Vip Teen Party Vol 28 27
Jahed Stetter
Six-pound party burgers. Two-foot hot dogs. And our world-famous Pizza Cake. You can't host an unforgettable event without a truly awesome menu. Our delicious lineup of Oversized Shareables is perfect for parties, made to be shared, and not available anywhere else. Order them for your party and get ready for your first ever #burgerselfie.
As per title really. DS has requested that there is "a bit of" alcohol at his upcoming birthday "party" (due to Covid restrictions = a few of them in the garden). I've checked with all the parents - all are fine with it.
They are all 17. I have no idea what sort of alcohol teenage boys drink and how much is a sensible amount to offer up? So advice from seasoned parents of teens is very welcome!
I'd expect them to bring their own tbh, not because I don't want to provide it, but because that's what they do. If you provide it too, there will be double.
I had a similar conversation with a colleague yesterday. His 17yo daughter wanted some alcohol to take to a party. He'ad bought 4 cans of beer and 4 cans of mixed drinks, which seems an awful lot to me, but he wasn't expecting her to drink it all herself.
When I was young it was 2 litres of cider. DS takes 4 cans of beer.
Whatever you provide there will be vodka and it has potential to get messy. Lucky you, that you have an excuse to keep them all in the garden
Mine are both at university now. The main thing is NO SPIRITS.
I would also get some cool individual soft drinks like bottled Coke and san Pellegrino. Often they are quite happy to wander around with one of these whereas if you provide 2 L bottles they seem to get left
Most teens will have plenty of drinking experience by 17, so ask him. My son and his friends take their own drinks to parties. It tends to be lager, WKD and some whisky/vodka.
Get them to bring their own and provide pizza instead.
I have several tips for teen parties!
Everyone will bring their own alcohol anyway, but if you want to provide some, get loads of packs of These little weak French lagers or similar from your local supermarket. And also as someone else said, cans of soft drink and individual water bottles will be drunk far more readily than buying 2litre bottles of anything.
Provide a big bin or your wheely bin and a big sign on it saying, "BOTTLES & CANS IN HERE" or they WILL end up in your flower beds. Also a large bucket of sand for fag ends.
If you are providing a bin full of beer in water/ice, get some of the same 0% alcohol ones as well to mix in with them. When the labels come off, just scoop them out of the iced water and the kids will drink the 0% ones as well quite happily without realising. Do this before they arrive, leaving some of the normal strength labels still on the bottles or floating in the water.
Do provide lots of snacks, even of they seem quite "Childrens Birthday Party". Mini Pepperamis, Mini Baybels, Wotsits, Dip and Crudites, those mini chicken skewers, cheese straws, a bowl of Celebrations etc on big trays get eaten really quickly, even by the most sophisticated of teens. Don't bother with plates/napkins as they won't get used.
If you're allowed to be around, a big Pizza delivery ordered by you at about 10.30pm goes down well and sobers kids up very quickly. Or pizzas in the oven, done by you.
We've had parties quite successfully here, the only thing that gets problematic with my boys is the loudness of the music which needs to be kept to a certain level due to neighbours. They also don't invite the (mainly girls) known to down a bottle of vodka quickly and end up crying and sick.
First party my dd had in summer I bought the drink but they all paid money towards it. She knew what they all drank mixture of boys and girls
2nd party was GCSE party alot more people they all chipped together to pay for a marquee at our house as in country and all brought their own drink no one was sick.
I provided food.
I put one of my teenage students in charge of the games, because I felt all out of creativity after planning a year of monthly activities with these cute kids! She did an awesome job, and I was happy that she ran it, too! Here are the games the kids played:
These past two years she has been very particular about her birthday, because she's a teen now, you know? ;) There are to be no themes! We have to talk about activities and such because these parties are just more of a 'hang out'.
We agreed that the kitchen could be birthday festive. This zone at our buffet is my festive zone! I love it! It takes center stage and makes a staement, but is also out of the way. I also decorated the table and hung lanterns over the island.
The party went well. Our activities were pretty simple. I put up a backdrop for the girls to take pictures in front of. I had a bunch of photo booth props for them, but they didn't really use them! They just wanted to take pictures of each other and themselves. That's what we do these days right?
