Planning a quinceañera, month by month
What to book and when, from eighteen months out to the week of. A planning timeline for a quinceañera near Austin.
A quinceañera is planned further out than most people expect, and the parts that go wrong are almost always the ones left late.
Here is a rough order of operations. Adjust it to your family. The only fixed rule is that the venue and the date come first, because everything else is scheduled around them.
Eighteen to twelve months out
Set the date and book the venue.
Everything downstream depends on this, and the good weekends in spring and autumn go early. If you are looking at a venue that also hosts weddings, you are competing with wedding bookings for the same Saturdays.
Decide the size at the same time. A room that seats two hundred and twenty and a room that seats eighty produce very different budgets.
Twelve to nine months out
Book the photographer and the music, whether that is a DJ or a group.
Start the dress. If it is being made rather than bought, this is not early.
Talk to the church if there is a mass, and get that on the calendar before anything else is printed.
Nine to six months out
Choose the court and tell them. Fourteen teenagers need lead time to sort out their own outfits and their own schedules.
Book the caterer. If the venue has an open vendor policy, you can bring the family caterer or the restaurant you actually like rather than picking from a list.
Order invitations.
Six to three months out
Choreography starts. The waltz and the surprise dance both take longer to rehearse than anyone plans for, especially with a court that has school and jobs.
Confirm flowers, cake and decorations.
Send invitations at three months if guests are travelling.
Three months to the week of
Final dress fitting. Final headcount to the caterer. Confirm timings with every vendor in writing.
Work out where out of town family sleeps. If the venue has rooms, take them. Grandparents driving home late at night is the thing families regret.
The week of
Confirm arrival times with the court, not just the parents.
Print a running order and give it to somebody who is not you. On the day, the person holding the schedule should not be the person being celebrated or the person paying for it.
Then stop. Everything that is not done by Thursday is not going to matter on Saturday.
Moonshadow Ranch hosts quinceañeras on sixty acres in Burnet County, forty five minutes from Austin. See the venue, or send us your date.