Ienne's Debut

This was one of the best debuts I coordinated, and most challenging too. We had a "CLUB" theme complete with a bouncer, flair tenders who performed to the crowd's delight, full bar set-up (except that only mild alcoholic drinks are served due to the age profile of our guests), a DJ booth set up (with Diego Mapa as DJ the whole evening), and a band (Taken by Cars).

Ienne is such a sweet girl, and still a bit childlike in her ways. She typifies girls her age who is neither a girl nor a woman yet. She was even hesitant at first to have a big celebration and when she finally agreed (due to her mom's persistent persuasion), she wanted a no-nonsense party, just something to celebrate the day with her friends and family. (in her thanksgiving speech,Ienne thanked her mom for "pushing" (what was her word?) her to have this party

She did not want a cotillion dance, 18 roses, 18 treasures, and 18 wines, but I finally persuaded her to have at least the 18 candles to give chance for her family and close friends to give their wishes. This was one of the challenges for me, for how can we have an enjoyable debut party without those "shimagajigs"? That evening, I personally saw that she really enjoyed the night because of the heavy turnout of friends and family who came despite the rains. Her great grandmother (who was a really cool lady despite her age), uncles and aunts came all the way from Guam just to celebrate the day with her. Oh this is another nice thing I saw that evening-4 generations were there celebrating!

When I met with Ienne and her mom, Tin, we brainstormed about the theme of the party. This was the first challenge of the planning. There were so many ideas that came to our minds: winter wonderland, fairy tale, casino, various kinds of gardens theme e.g., enchanted, english, spring, etc.. Until finally they settled for a "CLUB" theme.

There was a bouncer to allow entrance only to guests who have bracelets marked "Je t'aime", and a "karmic foot" stamped on their wrists. The hit of the evening was the Clique booth set up for guests to have pictures taken as a "barkada" in their wackiest shots and these pixes are pasted on an album where guests write their messages for the debutante. The set up of the venue was like a club, throw pillows, low chairs, and lighting effects just like you are in a real club or disco.

But for me the real highlight of the evening was the performance of the Black Light Theatre group of Sto Niño de Tondo. It was such an awesome and moving performance. Several guests told me they were filled with emotions, some said they had goose bumps, some wanted more! It was really something you would want to see performed again... You can watch it at Dan Pamintuan's site: www.shierdan.com or http://www.shierdan.blogspot.com

Looking for this black light group was one of the challenges. When Tin told me she wanted to give this as a surprise to Ienne one week before the event, I set out to look for it, asking several people I know in the events field, and looking for it in the website, but to no avail. Then the Wednesday before the event, the man-friday of Ienne's lola-aunt found this group, so we set a meeting on Thursday, and there they performed on Saturday... a real photo-finish job,but a job really well done!

The greatest challenge was how to make the program stretch to midnight of the next day for the actual birthday of Ienne. We wanted that the singing of Happy Birthday and blowing of the candles will be done on her actual birthday. So we had trivia games and had to think of other fun games at the last minute with lots of Starbucks GCs and 3 iPods as prizes. So by 12:00 midnight we are on the last quarter of the 18candles well-wishers, hehe, nag-overshoot pa.. :-)

Rains and all, the party went on till 3:00 in the morning... It was a great night!