Each and every person in the world has only one 16th birthday, so celebrate your (or your child’s) sweet 16 in style! From the invitation to the party’s end, keeping the theme of your sweet 16 birthday party lets your guests know what to expect, and here at Paperlust we have a multitude of 16th birthday invitation ideas for you to choose from, so you’re sure to find one that fits your style, But if you're still looking for other invites, check out this range of birthday invitation designs. Created in the greatest locations of Australia, you won’t find better local designers anywhere, and Paperlust’s 16th birthday ideas are unlike anywhere else in the world, so if you love our designs, you know you’re getting the best. Paperlust also has the benefit of being able to liaise with our professional design team about your sweet 16 invitations to make sure that your 16th birthday is an event to remember.

For the perfect 16th birthday, everything has to go smoothly from beginning to end, including all the birthday stationery products from the perfect 16th birthday party invitation to menus and place cards. You can even customise your chosen invite design, with personalised colours and print options of several available kinds. It doesn’t matter what colour scheme you choose, or what theme your colours go with, Paperlust has the best 16th birthday invitations for your big party.

WHERE DOES THE TERM ‘SWEET 16’ COME FROM?

You might be asking yourself, “What is a sweet 16?” and, if you’re a Sweet16 boy, is it just a girl thing? Although originating from the idea of the debutante being presented to the royal court (up until the early 20th century) and similar to the Mexican Quinceañera on a girl’s 15th birthday (it could be fun to host a Mexican sweet 16!), the Sweet 16 has become a perfect opportunity to celebrate a young person’s coming of age and rite of passage into adulthood, male or female. Why 16? It’s an age where young people start to mature out of childish ways (for the most part), look toward adulthood, preparing to leave the home and start a new chapter of their life (it is also the age that a lot of teens across the world can start driving).  Why sweet? Chances are it’s because of the alliteration. Either way, most people agree that 16 birthday is a big deal, so let’s make a splash!

Boy or girl, you can definitely plan a sweet 16th birthday party, let your parents spoil you a little and have a big bash with your friends. There are so many sweet 16 themes for a sweet 16 party and if you’re planning a boys sweet 16 party you can choose a theme that you feel draws people’s attention away from the ‘sweet factor’. Some ideas for a Sweet 16 for boy are:

• Sweet 16 pool party (if you’re looking for Sweet 16 themes for summer)
• Black and white sweet 16
• 16 birthday boys toys theme (cars, boats, jet skis, fishing)
• Fast and Furious (maybe at a Go-Kart track)
• Boy sweet 16 gaming theme
• Boy 16 birthday sporting heros
• Laser Tag

You can find sweet 16 invites templates for any of the above themes online, but if you want to really wow your guests, browse our range of foil, letterpress stamping and digital print to ensure high quality invitations for sweet 16. You won’t regret it. Your sweet sixteen party invitations can be as formal or casual as you want them, and bear in mind that you don’t have to stick to a sweet 16 invitation template; if it’s within the budget, why not ask a local artist or designer to create a personalised invitation?

If you plan to go online and use a sweet 16 invitation maker, sweet 16 invitations templates, or a free online template, why not use a Paperlust design instead? You can edit it as much as you like, and you have a professional checking all changes before your invitations sweet 16 go to print so that you have peace of mind that you are receiving quality. You can even choose and personalise your sweet 16th party invitations on our website from your smartphone or tablet, requesting the changes to be made and letting our team do all the hard work. If you have any questions or concerns, we provide support and design advice to ensure each guest’s sweet 16 invitation reaches them on time. ‘Free online sweet 16 invite templates’ don’t give you that guarantee.

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE YOU ORDER YOUR SWEET 16 INVITATIONS

Planning your sweet 16 party is one of the most exciting times in the life of a teenager, since it’s the first big milestone birthday (before the 18th and 21st birthdays) and is often the biggest party a teen has had in their life so far. Choosing your 16th birthday invitations is one of the most exciting parts of planning, but you’ll find it easier to choose the perfect invites if you do a few things first:

CHOOSE A THEME AND SET YOUR BUDGET

Before you jump right into sending out your sweet 16th birthday invites, you need to do some planning behind the scenes. The first two things to think about when planning your sweet 16th are budget and theme. Both will influence every other decision you make on the day, and the best part is that your sweet 16 theme can be anything you want! 

Some popular themes for sweet 16th parties include:

• Carnival themed
• Beach or tropical themed
• Around the world themed
• Colour or pattern themed (e.g. stripe party or holographic party)
• Vintage or retro themed
• Masquerade themed
• Black light or neon themed
• Sweet 16 flower themed
• Vintage sweet 16 themed
• Sweet 16 crown/princess themed

If you’re looking for the perfect theme for you, check out our full list of birthday party theme ideas. 

What theme you choose doesn’t have to be influenced by your budget: a carnival themed sweet 16 could involve hiring real circus performers or a ferris wheel, or it could just mean you decorate with drapery that looks like a big tent and have cupcakes sitting on a ferris wheel cake stand. A sweet sixteen crown or princess theme also doesn’t mean you have to break the bank. When it comes to 16th birthday themes, you could use sweet 16 flowers to create a garden or enchanted forest theme, or use sweet 16 banners or material draped from the ceiling with fairy lights intertwined for a sweet 16 masquerade party (and stunning masks can be found at your local party store).

