A color palette can be the theme that unifies and elevates an entire celebration—and makes it look amazing, too. Whether you’re throwing a Sweet Sixteen (or any milestone birthday), a bridal or baby shower shower, a Valentine or Galentine’s Day party, or even a bridesmaid’s lunch, rose gold is a fun but elegant color scheme that can help you pull together an Instagram-worthy celebration. Here’s how to throw a color-inspired party that truly shines.
First, Commit to Your Color
You want the color to be the first thing guests see when they walk into the room. For this party, rose gold—like any metallic—is both a color and a texture. But that doesn’t mean everything at a rose-gold party has to be shiny. You can bring in pale pink items that match the metallic too—as long as you’ve got plenty of metallic mixed in, the overall effect will read “rose-gold.” Just make sure that there are a few big, bold, eye-catching items that telegraph your main color—like these rose gold balloons. (These are helium, but you could use regular balloons and scatter them around the party—you’ll notice a few behind the banquette above—or tie them onto a garland.)
There’s also a rose-gold garland; the kit comes with a bunch of letters so you can spell out anything you want, whether it’s Happy Birthday, Congratulations, or, as above, Sweet Sixteen!
Once you’ve settled on a color scheme, it makes planning, and shopping for a party so much easier. You’ll start seeing everything in your chosen color. Things like:
Balloons
Candies
Candles
Paper Goods
Party Supplies (we found rose gold party hats, straws, even Sweet 16 tiaras!)
To really underscore the theme, you can even ask guests to come dressed in something that fits your color scheme—in this case it could be as simple as a rose-gold hair ribbon or rose-gold eye shadow.
Once you’ve gathered together enough elements to fit your color scheme, you can personalize the party. For my daughter, Pippa’s, Sweet 16, I mixed personalized confetti made with black and white photos in with the rose gold and pink items. You could also print out slightly larger photos and make easels out of rose-gold straws for displaying the photos.
Next, Choose a Design Detail—Like Rose Bows
A fun shape or design element adds another layer of visual interest to your party. In keeping with the coquette vibe of the rose gold items, I chose to make bows the signature symbol for this Sweet Sixteen. (You might do sailboats for a navy and white birthday party, or lemons or daisies at a yellow and white summer dinner.) At the rose-gold party, a single roll of rose-gold ribbon was enough to make bows to tie onto everything from party hats to candy boxes.
I also tied rose-gold bows around the stems of glasses holding on-palette candy.
It’s always fun to mix storebought things with handmade elements including these downloadable paper bow strawtoppers. I drew bows in two sizes, these small ones, which are great for straws and confetti, and the large ones that fit atop the party hats. Just download, print, cut, and attach to whatever you like.
I also made a banner out of rose bows fashioned out of metallic paper. For the how-to, click here. You can also use the leftover scraps of metallic paper to make your own confetti with a hole-punch, and scatter it across the table.
Even the cupcakes had bows piped onto them. We even mixed edible rose-gold glitter into some of the piping icing for shine. These are easy, freehand-piped bows—they don’t have to be perfect. If you’re not comfortable with your piping skills, you can tie small ribbon bows and nestle them into the frosting, as above. Baking the cupcakes into rose-gold cupcake liners is another easy way to add shine.
Shop Your Palette
As fun as it is to make details for a celebration, once you settle on a color scheme, you’ll start seeing shoppable decor you can buy everywhere. Look at these rose-gold balloons with rose-gold ribbons! Helium balloons are a fun way to bring your color scheme up to the ceiling.
There are tons of fun rose-gold favors on the market—including these Birthday Queen heart-shaped, rose-colored glasses perfect for the Sweet 16!
Other items that are birthday (rose) gold: These birthday tiaras.
Rose-gold (and plenty of pink!) was everywhere at this Sweet 16 party. There were pink macarons and candies on offer, and chocolates wrapped in rose-gold paper. (Foil-wrapped chocolates are a great way to bring a color into a party tablescape or sweet table.) Whatever palette you choose, if you stick to it, your party will look stunning from start to finish.
