I’ve always dreamed of seeing my girls have a party when they turn 18. Partly because I didn’t have one when I was that age and I know how wonderful it can be to have all those people around you when you reach that age, but more so because I think it’s really a blessing, as a parent, to see your children reach the age of adulthood healthy, happy and thriving.
In this blog post, I just want to share some of the background details we were able to come up with to make the party a success. Yes, it was. It helped that I have events planning experiences from MBP events and also because my husband was very supportive as well. Everything gets easier when everyone in your family has your back.
Number of Guests – So the first consideration will be the number of guests. We opted for 40 with half of that would be us and our relatives and half will be my debutante’s number of close friends who will attend and my other daughter’s friends as well. We thought it will be good to have the Ate’s friends since she would be hosting the event and so she would also enjoy the party with other people supporting her as host. It’s not easy being a host you know.
Host/Emcee or MC (mistress of the ceremony) – Fortunately, my eldest is not that difficult to convince to host the party. She liked doing it for her sister and we thought giving that role to her means seeing her more in the videos and photos. If you are hosting a party, you’ll want everyone in the family to have many souvenir shots as much as possible.
Debut Venue – Location will definitely be somewhere accessible for the family and my daughter’s friends which is somewhere in QC. So we had a couple of choices at first and they were:
Kowloon House in Timog and I had a copy of their menu (shared below). We also went to the restaurant in the afternoon to see the function rooms. They have many party rooms on the second floor of the restaurant but we didn’t like the smallest one as we thought the room was too small for 40 pax. The other bigger room was much better looking also but the problem is that you can only get it if you will have 80 guests minimum. We did the math and we initially thought it will be okay considering that we wanted many more people to invite but it will already be too expensive since their menu doesn’t include drinks and they also charge for so many extras ( electricity, chair of the debutante, projector screen, etc). So we let it go.
Seda Vertis North – we also contacted Seda and got their price (sample shared below) but we thought it will be too out of range of our budget. In fairness, Seda is 5 Star Hotel so I wasn’t surprised by the price. Their buffet menu selection is mouth-watering too!
Romulo Cafe (Tomas Morato Branch)– I remembered this restaurant as I attended a Sangobion press event 7 years ago in this place. The wallpapers must have made a great impression that the place went back to my mind when I was planning the debut party. And when we visited it again, voila, we knew that it would be the perfect venue for my daughter’s event.
Lighting inside Romulo Cafe’s room was just enough if you’ll have a daytime or dinner event. And since I don’t plan on putting anymore party decors aside from the balloon arch in the middle, the wallpapers and the pillowcases are just perfect to give that festive but elegant mood.
My husband and I went to check the location early in the morning and the waiters or managers? who were staying there gladly accommodated us. They answered all our questions and let us see the place. Hindi sila mahirap kausap. The rate we got was a buffet for 40 persons inclusive of 4 hours use of the place ( including electricity, use of mic and speaker and projector screen ( we brought our own projector LUMOS and unlimited drinks (iced tea) ) for P43,000+.
When you are the party host, you really don’t get to enjoy the food that much because you’ll be so busy but the guests all said that the food was great and we had lots of take out after the party. One thing I enjoyed was the Suman sa Latik which was served sweet and warm. I also commend the waiters during the party who were so helpful and friendly.
For the other details:
Invitation – (free) my daughter created her own digital invitation and she did it well. It became the basis for the balloons, photo booth and cake designs.
Flowers – I ordered the flowers online via Flowerstore.ph almost one month before the event. They had a sale that time and I ordered Cash-on-delivery and the pink dahlias I ordered costed P1,233. They arrived fresh in a sturdy box. Hurray for online deliveries.
Balloons – Got the balloon arch with huge photo print they call “tarpapel” from Reona Balloon Decor and Design P3,300 including transportation fee of the staff.
Jeno’s standee – hubby ordered this from Shopee – he got it for P2,500
Gown – we rented her gown from Lynshie Apparel for P3,500 including dry cleaning before and after the event. ( I couldn’t find their Facebook Page nor website so I’ve added their address and contact number here: Unit 308 77 Landstrong Building Visayas Ave, QC. 0977-729 3207/ 0960 482 0971 – I suggest you go there directly after lunch hours)
Make-up – Hair was done in a nearby Sir George Salon (for hair and make-up P1,200) but make-up was done by the debutante herself. We tried their make-up artist to do her make-up unfortunately, it was really not good and it almost ruined my debutante’s day. Buti nalang, she can do her own makeup. Lesson learned: When it comes to make-up, we really have our own preferences so if you can do your own, do it. Or prepare for it very much in advance, test-drive make-up artists months before and keep the artist on your list.
Shoes – since it won’t be seen naman because she has floor-length gown, she just used her high-heeled black shoes, we didn’t buy her a new pair
Accessories – Choker was from Shopee, while bracelet was done by me. It’s her favorite of all my beaded bracelet creations.
Attires –
Mother (your’s truly) – I got my long sleeve lilac blouse and skort from TerraNova, shoes was from Shopee.
Father – he got his polo and shoes from SM Megamall Dept Store, pants from H&M
Ate – sleeveless blouse and skort from Forever 21, shoes from Shopee
Cake – ordered it from https://www.facebook.com/eatprayandbake/ 2 layer cake 6×4, 8×4 + 24 cupcakes costed P3,700– all cream frosting because I don’t like fondant, triple chocolate moist flavor, but the flowers were all fondant. Owner was accommodating and had consulted everything, design, colors and flavors. We had the cake and cupcakes served as dessert and take out as we only had suman sa latik in the menu for sweets.
Photobooth – https://www.facebook.com/EzraPhotoboothx staff was accommodating, we got their cheapest rate of P2,300, unlimited photos for 2 hours and they were sulit.
Audio/video – was taken cared of by my husband. I love that he has skills in video editing and we had lots of photos of the kids when they were growing up so he had so many photos to include in the video. We also had many of our relatives overseas and my daughter’s friends and classmates who sent their video greetings for the debutante. It was lovely seeing all of them in this momentous event through their greetings.
Presentations / Games – for a 2 hour event, it was enough to have a short program
– Prayer
– Speech by Dad
– Candle Blowing
– Debutante’s speech
– Video greetings by friends and family even from overseas
– song number by her classmates/friends
– duet by hostess and her friend
– song number by Uncle and debutante dance with father, lolo and cousin
– for the game we had a photo scavenger game, helped a lot to get many more photos from the guests
Ending thoughts
You can go simple or extravagant for a debut party depending on your budget but the most important thing is to celebrate the moment. Don’t let this day pass away and make sure that the closest people to your child are in that occasion physically or virtually. I was just grateful to everyone because the party was a huge success and there were so many lovely videos and photos of the event. I knew from my daughter’s face that day that she really loved her party and that she was grateful of all our efforts for her and the guests who attended.
