Bella’s Sweet Sixteen Party

My baby girl is 16!!! It feels like I have been planning this party in my mind since Isabella was born. She has been my shining star for 16 years so what better theme for a party than an evening under the stars?! Since we were going with a glamorous theme, we decided to book a rustic venue because I love the rustic/glam combo (farmhouse glam). <3 I am so excited to share the details of her party with you. Everything is sourced in case you want to use some of these ideas for your own party!

Her Dress

Bella’s dress was the inspo for the entire party! She had seen this beautiful Sherri Hill dress in the window of Deja Vu Boutique about a year ago. When we started looking for a dress this was the one we kept going back to. Thankfully when we called the boutique, they still had the dress and it was in her size! The tulle skirt made her look like the true princess that she is. The stars were the perfect touch. Since Homecoming was canceled earlier in the school year due to COVID, we decided to make the party semi-formal so all of her friends could get dressed up for a fun night out of dancing! Bella looked absolutely stunning!

The Venue

We chose a rustic barn for the party and it was perfect!! We loved the open feel and tall ceilings of the barn. It was perfect because we wanted to use a lot of white lights and fairy lights for a starry, galactic feel. The barn was dark enough to show off the lights which made for a beautiful glow. Plus, there was plenty of open space for dancing and lots of fun!

The Color Scheme

Bella’s dress was black and gold, so she initially wanted the party to be just those two colors. However, since graduation season was in full swing and most graduation parties are black and gold, it seemed a little too similar. So, we decided to add an additional pop of color. We decided on bright pink. Even though blue has been her favorite color since she was two years old, we didn’t feel like blue went along with the theme. I’m so glad I convinced her to she decided to choose pink! It was the perfect touch of sweetness for her sweet 16.

Table Decor

Tablecloths

I bought these cloth black tablecloths because they look so much nicer than the plastic kind. If you host several parties/events, it is really smart to invest in either white or black cloth tablecloths because they can be reused many times. In fact, I only had to purchase 2 additional tablecloths because the original 6 were purchased for Bella’s Monster High Party back when she was 8! Black and White tablecloths can go with so many different themes.

Runners

Honestly, runners make the biggest impact in your table decor, even more so than the centerpiece! Many people choose to skip these, but runners are what make your color scheme come to life. We chose these gold table runners from Amazon. The color is actually champagne, which is basically a soft gold.

Centerpieces

I really wanted something unique that would go along with our star/galactic theme. I also wanted something that was lit up. I found these large LED clear balloons. They are not true latex balloons, they are plastic. So, they are more sturdy than a standard latex balloon. They are much larger (20 inches) than a typical balloon and look gorgeous when the lighting is low. I did need to find something to hold the balloons at the base, so I found star-shaped glass bowls at the Dollar Tree which were perfect. I have linked similar ones from Amazon here. I filled the bowls with these plastic ice crystals from Amazon and included an LED light that gradually faded to different colors throughout the night. We placed each centerpiece on one of these round mirrors and the reflection of the lights on the mirrors was so pretty!

The Backdrop/Balloon Arch

This was the part I was most excited about! I bought these beautiful panels to make the photo backdrop. They did not disappoint!! I was thrilled with how it turned out. In order to achieve this look, we purchased 4 boxes of panels to form a 6′ x 8′ wall. Because the panels were heavy, we decided to purchase this heavy duty backdrop stand from Amazon. My husband actually assembled the backdrop with zip ties. We hired a local balloon company (Balloon Pro Events) to do the balloon half-arch and side stand. I requested that they use mostly white, gold and black balloons. When we decided to add pink, we asked for the stars and the large “16” to be pink. It turned out perfectly and we were thrilled with how they looked!

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Dishes

Since, the rustic barn that we rented did not have a kitchen, we definitely needed to purchase disposable dishes. I wanted them to look like high quality plates with gold trim. I found these beautiful clear dishes on Amazon and they were perfect. Each set actually includes dinner plates, cake plates, forks, knives, spoons, and tumblers to serve 30! We ordered several sets and they worked really well. I also found beautiful paper napkins with small gold stars to go along with our theme. These confetti napkins are beautiful, too!

The Cake & Cookies

This part was really exciting. I met with my friend, Jean with Simply Sweets by J. Nicol, and she had some great ideas for an epic Sweet 16 cake! She suggested that we have her make a geode cake to go along with our star/galactic theme!! This was so perfect. She is so talented and did a beautiful job! The cake frosting was white buttercream and the geode was gold and black-perfection! The top layer of the cake was almond flavor with strawberry mousse and the bottom layer was lemon cake with lemon mousse. DELICIOUS!! We purchased these stars from Etsy for the top of the cake. They are gold mirrored acrylic and added just the right amount of shine. This sweet 16 topper was also purchased from Etsy and it was the perfect touch. Jean also made outstanding decorated sugar cookies. She made geode cookies with a touch of pink as well as moons, stars, cake shape, and ones that said “Bella.” We were thrilled with them!! We decided to use sparkler candles, so she wouldn’t have to blow them out. Even though most of our COVID restrictions have been lifted, we still wanted to be safe.

Favors

We had a really hard time deciding on a favor, but ultimately decided that these rock candy sticks went well with the geode cake. We purchased them in pink so they would add a touch of color to the table. I put each of them in one of these individual bags and tied it with a small wire-edged ribbon, which I curled with a pencil. I also tied a beautiful pink bow with satin ribbon. I found these tags at Michaels and purchased clear circular labels from Etsy that said “Bella’s Sweet 16.” So easy!!

Other Decorations

Photo Memory Decor

It was really important to Josh and me to commemorate Bella’s childhood by displaying some photos of when she was younger. We decided a perfect way to do this was to use these star shaped sparkling fairy lights along the back wall of the barn and use these clear mini clothes pins to hold baby/childhood photos of our beautiful girl. The fairy lights were SO GOOD! They were not battery operated, but instead had a USB on the end so we could just plug it into the wall. They had lots of different settings, but we decided on using the flash setting so they would stand out.

Neon Sign

We purchased this beautiful pink neon sign from Etsy that says “Sweet 16.” The original plan was to put this in front of the backdrop, however once we had the backdrop assembled it just did not need it! We ultimately decided to display it above her cake. It cast the perfect glow onto the cake and dessert table and was the first thing our guests saw when they arrived!

Misc Decor

The rest of our decor was purchaed from Amazon and I loved it all. We purchased these large hanging stars, this gold star garland as well as this and this.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Summer break has officially started here and I intend on soaking up every second of it with my girls!! If you are planning a party this summer whether it is for a birthday or just to celebrate the end of COVID restrictions, I hope this post helps you! Happy party planning, friends!!