So last week we hosted my son Bryon Jr’s 16th Birthday Party and it was a HUGE SUCCESS!!!! Much like his graduation Pool Party, our family doesn’t really know how to do anything small. I mean, we start with a small concept and somehow the idea just grows to something grand.
Planning this birthday party was a lot of fun, also a lot of stress considering the last few weeks I’ve been sick. My oldest son if you aren’t aware is my bonus child so in events like this his mother and I work together. I’ll be honest, although this has nothing to do with the party, this is something that I am very proud of… we have mastered co-parenting and being a blended family. When it comes to things like this we happily come together and plan!
So the first step was locking in the date which was semi easy because we had limited options with his basketball schedule. Luckily, Bryon Jr’s birthday was close to MLK weekend so we settled on a Sunday evening when there were obviously no games and no school the following day. FYI, Sundays are usually always a cheaper option when hosting any event as most venues are busiest Saturday.
Bryon wanted a club like feel and that helped tremendously when searching for his venue. We were able to narrow it down to two locations downtown based on size and availability. We ended up going with the final location because not only was I friends with the owner, but the interior color scheme fit our color theme which was red, black and gold!
We picked a large club, with a smaller club upstairs. To help you visualize the space, as soon as you entered, there was red carpet which ran from the front door up a set of stairs and through a red and gold little hallway. The space then opens up to a bar on the right (which lights up), ample seating on the perimeter off the wall, a few hanging TV’s and a backdrop for pictures. There was also an open room connected with a pool table to the right and a to the left a private balcony with additional seating and tables. There was literally nothing décor wise that had to be done. We did opt to bring in a few balloons but other than that nothing!
I thought it would be cool to have the focal point of the second room be a candy table which we placed on top of the pool table. The Thursday before our event I hired a friend of mine Jamie, from Where Dreamz Come True to do the design. She is PHENOMENAL, and as you can see below the table was worth every penny! She also made our custom signs with Bryon’s name and logo, for the bar and put centerpieces and candles on all the smaller tables throughout the room. The table itself had a variety of candy, cakepops, his actual cake (compliments of Custom Confections by Becky), gold apples, oreos with his logo, banana pudding pushpops with his logo, pretzel rods, gold chocolate covered strawberries and so much more! Watch the video on her page to see it in person, the pictures alone don’t do it justice!
Not only did we support a few local businesses, but we proudly hired only the best for his party! The best DJ’s, the well-known duo It’s The Good Guys, consisting of DJ Meel and DJ Steph Floss. Our favorite family photographer Stephen Midgett captured the evening (BTW he does our pictures for everything in life dating back to our engagement pictures to our wedding, gender reveal, birthdays, professional headshots etc. He’s definitely the best). We also worked with my favorite graphic designer, someone I drive crazy all the time Bravo from LIVV Design to create his logo which was then used on everything! He also created his invitation, a snap chat filter, a step and repeat banner for photos, and picture frame for his photo booth. Everything turned out amazing thanks to everyone mentioned above.
All in all, everything day of tuned out great and the party was packed with teenagers, and a few adults! The balcony space upstairs gave the parents who stayed a place to hangout away from the kids, and the kids had space to either stand, sit or dance. The space was great and fitting for this event.
I’ll be honest, the only con was that this location only allows you to use their in house catering which increased our budget, because Telina had a caterer that was not going to charge her much to make the food. We knew we only wanted finger foods so we set up a tasting with the chef a few weeks out and decided on boneless wings, chicken fingers, quesadillas, beef sliders, salmon sliders, and a chicken alfredo pasta. All which were good and easy to grab and go for the kids. The pizza was the one filling option for those who were very hungry. All in all, it worked out as we didn’t have to worry about delivery or how we would keep the food warm. The lighting in this area was bare so it was hard to see the food once it came out so in hindsight I would’ve selected a different area for the food or had more lighting somehow.
In the end we spent a little over $4,000 on the party, and I would do it all over again! That included the venue rental, all the food, unlimited non-alcoholic beverages, security guard, candy table, cake, step and repeat (backdrop), photo booth, photographer, all design work (logo, invitation, snap chat filter, and photo booth frame), and Dj’s.
If you need a space for a private event I would most certainly consider Medusa or Privilege as an option in downtown Cleveland. Call and ask for Faozou and tell him know you read about him on #CourtneyCoversCleveland
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