We also played the plastic wrap game. I had bought a bunch of girly things and wrapped them all into a giant ball of plastic wrap. Items included candy, nail polish, bath bombs, gift cards, lip balm, silly socks, etc. The person to the right of the one holding the giant ball rolls a pair of dice and keeps doing that until they roll doubles. While they are rolling the person to the left unwraps the plastic wrap as much as they can, and get the prized they unwrap. The girls had a great time with this game. It was hilarious to hear them screaming and shouting at each other!
The biggest problem we had in deciding the menu, was editing down the list of favourites to a manageable size. In the end we opted for around 10 savoury, and 5 sweet nibbles, finished off with mini scones. Even with mouth sized bites, this is a huge amount of food per person. I assumed the girls would pick at the things they liked, leaving the less popular items on the plates.
The decorations were fairly understated, but we had a unifying theme of washi tape. Starting with the menu above, we decorated bunting, some vases, place cards and water bottles. I realised when I was clearing up that many of the girls took their name place cards or the mini flags as mementos.
Equal parts pineapple juice & cranberry juice and a hefty squeeze of lime juice, served with a frozen berry garnish. The girls were particularly please to get these in proper martini glasses. For ease, make the cocktail in a jug and keep in the fridge until needed.
Mocktails drunk, the girls were ready to eat. I borrowed tiered cake trays from friends, so that we had 1 between each two girls. It was a bit of a squeeze to get all the goodies on, but the savouries went on the bottom two layers, and the sweet on the top layer.
Mini finger rolls, spread with a think layer of mayonnaise on one side, and a thin layer of butter on the other. Fry rashers of bacon until crispy and add to the bun along with a baby gem lettuce leaf and a thin slice of tomato. Hold in place with a skewer.
The humous pots looked especially cute. I usually use them for chocolate mouse but they work very well for this too. Line the base of the pots with a circle of grease proof paper, before adding the humous. For ease, I used shop bought humous, but feel free to make your own. Top with mini carrots, peeled, but with the tops left on.
In the rush to serve everything up, I forgot to take pictures of these cooked. I used ready to roll puff pastry cut heart shapes in the pastry. Spread with tomato pasta sauce, a sprinkle of mature cheddar and a little heart shaped slice of ham.
The recipe for meringues is my fool proof meringue recipe. We sandwiched two meringue between some double cream sweetened with icing sugar and a dash of pink food colouring. Add a few sugar stars for good measure.
If you wanted a slightly less stressed version of this party, consider more cold rather than hot nibbles, and or look in to premium versions of supermarket canapes. Especially around Christmas, they have special offers on very fancy canapes that will keep in the freezer for months.
Set a number of Favorite Things each person will bring, a value for the item and how many of each item. For example: Think of THREE of your favorite things valued around $5. Bring three of each of them (9 total). Each guest will go home with 9 new favorite things.
The wall mural was the perfect party planning starting point and I knew it would double as a party activity for selfies and group photos. (Side note: it was simple to put up and even easier to take down with no wall damage!)
Instead of having a goodie bag at the party, Ally added a few party favors to the Favorite Things table for her friends to take throughout the night. She found fun journals, glittery pens , pouches and perfumes for the girls.
The bar cart looked fantastic up against our wall mural! I added a few flower arrangements in rose colored vases, extra glasses and a small tray of mini cupcakes. A fluffy pink rug tucked under the cart gave it an extra girly look!
I picked up one of these brushstroke looking art prints at Anko, brought it home and realized I needed two more because it made the perfect dessert table backdrop. I lined three up on my buffet and it turned out fantastic!
The cake was a showstopper, one of those cakes I would have liked to leave on my counter for a few weeks just to admire. Covered in buttercream brushstrokes and topped with homemade lollipops, it was definitely one of my favorite cakes to date.
Happy Birthday Ally James! This girl is pure gold. She has the character and integrity a parent could only dream of and continues to make me proud every day, year after year. My heart could explode just telling you how incredible she is.
Tonya Coleman is a premiere event planner, stylist & graphic designer. She shares party tips & inspiration here at Soiree Event Design for women who want to host fabulous parties with less stress. Following her passion to give back and support new party planners, Tonya has launched The Partypreneurs School of Party Planning an online suite of courses and coaching that teaches new and aspiring party planners how to turn their hobby and passion into a money-making party planning business. You can connect with her on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter.
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