Bears & Hearts 16yr - Chocolate Lollipop

Invitations:  We did "message in a bottle" invitations, using glass bottles & filling it with confetti, a candle, ballons and a cork, with the invitation inside.  We hand delivered and invited 75 people to attend. 

My daughter was not too excited about being the center of attention, so we invited 4 of her closest "16" aged friends and invited their friends and family also.  This was catered at a nice hall, with a D.J.  Since the party was to take place in January, and valentines day is right around the corner, I chose red/white/pink as the colors and bears and hearts as the theme.  I used  S&S party things on the internet and found white bears with a red bow and ordered 60 of them ($1.00 each) for tables and guests to take home.  I also used e-bay to find Valentine themed beanie baby bears and those went to family and special people.

Centerpieces:I found bear balloons/heart/sweet sixteen ballons and tied them to a chinsese take out boxes (e-bay) filled with candy.  These boxes name tags with someone who was getting ready to celebrate their birthday and they were decorated with hearts on the outside, with candy and gifts inside and they were able to take the centerpeices home. The extra chinese take out boxes were used at the dessert table for goodies to go home at the end of the evening. My goal was not to take much of the stuff I bought home.

The kids had their own table, and I found decorator bags with bears on them and tied 3 hellium ballons to them, with a mini mattel car inside. (their 1st car), this bag was also used to take cards and small gifts including the frame.  Using the computer I had their names typed and cut them to fit a 4x5 frame to use for where they were to sit and placed their special beanie bear next to the frame. 

We put heart confetti, heart shaped acrylic stones, candy and such on tables.  I bought a lollipop mold for chocolate and made lollipops.  These were inserted in foam inside a vase decorated in hearts. We had a Sweet 16 banner (e-bay), the number 16 cookie cut-outs, bear cookie cut-outs, heart cookie cut-outs and little debbie heart shaped goodies (valentine's day treats) on the dessert table as well as other desserts.  I asked the parents to help with the desserts. We used boxes underneath the red table cloth on the dessert table to add to the look.

I purchased a autograph mat (wal mart) and guests were able to sign it. These are normally used for weddings but what the heck?

We gave the DJ our song list, which included "butterfly kisses" as the father/daughter dance, and "wind beneath my wings" as the mother/son dance. Each 16 year old was announced, their birthdate was announced and then their song was played.  We also played songs about cars: Beach boy "409", Drive my car -Beatles, I can't drive 55 - sammy hagar, little old lady from pasadena - And songs about friends.  The "friends" them song was the first song played!   

We also honored 6 others who were celebrating birthdays or special occasions. We found out what their favorite song was and announced them then played their song.  One friend recently became an american citizen and we played "proud to be an american."  We wanted this party to celebrate special people not just one person.