Guide On Planning Your 21st Birthday Party

Planning birthday parties were never an easy thing thing to do. For one, there's just sooo much to decide on, it's time consuming and you can't deny that a lot of detailed homework must be done just so that your big day would be smooth sailing without hiccups. Plus you may tend to exceed your budget and definitely a lot of manpower would be utilized from planning to execution day. 

So here's a list of tips I came up with while planning my very own 21st birthday party that's going to take place sometime next month. Hopefully it will come in handy for you too. 

I will include details of my 21st birthday party in between the tips. You can take a rough gauge on that if you want to, it may help with planning your very own 21st birthday party.

Click to read on how I celebrated my 21st Birthday <3

Tip 1: Close your eyes and imagine the sort of party you would like to have. Be it grand or not, what do you envision? If you can picture something, you're half way there. If not, well continue scrolling down.

I wanted a Victorian hightea theme, mainly a garden area with pastel colours and a small party with just my closest friends.

Tip 2: Start a flexible budgeting plan, a range of numbers would help a lot. How much can you afford to cough out if you're the one paying or how much do you think you can bargain with or squeeze out of your parents (haha I'm just kidding, or maybe not) etc.

I had a flexible budget from $1000-$1500. My beautiful mother has agreed to sponsor everything. Thank you if you're reading this, mummy! :)

Tip 3: Think of how many people you want to invite. It could range from 5-500 people, it's really up to you. If you are a 'happening' person, chances are you have a lot of people to invite. If you belong to the I only have a handful of close friends, then so be it! Nobody says you have to invite all your Facebook friends if you don't want to.

I could have invited a 100 people if I wanted to. But I thought long and hard about who I wanted to share that special moment with and who I don't mind spending on (realistically speaking). I remember the ones who have never left my side, the ones who made me laugh when my face was stained with smudging make up from all that crying and bawling. Also not forgetting the bobian (no choice, must invite) list, because you know you just can't say no. Hahaha. With all these in mind, I came up with my final number of 35pax.

Tip 4: The ideal venue for your party. The more you invite, the bigger the area of the venue. You should go look around for places that you would like to hold your party at and short list at least 3 of them. Then decide on the one that fits your budget most.

A rough gauge on costs:

Chalets are below $300 per night.

Boutique hotels varies from $300-$500 per night.

5-stars hotels usually cost above $400 per night.

(Ps: You need to call and check if they close an eye on the noise level, many hotels do not allow parties. You do not want your guests to be kicked out in the middle of singing your birthday song.)

Theme restaurants parties varies, the ones I checked are about $1000++ with buffet.

I pretty much knew that I wanted a boutique hotel. I physically went down to 10 boutique hotels and check out all their grandest suites or garden/balcony suites. The boutique hotel I've decided on is about $350 per night with a garden suite. And they allow parties!!! It was love at first sight I swear, my mummy went down and paid for it the very next day. IT IS MINE NOW ALRIGHT! WAHAHA :)

Tip 5: The food that you're serving your guests. This REALLY depends on you. Usually people cater for buffet? They go by per pax and you get to choose the variety of food under different heading such as sides, mains, desserts etc according to deluxe set, premium set or platinum set for some catering company. If somebody in your family cooks very well, you could save on the catering expense. 

Buffet catering for min 30pax cost about $500++ from the websites I've researched on. You may want to do the research yourself because I mean really, I don't know what you want. You can have Chinese, Muslim, Japanese, Western, Indian etc, so much variety of food to choose from.

I catered my dessert table for about 30pax which costs me $625. I know it's pretty pricey but I'm going for a Victorian high-tea theme. Aiyah tai-tai what, hahaha.

Tip 6: Your cake or cakes. Do you have an idea of what you'd like for your big day? You could have the typical square cake if you want, or even a key-shaped cake as you wish. Now there are so many thousands of 3D-design cakes to choose from or create. Go online, read up on famous bakeries, email them your ideal design with pictures, descriptions and they will liaise with you from there onwards.

Cakes prices varies from $100-$700, depending on your design, eg. 1 tiered or 2 tiered/ 1kg or 2kg etc.

Okay breathe, but my 2-tiered birthday cake cost me a total of $400! 6" on top and 8" at the bottom. I'm pretty anal about my design so I hope it's as good as it tastes!

Tip 7: The wait-for-it.. Invitation! You can have a card delivered to their mailbox, email invitation if you prefer it that way, but what most of us do these days are either Facebook invite or mass group chats on Whatsapp.

I learnt a lot from this entire birthday planning thingy, especially after sending out the invitation. There are some friends who you may expect to not attend, but then they turn up to be the ones who respond first and say they'll never miss your birthday for the world. Then on the other hand, there are some friends' birthdays you wouldn't miss for the world but they end up not turning up for yours. Life as it is.

Tip 8: DECORATIONS~ and theme of the party. You might want to hire professionals or just drag some trustworthy friends of yours to mess up the place together.

Balloons, banners whatsoever can be really affordable if you purchase it from the shophouses behind bugis. They sell a lot of party decorations in mass productions. Do go and check it out!

I'm forcing my guests to follow the Victorian hightea theme which is to wear pastel flowy dresses for the ladies and pastel shirts for the gentlemen.

Okay time to accumulate my expenses exclusive of decorations for now: $350 + $625 + $400 = $1,375 (within my budget) That's all I have for now, do check out my previous post: 21st birthday present's budgeting guide! :)