birthday party invitations response cards image
Lizz
I don't have the money to have a huge party and my house isn't that big either. Most people are busy on my birthday, but I just wanna do something simple with my friends and family. Any ideas?
Answer
For my sons sixteenth birthday I wanted to plan something really special. I made some really great ideas on my own. I struggled with a theme that would fit a boy... I finally decided because he only turns sixteen once, we would go formal... He went along reluctantly at first. I began with sending out tuxedo invitations that I found on the stumps(prom) web site. The invitations were very formal but were priced within budget. A black tuxedo incased a grey shimmering card that told the details of the party. It would be formal to semi-formal dress...I was a little nervous about what the response would be. But everyone was very excited to have an opportunity to get dressed up. Many of the guys went all out and rented tuxes and most of the girls wore long formal wear...The venue was perfect it was an elegant hall with high ceilings and a wooden dance floor. There were floor to ceiling windows that overlooked a lake with a board walk. In the middle of the lake was a lighted fountain...that just added to the atmosphere. The first big task was finding a decorating theme that was masculine. After looking at the prom decor on the stumps website, I decided that black tie was both elegant and masculine. The decor would be in black and silver. We would bring top hats and stars as elements for decor. I hired a balloon artist that would sculpt two shooting star pillars to set off the dance floor. The 9ft pillars would be alternating black and silver balloons that curved over the dance floor with a giant star at the end. The top of the pillar would have small silver balloon stars hanging from curling ribbon. It gave the effect of a comet. My best break was finding battery operated fiber optic lamps to use as centerpieces (on a novelty website). I had black linen table cloths and in the center was a mirrored tile (home depot). I placed the fiber optic spray on top of the mirror. It was so cool with the lights dimmed. Everyone went crazy for them. I also had balloon centerpieces that I attached with fishing wire to the fiber optic lamps. The balloons were high enough everyone could see and they filled up the room. We used silver paper products. To dress it up, I made personalized napkin rings that matched a banner I had made that was displayed at the entrance. As favors I order black and silver mardi gra beads. The beads had top hats on them. To personalize the beads I ordered round plastic tokens from the (tokenfactor.com). The black tokens had a silver top hat in the center, around the edge read John Wesley's sixteenth birthday bash. I bought c-rings from a crafts store and attached them to the beads. It takes a while make sure you have help or a lot of time. I had a video that highlighted his life including his friends, sports, and family. We had a great video The video started with the switchfoot song that goes welcome to the planet.welcome to existence and showed his birth date and even his sonogram. It was really neat. During the segment with all his sports pictures, it was given a cool effect by running things in slow motion and adding different angles. Make sure you get a professional or someone who is not just putting pictures together. It will make a difference. The evening was centered around our next event which was a blessing ceremony. Imagine a bar mitzvah, but different. No poems! There were 16 honorees that were asked to speak a blessing over my son's life. For instance, they would say may you blessed with divine health. May you live a long and healthy life free of disease and absent of harm. Each honoree would light a candle until sixteen candles were lit. Representing 16 spoken blessings. I ask each honoree to write their blessing down. I will later combine them into a book and give them to my son to keep. While this was the main point of the evening. I made sure to limit the time so not to lose my audience. Immediately following the blessing ceremony, the DJ moved directly into the high energy aspect of the evening. The rest of the evening took place on dance floor. We used caters that gave us teen friendly food, wings, pizza rolls, and make your own nachos.. The cake was wheeled in on cart decorated with giant number balloons 16. I had sparkler candles that made a dramatic effect with the lights dim. The end of the video was still playing with the sounds of fireworks exploding as the cake was wheeled in. We had the party of a Thursday when the next day was a holiday. This cut the cost of the venue in half but it didn't affect the attendance at all. Very seldom do things every live up to my expectations but this party did. I could use the money in a lot of different places, but he is only sixteen once you have to hold on to every moment that you can.
For my sons sixteenth birthday I wanted to plan something really special. I made some really great ideas on my own. I struggled with a theme that would fit a boy... I finally decided because he only turns sixteen once, we would go formal... He went along reluctantly at first. I began with sending out tuxedo invitations that I found on the stumps(prom) web site. The invitations were very formal but were priced within budget. A black tuxedo incased a grey shimmering card that told the details of the party. It would be formal to semi-formal dress...I was a little nervous about what the response would be. But everyone was very excited to have an opportunity to get dressed up. Many of the guys went all out and rented tuxes and most of the girls wore long formal wear...The venue was perfect it was an elegant hall with high ceilings and a wooden dance floor. There were floor to ceiling windows that overlooked a lake with a board walk. In the middle of the lake was a lighted fountain...that just added to the atmosphere. The first big task was finding a decorating theme that was masculine. After looking at the prom decor on the stumps website, I decided that black tie was both elegant and masculine. The decor would be in black and silver. We would bring top hats and stars as elements for decor. I hired a balloon artist that would sculpt two shooting star pillars to set off the dance floor. The 9ft pillars would be alternating black and silver balloons that curved over the dance floor with a giant star at the end. The top of the pillar would have small silver balloon stars hanging from curling ribbon. It gave the effect of a comet. My best break was finding battery operated fiber optic lamps to use as centerpieces (on a novelty website). I had black linen table cloths and in the center was a mirrored tile (home depot). I placed the fiber optic spray on top of the mirror. It was so cool with the lights dimmed. Everyone went crazy for them. I also had balloon centerpieces that I attached with fishing wire to the fiber optic lamps. The balloons were high enough everyone could see and they filled up the room. We used silver paper products. To dress it up, I made personalized napkin rings that matched a banner I had made that was