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Tips for planning an 18th birthday dance bash for under 1 grand?
The party is a Hollywood princess theme dinner dance. I found a cheap venue which is a church and my dress will be vintage. I am inviting 40 people. This is all I have to spend. What should I do for food and music? Party decorations?
Linens? Cake? Should I have floral centerpieces or just ditch them? Please don't tell me I should forget about it because 1 grand isn't enough. I really want this party to happen on my budget. Tips please?
You can definitely host a great party for under $1000 - I've done it before :]
First off, are there enough tables/chairs at the venue, or are you expected to bring your own? You can hire those easily, so that shouldn't be a problem.
I wouldn't bother getting nice tablecoths, because the chances are they'll get spills all over them by the end of the night. Stick to plastic table covers - you can get these from a craft shop for very cheap, and there is usually a wide variety of patterns to choose from.
I personally think that the food is the most important thing at a party, and it's better to have too much than not enough. Google party food shops or bulk finger food around your area, and you should find something. I love party food shops because it's so much cheaper than buying from Safeway or Coles and they come in large quanitites.
Before you start buying decorations, figure out what colours you're going to be working with. I would personally pick Silver and another colour - Silver and Purple look really nice together. Don't buy the cheap balloons, because these are usually very hard to inflate and contantly burst throughout the night. If there is a light-fitting or beams of some sort on the roof, you can twist Silver and Purple streamers [for example] from the center of the roof [perferably where the light-fitting is] out to where the ceiling meets the wall all around the room. Cover the ends of the streamers in clusters of balloons and curled ribbons hanging down [be careful that the streamers don't touch the actual light bulb or somehow overheat]. Buy some life-sized posters of famous Hollywood celebrities from Spotlight or any other craft/fabric store. They don't cost too much at all, and they're plastic so you can re-use them and they won't get damaged too easily. Lighting is definitely important at a party, so I would look into buying some fairy/party lights. I'm assuming the room is going to be fairly large, so you might have to buy quite a few boxes of lights. Check on the box to make sure that the rope of lights isn't one big loop because this isn't going to work. To make the venue look more 'Hollywood', you can buy large pieces of white cardboard and cut out letters so spell out HOLLYWOOD and attach them to the wall. This doesn't look as nice on a white wall, so find a painted/brick one to attach them to. In Hollywood there are the Walk Of Fame star times down the sidewalk, so you can make these yourself out of rubber placemats! [I know it sounds sorta tacky, but I have seen this done before and it doesn't look bad at all]. Obviously you would put each guests name on there. At all Hollywood parties there's a Bodyguard at the front. You don't have to get a real Bodyguard of course, but if you won't get too embarased by it you might want to get a male family member or friend to dress up in a black suit and dark aviators and guard the door. When a guest arrives he can ask them their name and check on the 'guestlist' to see if they're invited. This isn't a bad idea because it not only adds to the Hollywood-themed environment but does help with the safety issue.
As for the music, I would just play all the Pop stuff that plays on the radio [Katy Perry, The Veronicas, Miley Cyrus, Fall Out Boy, All American Rejects, etc]. If you don't like it, you should still play it anyway because a lot of your guests probably do. I have been to parties where all the host played was their own screamo music and didn't take it into consideration that their guests might not like it. I can tell you right now, it really ruined the mood. *Some* of your music is fine, but don't forget to play the well-known stuff. Maybe you could ask your guests to E-Mail you with a song that they'd like to hear and you could download it?
Your centerpiece ides doesn't sound bad at all, but considering your theme is Hollywood you should bring that theme into the centerpiece. You can go to a Party Supply shop and they would definitely have a Hollywood section. I have seen 3-pack centerpieces for $25 [Some are even as little as $5 each].
As for the cake, you can get a really nice one made for you from a cake shop. Some ideas that would look great is a Walk Of Fame time with your name on it, or even a film roll like this:
http://www.apieceofcake.com.au/images/birthday/hollywood_theme_birthday_cake.jpg
Last but not least, you're going to need a Red Carpet. This is very, very easy and you can get a big piece of red fabric from any fabric store. To keep it from slipping around on the floor, you may have to attach rubber rug underlay to the bottom - very affordable and easy.
GOOD LUCK :]
I hope you have heaps of fun!
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