Celebrating a 21st birthday party can be an overwhelming experience if you lack time preparing. It can also be expensive if you have a large extended family or many friends. But honestly, organising a birthday party doesn’t have to cost a lot and you don’t need to burn a hole in your pocket. Plus, with an extended family I’m sure they will pitch in to help with the little stuff.
Let’s take a look at what is involved when you plan a 21st birthday party on a budget.
21st Birthday Party Essentials
Let’s face it, we live in extraordinary times in an ever-changing world. How do we focus on creating meaningful relationships and experiences to move us forward? By relying on the recorded memories of photos and videos, from our parents, we learn to find our place in the world. These stories show evidence of our extraordinary existence from birth.
Why not recreate this old magical feeling as you take your children down memory lane. With this in mind, I have created a checklist to help you plan a 21st birthday party on a budget. As a parent myself, every birthday is a celebration for us especially when we celebrate it at home.
8 Creative Ideas to Plan a 21st Birthday Party
Here are some ideas to help you plan a 21st birthday party on a budget. The aim is to start planning early so it doesn’t become overwhelming.
1. Find Your 21st Birthday Party Location
Birthdays are special! You can choose to have your 21st birthday party at home or an outdoor venue, like a park or hire a community center if you prefer. As long as it has easy access and caters to the number of family and friends you intend to invite.
In my family, we love celebrating birthday parties at home in the comfort of our lounge room or deck area. And that is exactly how we celebrate family events.
2. Simple Quick and Easy Food
Unless you set a budget for a full course dinner, there are other ways to feed everyone with easy affordable platters. I’ve planned many events by making simple sandwiches, cheese and biscuits dips, dumplings are my favourites, shortbreads, cupcakes and a fruit platter. When preparing simple food for a 21st birthday party, remember to have your food out in batches to ensure the table is never left empty.
My family loves our Eurasian food .. this cuisine is not easily available. So, a good curry with rice or roti jala and a mix veggie dish is enough to feed anyone wanting to try something different in my celebrations. Or have a backyard BBQ with fresh salads. You may wish to choose to let caterers take care of the food so you have less to worry. Just remember to choose your family’s favourite food and let them know the number of people attending.
3. Bake a Cake
In our home, we cook and bake often and for a milestone event, I make my traditional Eurasian Sugee Cake for a family celebration. It is far more affordable to bake your own cake … and it is not difficult too .. even if you use a cake box mix and ready-made icing. It is simple delicious!
4. Decorations
I love decorating my home with scented candles and fairy lights on my deck. To make the celebration more meaningful, I would hang a photo collage on a wall showing memories through the years so everyone can stop to look and perhaps even write a message.
If you are at an outside venue, you can still hang a birthday signage up with a couple of photos. Make sure you have a guest book where family and friends can write messages. Or elect a camera person to go around taking photos or video messages from the guest.
5. Hire Equipment Etc..
If you are having your party at home and depending on the number of people you invited, you may need to hire extra chairs and table.
6. Music Music Music
Choose your theme … my growing years were filled with 80s music so obviously I would play 80s music throughout my party. Make sure you choose a music theme close to your special person’s birthday.
7. Speeches and Entertainment
It is a tradition for the parents’ to make a speeches … lately I’ve had many people request for me to create a video message from relatives around the world.
Another popular trend on the rise is parents requesting me to create video slideshows to play at their party … showing their children’s hard work and achievement through the years.
8. Don’t forget to record celebration
Most often than not … people tend to forget to record the celebration. They are too occupied during the night, they don’t appoint a photographer to mingle and snap.
Remember you create future memories now … so snap those photos and record those videos.
As long as your family enjoys this milestone celebration event, nothing more matters. Sending off your 21st adult into a world filled with many opportunities is indeed a once in a lifetime unforgettable event … make sure it is a day of fun and adventure. One they will never forget!
