Why Choosing a Theme for a Quince Makes Planning Easier

For most Hispanic girls and their mothers, their Quincea�±era is the first major party or event they have ever planned. Because of that, most people do not know where to start. As a certified event planner, my first bit of advice is to choose a theme for the party. Choosing a theme for the party will help to guide you in every step of the planning process.

1. Choosing a location. The first step, after choosing a date for your party, is finding a location for your party. If you don’t know yet, in most locations, like Miami, there are an unlimited amount of locations that you can consider for you party. Your budget will narrow these choices down first. Having a theme can help you to further narrow your choices. For example, let’s say your daughter loves fairies. She decides she would like her theme to be “Dream Fairies.” Where do dream fairies live? Why they live in a fairytale forest! This may lead you to find a tropical garden or outside location “dream” location.

2. Choosing an invitation. Have you ever been to an invitation store? The huge books that hold invitations will make you dizzy if you try to look at all of them. The first question I always ask my invitation clients is: “Is there anything specific you are looking for or do you have a theme?” This helps me as a planner and an invitation representative to narrow down their choices immediately. For example, if you have chosen a theme as music because the QuinceaÃ?±era likes to play the piano. I would suggest a couple of invitations. First, I have an invitation that is in a die-cut shape of a piano. Second, I have an invitation that has a 3 dimensional treble clef on it. I just made what could have been a 3-hour tour at the invitation store into a 15-minute selection!

3. Choosing dÃ?©cor. DÃ?©cor can make or break the ambience of a party. There are table linen choices, centerpiece choices, wall decoration choices, entrance decoration choices, etc., etc., etc. The choices can be endless if you let them. If you have a theme, the theme leads you to the decorations that you want and need. For example, if the them is Mardi Gras, things that immediately come to mind are beads, masks, jesters, and crowns. You probably aren’t going to think of having flower centerpieces (which cuts out having to meet with a florist), but instead may bring to mind a centerpiece made with the above-mentioned items instead. If you need table covers and chair covers, it immediately narrows you to Mardi Gras colors like purple, green, and gold.

4. Choosing party favors or keepsakes. Sit down at your computer; sign on to the Internet and type in these 2 words – “party favors.” It will give you a headache when you see how many sites your two word search turns up. You can significantly narrow your search if you stick with your theme. A very popular theme for QuinceaÃ?±eras is Cinderella. I have two favors that seem to make the girls scream with delight when they see them. Instead of having to wade through the hundreds or thousands of favor options I have available, I show them a glass slipper filled with Italian chocolate silver almonds, wrapped it tulle and tied with a bow that matches their color scheme, and a ceramic Cinderella carriage that holds “goodies” of their choice.

5. Choosing seating arrangements. A large party dictates that you have some sort of orderly way to seat your guests. Most party hosts choose a seating chart or place cards. Again, the best choice may be led by your theme. A client of mine had a Hollywood party. We used silver star place card holders to display the place cards for seating. Going back to the Cinderella theme, you could go a couple of different ways. You could use a “Scroll Seating Chart” that fits the fairytale theme, or double your carriage favors as place card arrangements, by adding a place card to the carriage with a color appropriate ribbon.

Some people think a party is a party and how hard can it possibly be to put one together. Having a party that leaves an impression requires some thought and creativity. You want a Quincea�±eras to be a memorable event, not just another party. By adding a theme to your Quincea�±eras, you will make it more memorable and make it easier to plan. Give your theme some thought. Choose something that is meaningful to you. It will help guide you through each level of the planning process and makes it easier on you if it is something familiar to you.