Kids these Days
Is Planning Sweet 16s Really So Sweet?
by Terah Shelton | Published in July 2007 Event Currents
As a former event planner for The Knot magazine and current CEO of En Vogue Events in Houston, Haley Hughes-Doyle is highly experienced at planning elaborate events.
For a recent Hollywood-themed party she organized, every major — and sometimes minor detail — was discussed. Black and white formal invitations requested the presence of 150 guests at the elegant Hotel Derek, located in a swanky area of Houston. But not before the gold save-the-date cards with Lance Armstrong-style bracelets arrived. The room featured go-gos with “Hollywood” written on them, and the lighting, set to go along with the mood, changed colors throughout the night. A red carpet, movie clapper board centerpieces and mini Oscar statue party favors — encrusted with the client’s name and date — continued to enhanced the über-glam theme.
But this wasn’t a party for a large corporation’s annual meeting or a movie buff celebrating his retirement. This was a sweet 16 party.
The fete arranged by Hughes-Doyle is part of a burgeoning trend in which events for teens are being planned with the same complexity and personalization previously reserved for corporate or high-end social events. And as this trend continues, more and more coming-of-age American teenagers now want and are having their own pricey sweet 16 parties, bar and bat mitzvahs, and quinceañeras, thus creating a hot new business opportunity for planners: organizing flamboyant and grand soirees for kids barely old enough to drive.
Keeping up with the Joneses
What or who is behind this surge in parties that seem, oh, a wee bit excessive? Obvious answers are MTV’s ultra-popular “My Super Sweet 16” or increasing media attention on the super-wealthy and their out-of-this-world lives and parties.
Marley Majcher, CEO of Pasadena, Calif.-based The Party Goddess, who recently did an on-camera event for MTV’s show, thinks the trend is a new iteration of an age-old urge.
“When we were 16, we didn’t have Internet. We didn’t know what someone with $2 billion dollars was doing in California. Now these kids have these ideas planted in their head where before they were not exposed to it,” she says. “What’s more, if Jennifer in Oklahoma has a big party, then Muffy, who was at Jennifer’s party, now wants a party of her own. As long as the Joneses are out trying to outdo the Smiths, these parties will continue to be hot.”
However, Josie Littlepage, owner of St. Louis-based Cosmopolitan Events, stops short of blaming pop culture entirely.
“We’re finding the teens are copying off the adults that are having over-the-top events,” she says. “We’re having more 50th and 60th birthday parties than we’re ever had. They are just following what everyone else is doing.”
Sweet 16s: Threat or Opportunity?
Of course, the bloated grandeur of these events doesn’t stop with the Swarovski-bedecked tiaras. They also have a swollen price tag to match.
When Littlepage was invited to design the space for one teen event, she reports, the design budget alone equaled that of a typical entire event budget.
“These kinds of parties can easily run several hundred thousand dollars,” says Majcher. “But, of course, that could always go lower or higher.”
With those astronomical numbers at stake, could these parties be an important new revenue stream? According the Hughes-Doyle, for whom teen parties are 15 percent of her business, planning these events is a great way to stretch her creative — and entrepreneurial — muscles.
“It’s also a business move because the parents are inviting their business partners, other people in the office and people they would like to do business with,” she explains.
A Different Event Animal
While they may seem like regular events, according to Hughes-Doyle, the process holds its own unique challenges.
“The difference in working with a teenager is they don’t have many ideas, and if they do they are completely off the wall,” she says. “You also have to show them a visual of what everything is going to look like because they don’t quite know how to visualize the event. You have to sit down, get them to pick one theme, focus on it and kind of create what that’s going to look like.”
Majcher echoes her sentiment.
“For a regular event, I would meet with the client, draw up a proposal and then deal. In these cases, we have the initial meeting with the parents. I type up a proposal and run it by them pricing-wise. Then it goes to the child, and that’s where a lot of times you have to redo the process or at least redo 50 percent of it. It can definitely be a little more work.”
However, these events can offset the seasonality of the event business and serve as a way to distinguish yourself from other planners, says Majcher.
“The great thing about birthdays is that they happen 12 months out of the year, where holiday parties only happen in December,” she explains. “It’s also a good way to set yourself apart. I wouldn’t hang my whole shingle on teen parties, but I think it’s good to have certain unique niches in your business.”
Walking a Fine Line
But back to those…“unique challenges.”
One drawback, according to Hughes-Doyle, is balancing parents’ wishes with teenagers’.
“Sometimes the teen has one thing in mind and the parents have something else in mind. And that becomes a problem for us because the teenagers are not the ones paying us,” she adds. “So, it’s a very delicate line.”
Even more, Majcher adds, a sense of entitlement by unappreciative children can be frustrating.
“Every once in a while you will have to deal with a spoiled brat who’s parents are forking over a lot of hard-earned money and who have no clue about the gift they are really getting,” she says. “I do think they need to appreciate that mom and dad could have bought a really nice car or, in a lot of cities, a house. There are a lot of people who will never have a wedding this nice — let alone a birthday party.”
Overall, Littlepage recommends that planners interested in teen events “volunteer with someone who does these kinds of parties to be able to get that event on your portfolio.”
Lastly, Majcher suggests “finding a friend or associate who’s already in the industry and [getting] information from them about the advantages and disadvantages. Get a feel for the market by calling your competitors and see what kind of prices they charge and determine if this segment of the market has the kind of margins you want.”
In the end, despite a little extra hard work and the occasional bratty kid, Majcher loves these kinds of events.
“I love seeing the kids excited and the parents happy,” she says. “I feel confident that I’m handling it when they feel joy that they’re giving their kids this great party.”