I am always coming up with new and creative theme ideas to bring my readers. Ideas that will help spark something inside that will turn into a raging fire of ideas. This sweet 16 theme idea has already been touched on from an earlier post; Enchanted Evening: Fairytale & Storybook Sweet Sixteen Idea that I did awhile back but it really could use some updated ideas so I decided to brainstorm. I stumbled across this amazing picture of Anne Hathaway attending a White Fairytale Love Ball at Wideville Castle in Paris .
Yes, I know I seem to be stuck on ball themes lately. Maybe it’s because we are heading into the winter months and typically those are the months you would imagine ball parties to be happening. But anyhow, why not bring a touch of Paris into your theme too?!
Attire
If you go for a ball fairy tale theme, then the choice of attire for your guests will just be formal looking with beautiful flowing dresses or puffed out ball gowns.
However if you choose to go the costume route, then expect guests to come in full and creative costumes.
Some Fairy Tale Characters to toss at your guests are:
- Hansel & Gretel
- Snow White, the Prince and any of the 7 Dwarves, or The Queen
- Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf or The Grandma
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears
- Alice in Wonderland (too many characters to list but check out our Mad Hatter blog post here with some listed)
- The Three Little Pigs
- The Wizard of Oz
- Sleeping Beauty
- Beauty and the Beast or any of the other characters cursed in the castle)
- Cinderella, the step-sisters, the mice and the prince
Food
You can make the food casual if it is a costume party. For example you can serve finger foods, pasta, BBQ chicken with a salad and some other snacks your guests will enjoy.
If you are going for a more formal dinner then you will want to make the meal classy. Have the meal catered by a local Italian restaurant or seek out a professional catering business and plan a menu with them to serve a more Paris-esque inspired meal.
Games
Trivia Scavenger Hunt
This is a great idea for such an event in which your guests are dressed up and probably don’t want to crawl around or race in their formal gowns.
Object of the game
Answer trivia questions in order to get clues on where their object is hidden. The team who retrieves all of the hidden objects first, wins.
Supplies needed:
- 3×5 cards in which you will write the trivia questions and answers on them
- Objects to hide that players must find and retrieve to the trivia person. (Objects should be team colored, for example; the red team should have red objects and the blue team should have blue objects)
- Duck tape or string to secure the objects to hide them
How to play
To start the game break up your guests into two teams (3 or 4 if necessary) Each team will then choose one member to answer the question. The person answering the question should have a bell or some other noise maker to announce he is “buzzing in”. The rest of the team stands back and waits for their clue to be given to them once the trivia question is answered correctly.
The trivia questions can be about the birthday girl, a favorite TV show, sports or whatever you want.
If the first person to “buzz in” answers the trivia correctly then he/she earns the clue card on where their item is hidden. The trivia winner then can hand the clue card over to his/her team so they can read the clue and then they can run off to retrieve the object.
The other team must wait for 30 seconds after the other team as left to find the object and then they are shown the clue card and must retrieve their item. So the advantage would be for the team that correctly answers the trivia question.
Once a team returns with the object they think is it, the trivia person will confirm if it is the correct item. If not, they must continue to search.
Each round is the same thing until all objects are retrieved. The first team that has all x amount of objects wins!
Hire a DJ
If you are not going to be playing many games or do not want to be in charge of making up games you can hire a DJ and ask if he has some dancing games he can lead.
Decor
Make your sweet 16 dreamy, woodsy and whimsical with these decorating ideas. You can go with a natural forest and woodsy look by using butterfly garland, huge party lanterns and huge fake flowers that can be made out of tissue paper.
Get some sheer fabric that can be stappled to the ceiling and drape down around your food tables. The table setting idea below is from Camille Styles Hip Hip Hooray children’s party blog post.
I also love this woodsy whimsical idea below for this theme. It would go great for both a formal affair or casual one. You do not need tree stumps to act as seats and just use folding chairs draped with chair covers and huge mismatching bows on each chair.
Of course you can also just go straight for the castle decor route too! Think candelabras, small vases of flowers and real fruit or pumpkins as the decor.
