulled photographs from our albums, and photocopied them at a reduced size - (or, you can print out photos from your computer onto copy paper and reduce the size). I placed the photocopies on each large number and laid them down to cover the entire number. Using scissors, I trimmed off the edges and then used Mod Poge glue, followed instructions on the bottle, and decoupaged them onto each number. After  it completely dried, I hung the numbers on the party wall and then brought them in the house later for our study room as a cute memory keepsake.

I painted smaller numbers and hot-glued them to frames and placed some photos in them throughout the years. Lastly, I painted two other sets of numbers and stood them up on the tables.

The center focal point of the garage was used as a great space for the color theme. I created a table-scape using boxes, crates, cake pedestals, jars, turning them upside down and placed the desserts all on top.

Chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes from my local bakery made it simple and I purchased creative candles to top off their cupcake (my son is a Math guy). 

Party space. Every party needs a large space that won't cost a fortune. How about free? I cleaned out literally everything in my garage and put it in our backyard for the weekend. I swept and hosed down the ground until it was relatively clean. We a rented a few tables, folding chairs, table linens for more color, and of course a small sofa for the "lounge area". This doubled our party space!

To keep the party enclosed and private, we also rented a small party tent to add on to the garage. Here is a view from inside looking out. The tea light "candles" are actually battery-operated lights I purchased at my local craft store. I placed them on all the tables.

Balloons are creative and can give your party the final, special touch. Instead of a "photo booth" or "photo wall" I had our local balloon company make a "balloon wall" for one side of our garage. It was spectacular!

Lastly, what does every teenager really want for their birthday party? A silly, regular photo booth? No. Their own, personalized SnapChat geotag/geofilter? Yes.

For how to create, request, and pay for your own filter, visit the SnapChat page here. 

Lastly, they danced and ate for hours! I won't have to host a big birthday party for them until they turn 21!