You don’t need to know the budget to pick your theme, but you do need to have a budget in mind before you choose anything else. Sweet sixteen organization doesn’t have to be nightmare because of the family support you usually have at this age, so sit down with your parents (or whoever is funding the party) and discuss a realistic budget and allow them to take the pressure off. Break it down so you know how much you can afford to spend on different parts of the party. Be careful to include all expenses: venue, invitations, food and drink, an outfit, favours, entertainment and anything else that’s important to you.

Once you have a budget and a theme, you can start making decisions about how the theme will actually be executed through the rest of your decisions. 

CHOOSE A VENUE AND A DATE

If you are thinking, “I want my sweet sixteenth to be just right, an event to remember” and you want more than just a sweet 16 banner strung across your parents’ kitchen and a few balloons on the gate, then you have come to the right place. Ideas for 16th birthday are endless, and you might want to start your theme with choosing sweet 16 colors.

But before you select your sweet 16 birthday invitations, choosing a date and a venue for your sweet 16th party are two decisions that need to be made together. Start with a rough idea in mind of when might work: for example, ‘a weekend in late September or early October would be best’. Approach the venue of your choice with this in mind, and confirm that they have availability during that time. The earlier you start planning, the better your chances will be. Finalise the date based on what your venue can offer. You may also wish to consider the availability of other vendors, such as entertainment or catering for your sweet 16th birthday.

Of course, you may choose to host your sweet 16 in your home. This gives you a lot more flexibility in terms of your sweet 16 date. If you’re doing the party at home you may be searching for free sweet 16 invitations. Sweet 16 invitation templates and sweet 16 invitation cards can be found online, but if they are claiming to be free, just make sure that they are legitimate and of high quality; also beware of hidden costs. While the idea of saving money is always attractive, you want to make sure your sweet sixteen invitations are top quality (not a pixelated photo print out), and the only way to guarantee that is to buy them through a reputable company. Paperlust offers a wide variety of options for sweet 16 bday invitations and you can put a price filter on the website to view our most affordable quality options.

WRITE A GUEST LIST

Once you have a date and a venue, it’s time to think about who will be receiving sweet 16 invitations. Start by thinking about your budget and your venue. How many people can be comfortably accommodated? How many guests can you afford to feed? This will give you a starting estimate of how many people you might invite. Once you have that sorted, it’s time to start writing the guest list. 

Talk to your parents about whether the party will be a family event or whether it will be mostly for your friends. Consider whether you will stick to school friends, or whether you will invite friends from church, your sports team, or from work as well. Will your parents’ friends be invited? Will your siblings get to bring a mate? There’s no right or wrong answer, just make sure you’re on the same page with your parents. 

Take a look at your guest list and split it into families so you can determine how many invitations you will need to order. You might have four people from one household attending the party, but you can include them all on the one invitation. That means, for a party with 50 guests, you may only need to order 25 invitations. Work out how many you need, then order a couple of extra in case you made a mistake and to give you a spare to keep for the memories. 

CHOOSE YOUR SWEET 16 BIRTHDAY INVITATIONS 

Once you’ve worked out a budget, theme, venue, date and guest list, it’s time to order your sweet 16 invitations. Yay! When choosing the perfect invitations for your sweet 16th, you should remember to take all the following into account:

• Theme - depending on the theme of your sweet 16, you might want your invitations to match, or at least to stay neutral. For example, a spring garden party might call for floral birthday invitations
• Colour palette - once you’ve found a design you love, you can usually customise the colour palette. Make sure you pick something that fits with the colour scheme you have in mind for the party (or just something you love! There’s no rule that says it has to be matchy-matchy)
• Print type - do you want your invitations to be simple ink on paper, or do you want something fancy like letterpress or gold foil? You could also opt for something like print on wood to really make a unique statement. 
• Wording - the way invitations are worded is almost as important as how they look! You can usually customise this when buying invitations, so make sure the invite gives all the necessary information and that it sounds the way you want it to. After browsing sweet 16 invitation ideas, you can refer to our blog for sweet 16 invites wording. If you are having a special theme for your 16th birthday party like a pool party, your sweet sixteen invite wording needs to make it clear that guests should bring bathers and a towel. If you are nervous about your sweet 16 invitations wording, you can send a message or live chat to our friendly team to get some extra help to make it all sound just right.

WHAT IF I’M THE GUEST?

So you’ve received one of those coveted sweet 16 party invitations from that guy or girl at school. How do you find the ultimate sweet 16 birthday gift, write the perfect sweet 16 speech (if it’s one of your besties) and find just the right words for an amazing sweet 16 card? The sweet 16 gift can be tricky because you don’t know what they’ve already received from their family or other friends, and as a teenager we know you might not have a million bucks to spend (or maybe you do?).

Some sweet 16 unique gift ideas can include:

• A voucher to their favourite shop
• A framed photo of the two of you buried inside a decorated box filled with sweet treats
• Putting in cash with friends to buy an experience, like hot air ballooning or gold class cinema
• A beautiful leather handbag or wallet with their initials monogrammed in gold (this could be a joint present)

If you’re looking at sweet sixteen cards and want the perfect words to say, “Happy sweet 16th birthday!” you could start with those words exactly. Some other ideas are telling them how much their friendship means to you and maybe sharing a fun memory of the two of you or a hope for their future. The card can be as easy as raiding your local newsagent, or if you want to really wow them you could customise a card on our website using some of your own happy sweet 16 birthday images (taken of the two of you on previous occasions). Using 16th birthday images in your card really adds that personal touch and shows the birthday boy or girl that you’re willing to go the extra mile.

Once you’ve made all these decisions, you can order your invitations and they’ll be in your hands in no time. Then it’s on to the rest of your party planning - decor, food, entertainment and similar. Good luck!

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