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!
Know a New Years Kiss Party
Comments on this entry are closed.