Wedding Party 9yr

My daughter is 9 and I had this party just for fun. She was skeptical about the theme before the party, but she and her friends loved it.

INVITATION: We sent invites, very simple, saying, (my daughter's name) requests the honor of your presence at the wedding party of the year." We had the girls come at 6 and we served pizza rolls & mini corn dogs to hold them off until dinner. While the girls made tissue paper & pipe cleaner roses I gave each one a makeover with eyeshadow blush and put their hair up. I used cotton balls to apply the blush and q tips for the eyeshadow. They all complimented each other on how beautiful they were. Later each girl took turns wearing my wedding dress and veil and had their picture taken. I had bought a bouquet of inexpensive flowers for the center of the table and let them hold that for the picture. Then they all crowded around the "bride" for a pic with her. They used the tissue paper flower bouquets they had made and tossed their bouquet backwards. They never got tired of trying to catch it either.

DECORATIONS: The table was set with a black and white plastic tablecloth hot pink paper plates and a favor for each girl.

FAVORS: (Favors were just some Jr. mints wrapped in tissue paper and tied with a hot pink ribbon.)We also put big pins I bought in the bachelorette section of the party store that said "Wedding Party" at each girl's place. Each girl had a place card. I had written each girl's name in calligraphy being sure to write "miss" before their full name. I had numbered the nametags inside from 1-8 one number for each girl at the party. Each girl brought a white elephant gift something fun they wanted to regift or something inexpensive they bought for the party. My little boy stood at the door dressed in a suit and took their gifts to place on the gift table and as they arrived I discreetly stuck a number sticker on the bottom of the present. Later we handed out the gifts matching the number on their nametag to the number on the gift.

FOOD: For dinner we had chicken cut up red potatoes and green beans. I brought out sparkling apple cider for the girls to make toasts after the meal. That was really funny!

CAKE: Then I brought out the 4 tiered cake I had made and covered with marshmallow fondant. I had a bride and groom ornament on top.  I let 2 of the girls cut it and feed it to each other. Then we had the cake tasting. I cut the cake one layer at a time and gave each girl a tiny piece from each layer. Each layer was a different flavor of cake. The girls had to try and tell what the different flavors were. Even though I gave them very small servings most of the girls could not even try the bottom layer because they were too full.

ACTIVITIES: Besides the makeovers crafting paper flowers and cake tasting and trying on a wedding dress we played a couple of games/challenges during the evening. One was "Seating Chart" where I had printed out a floor plan with a head table and 5 other tables as well as a list of people that needed to be seated. For example I had the Groom's Uncle Norbert the bride's childhood dance teacher a friend of the groom from work as well as 47 others and gave them enough clues to figure out at which table they should be seated. Uncle Norbert was to be seated with the groom's family the teacher was to be seated with other friends of the bride and the work friends of the groom would sit together and so on. Needless to say this was never completed because they lost interest in it but it occupied them for awhile. Later in the evening when I wanted them to calm down we played Wedding Planner. They chose their wedding colors for fun.

Then each girl pulled a budget out of a hat and had their own sheet where I had marked different things they would need for their wedding and the cost. These were the things they would all HAVE to use their budget on so right off the bat we were using about $6000. Each one was given a calculator and they had to figure out how much of their budget was left for their flowers and wedding dress. For these I set a timer for each girl and she got to look through wedding dresses from a bridal store on the computer. (I had preselected 50 of various prices earlier and saved them to my favorites so the girls weren't looking through hundreds of gowns.) When she selected the gown everyone would crowd around to see the close up pic of her chosen dress. Then she added the price of the dress to her budget sheet. Each girl also was able to choose her bridal bouquet from a florist's online site and mark that on their budget. They were given a choice of headpiece. (Flower tiara or veil all with appropriate prices.)They were also given a choice of a backyard wedding or a hall with an obvious price difference. On top of that some optional things were added like a limo hair and makeup on the day of the wedding and DJ. They all came in under budget and had fun doing it! What girl doesn't love to plan her wedding at this age? This was a sleepover so we ended the evening watching Father Of the Bride.

PARTY SNACKS: During the movie I brought out 4 plates of cookies because in Pennsylvania you don't have a wedding without having at least one cookie table. I had one other project planned but we ran out of time. I had quilt squares that I was going to teach them how to sew on the machine and stuff them to make little pillows. (ring-bearer pillows!)Then we were going to have a race where they tried to balance a ring on their pillow as they ran. I bought a bag of engagement rings and I might put one at their place for breakfast. Other than the cost of dinner and the cake I probably spent $30. One of the girls said to me "You always have the best parties!" "