Sweet 16

My daughter's Sweet 16 was on Saturday April 28th 2012. After trying to figure out the perfect location for her party, we finally decided to have it on a boat. This was the boat, The Destiny, and it's part of World Yacht.

I thought since the party was going to be on a boat it would be cute to make message in a bottle invitations. Immediately I knew I wanted to have a caricature drawing of my daughter in her dress, standing on top of the boat, with Maggie's Sweet 16 and the date of the party on a life preserver on the side of the boat. Of course I also wanted the NYC skyline in the background. I found a caricature artist online and this is what he came up. My daughter and I loved it. This was the front of the invitation... 

and this was the back of the invitation...

Here are some of the materials for the message in a bottle invitation

The best price I found for the bottles was online, http://www.bottlemeamessage.com/ and they were great to deal with. First I filled the bottles with sand and shells, and then I rolled up the invitations and tied them with a piece of twine that was long enough to stick out of the top of the bottle so all you had to do was pull the twine and the invitation would come out of the bottle. We used glass bottles for the invitations that were handed out, and plastic bottles for the invitations that were mailed out.

 To finish off the invitation I wrapped the mouth of the bottle with raffia, and for the name tags I printed the names on ivory card stock and distressed the edges so they would look worn. I added little silver anchor charms that I bought on eBay. This is a close up of the top of the bottle.   

This is what the completed message in a bottle invitations looked like.

We used the same drawing from the invitations for a signboard.

There were so many colors to choose from because my daughters dress was so colorful, but she chose orange and hot pink and some silver too. A friend of mine since childhood made the table runners. We alternated one table orange, one table pink.

This was my daughters table.

I bought the fabric for the table runners at Joanns. I also bought the square silver containers for the flower arrangements from Joanns. I made the flower arrangements using orange and hot pink roses. All the tables had one flower arrangement on them, except for my daughters table, her table had two flower arrangements. This is a close up of one of the flower arrangements.

For the place cards my daughter and I thought it would be cute to make paper boats. We made the boats out of really beautiful silver paper that I bought online. I printed the guests names on the sails of the boat, and attached the sails to skewers.  

My daughter picked these glittery shoes by Ivanka Trump but she wanted bling on her shoes as well. This is what her shoes looked like pre-bling.

This is what her shoes looked like after blinging out the heels.

The boat had three levels. We set the lower level up like a lounge. That is where the DJ and dance floor was. There were couches and round tables. I didn't want to do floral centerpieces on the lower level as well so I decided to make 10 luminaries for the round tables. I used 5x7 black mat frames that my boss graciously donated. I taped four frames together with black electrical tape to make 1 luminary. Each luminary had different pictures of my daughter, through the years, and Maggie's Sweet 16 printed on vellum. 

I bought battery operated votive candles that changed 7 different colors. It's really hard to see in the pictures but they looked very nice once the lights were dimmed.

We also had a step and repeat downstairs for all the guests to have their picture taken in front of when they first boarded the boat. Our photographer provided the backdrop for us, but my daughter and I designed it. For the large Maggie's Sweet 16 in the center of the backdrop I used the same font that I used on the luminaries.

This my daughter in front of the backdrop.

I found a website http://www.marlyssandstacey.com/ that creates the most amazing card/giftcard boxes. I worked closely with Marlyss to design a card box that my daughter would love.

We had a caricature artist at the party. To save time there were 11x17 pieces of paper that were designed and printed ahead of time. The theme of the pre-printed paper was similar to the drawing on the invitation. My boss also donated beautiful mat board frames for the caricatures, and I found clear bags on eBay to put the frames in that fit perfectly. These were the souvenirs. This is my mom and daughter getting their caricature drawn together.

You can't have a party without a cake. My search for a beautiful cake at a reasonable price was a long one. The fact that the party was in Manhattan instantly meant a price markup of more then 100%. My daughter had found a picture online of a cake she liked so we set out to find a place to make it at a reasonable price. We were looking for a smaller, 3 tiered version of this cake.

When I just about lost all hope of finding an affordable cake, Heather Collis the sales manager from World Yacht recommended Julissa from http://www.mostlycupcakesny.com/. She was great to work with from the first email. This is what Julissa made for us.

My daughter cutting her cake.

The cake was beautiful and colorful inside and out, and it was delicious. The cake tasted like marzipan, which is something my daughter and I love. We saved the top tier of the cake, and took it home. This is what a slice from the top tier looked like.  

This is my favorite picture from the entire night.

My mom passed away unexpectedly a little more then two months after my daughter's Sweet 16. They shared such a special bond and I am so grateful my mom was there with us to celebrate such a special occasion in my daughters life.