This is a guest post from Liz Muirhead, who blogs about health and fitness at Looking Good (for a mom). Liz is a thirty-something working mom of two wonderful kiddos, who got fed up with using her kids to explain her flab and found a way to get the best body of her life!
As a working mom, there are a lot of things I miss out on doing for my kids. So when it comes to throwing birthday parties, I tend to go a little overboard. This year, my daughter turned seven. She’d outgrown a lot of the themes we’d used in previous parties, and a character-based party just didn’t seem appropriate. (They grow up so quickly!) So after some strategy discussions, we settled on a makeover party. Since my daughter’s birthday falls in mid-January, and I’m always too crazed by Christmas to plan ahead, I had just two weeks to plan the party.
Possibility #1:
Although it’s really not my style, I considered outsourcing the party. There’s a cute salon for kids called “Sweet and Sassy” near our home, so I called them up to see what options were available. Here’s what I found out.
Their parties had several things in common:
- Party is 60 minutes for the makeover and 45 minutes in the “cake room,” for a total of 1 hr and 45 minutes.
- No cake or food is provided
- Guests receive a favor in the cost of the party; favors vary with the party type
The entry level party was just under $300, and the top level party was just under $400. As an extra, you could pay an additional $75 for a 20-minute limo ride, which would take place during the 45 minutes allotted for the “cake room.”
Well, the parties sounded great, but faced with the option of dropping up to $400 on a short party (under 2 hours) and still having to buy food, I thought I’d consider…
Possibility #2:
Do it myself! While much more my style, I knew I wouldn’t be able to single-handedly give makeovers to the 9-11 girls likely to attend the party. And while my mother went to cosmetology school back in the day, I knew I would still need more help. Here’s how the party broke down, how I ended up tackling each area, and what it all cost in the end.
Invitations
After searching around on the internet, I managed to find an awesome graphic (collage of fashion magazine covers) that I used as a background for invitations. Printing them out on my home computer was quick and easy, and they were able to go off to school the next day. I found many free downloadable invitations on the internet, but chose to use the background graphic instead.
Cost? Free!
Stay tuned for favors and food!
Summer Parties
Comments on this entry are closed.