Mika’ela’s Quince Celebration

Last weekend I had the honor of coordinating another Quinceanera – Mika’ela’s graduation from childhood to womanhood. Quinceaneras are much like sweet 16s, which originated from Latin and Hispanic cultures with quince being among the biggest events celebrated. If you want to throw a full-blown quinceanera, like weddings, you’ll want to start planning about a year prior to your desired event date. However if that is not the case like Mika’ela’s Quince (which was planned in two weeks), hiring an event planner to help manage the details will help ensure you don’t miss out on important details, as well as keep the planning from getting too overwhelming to handle.

When I was hired for Mika’ela’s quince, her mom had already done her research and planning, but she wanted to make sure she did not get overwhelmed and stressed instead of enjoying one of the most important milestones in her daughter’s life. Mommy wanted to remain in the boundaries of tradition while still being creative and elaborate. So the first tip is to set your budget, guest list, and date, organize all the details for the party to ensure success then select a theme, colors, and style.

Mika’ela’s theme was more of an Arabian Night theme, using jewel tone pink and purple with white and silver. If the formality of the church and priest is not being included as with Mika’ela’s quince, then the next step is to book a venue like Princess Manor in Brooklyn that offers on-site catering. You’ll want to think about entertainment, in Mika’ela’s case there was a DJ, a slide show presentation, masks for the guests, a photo booth with props, a graffiti artist doing personalized t-shirts for the guests, and also a henna artist. Other services needed was a limo, photographer, and cake.

Once all the primary elements are all out of the way, the job of creating a quince order of events or an event program is in order. It is not necessary to print an actual program, when working with my clients I usually like to go with the element of surprise, this way it keeps the guests wondering what’s next. Like my event tagline states… because your event should make a statement (click to tweet).

MIKA’ELA’S QUINCE ORDER OF EVENTS

Upon arrival the guests, they were treated to a red carpet reception – waiters served cider champagne and they had their pictures taken on the step and repeat.
The guests were directed to their seats using seating cards, and about an hour later the MC announced the Quinceanera’s entrance. The sequences was the mom and grandma followed by the shoe and crown bearer.
The quinceanera was crowned, the changing of the shoe done after which the toast and blessing given.
Then it was time for everyone to eat, calling one table at a t time as the dinner was buffet style. The Quinceanera was officially served by her own waiter.
After dinner there was a break from the festivities to light the 16 candles and cut the cake, followed by singing happy birthday to the Quinceanera.

Traditional Quinceaneras usually include key elements such as the last doll, the father-daughter dance, and the Quinceanera’s waltz. Mika’ela’s party only incorporated the last doll which was displayed on a LED column in the lounge area.