displayed at the entrance. As favors I order black and silver mardi gra beads. The beads had top hats on them. To personalize the beads I ordered round plastic tokens from the (tokenfactor.com). The black tokens had a silver top hat in the center, around the edge read John Wesley's sixteenth birthday bash. I bought c-rings from a crafts store and attached them to the beads. It takes a while make sure you have help or a lot of time. I had a video that highlighted his life including his friends, sports, and family. We had a great video The video started with the switchfoot song that goes welcome to the planet.welcome to existence and showed his birth date and even his sonogram. It was really neat. During the segment with all his sports pictures, it was given a cool effect by running things in slow motion and adding different angles. Make sure you get a professional or someone who is not just putting pictures together. It will make a difference. The evening was centered around our next event which was a blessing ceremony. Imagine a bar mitzvah, but different. No poems! There were 16 honorees that were asked to speak a blessing over my son's life. For instance, they would say may you blessed with divine health. May you live a long and healthy life free of disease and absent of harm. Each honoree would light a candle until sixteen candles were lit. Representing 16 spoken blessings. I ask each honoree to write their blessing down. I will later combine them into a book and give them to my son to keep. While this was the main point of the evening. I made sure to limit the time so not to lose my audience. Immediately following the blessing ceremony, the DJ moved directly into the high energy aspect of the evening. The rest of the evening took place on dance floor. We used caters that gave us teen friendly food, wings, pizza rolls, and make your own nachos.. The cake was wheeled in on cart decorated with giant number balloons 16. I had sparkler candles that made a dramatic effect with the lights dim. The end of the video was still playing with the sounds of fireworks exploding as the cake was wheeled in. We had the party of a Thursday when the next day was a holiday. This cut the cost of the venue in half but it didn't affect the attendance at all. Very seldom do things every live up to my expectations but this party did. I could use the money in a lot of different places, but he is only sixteen once you have to hold on to every moment that you can.
how to jehovah witnesses celebrate the conception of Christ?
witness913
they refuse to celebrate any birthday, but just because the bible does not order us to celebrate the inception or the birth, what is so wrong with celebrating the birthday, symbolically, of Christ's arrival, whether at inception or birth? JWs believe Christ was probably born closer to September, why do they not set aside an event to celebrate that? They seem to deprive themselves and their children from celebrating much of anything. I find this less than humble.
Answer
Jehovah's Witnesses often reject birthdays as "pagan" and will therefore refuse to participate in them. In addition to this, Witnesses also reject birthdays because they claim that they are placed in an unfavourable light in the Bible. The Bible only mentions two instances of birthdays (at least explicitly). These are Genesis 40:20-22, and Matthew 14:6-10. Two pagan rulers are in view: Pharaoh and Herod.
Jehovah's Witnesses argue that as negative things happened on these men's birthdays, then all birthdays must be evil. This is clearly a case of guilt by association as far as the Watchtower is concerned. But is this really sound reasoning? What is the source of the evil in the Biblical accounts? The birthdays or the men (Pharaoh and Herod) themselves? Obviously, it is the men who did the evil. There is nothing to suggest that these men did evil because of their birthdays. These men did evil all the time not just on their birthdays. Also, in the Genesis account, Pharaoh also did some good by setting a man free!
Witnesses often argue that there is no mention of birthdays being celebrated by any of God's servants in the Bible. Although there are no explicit references, it would appear that there is a possible implicit reference to birthday celebrations in Job (Job 1:4, 5). If this is talking about birthday celebrations, they seem to be being spoken of favourably. Job talks about Job's sons each holding a feast on "his day". In Job 3:1-4, the same Hebrew word for "day" (yowm) is used when Job curses the "day" of his birth.
Another point worth considering is that of the vast amount of chronological data in the Bible, regarding the ages of people. Obviously, there can be no doubt that Jews and Christians were certainly keeping track of people's ages. Just a couple of brief example: Moses was 40 when he was called and died at age 80 in the wilderness. There is even the recording of Jesus' age, when He was 12 and visited Jerusalem with His parents (Luke 2:42). Are we really to conclude that the arrival of a persons birthday would produce no celebration, or emotional response at all? In the light of the fact that Christians were certainly keeping a record of people's ages, one could easily imagine that such an occasion could well lead to some sort of celebration. What is an individuals definition of `celebration`?
There is nothing explicit in the Bible that that commands us to celebrate or not to celebrate birthdays. Rather, the Bible has given us a general guide on this issue when it says that we should each be convinced in our own minds (Rom. 14:5) as to the importance or non-importance of a particular day, and that it should be a matter for the conscience of the individual, between them and God, as to whether we celebrate that day or not. However, in contrast to all this, the Watchtower clearly enforces the non-celebration of certain days, to the point that a person's standing before God Himself is in jeopardy, if a birthday is celebrated in any way. The sad thing about all of this is that it is the Jehovah's Witnesses themselves who end up suffering, particularly their young people. Jehovah's Witness children can be made to feel unnecessarily isolated from their class mates when they have to decline invitations to birthday parties, and non-Witness relatives can be unnecessarily offended by the refusal of JW relatives to send them birthday or Christmas cards.
God Bless!
Jehovah's Witnesses often reject birthdays as "pagan" and will therefore refuse to participate in them. In addition to this, Witnesses also reject birthdays because they claim that they are placed in an unfavourable light in the Bible. The Bible only mentions two instances of birthdays (at least explicitly). These are Genesis 40:20-22, and Matthew 14:6-10. Two pagan rulers are in view: Pharaoh and Herod.
Jehovah's Witnesses argue that as negative things happened on these men's birthdays, then all birthdays must be evil. This is clearly a case of guilt by association as far as the Watchtower is concerned. But is this really sound reasoning? What is the source of the evil in the Biblical accounts? The birthdays or the men (Pharaoh and Herod) themselves? Obviously, it is the men who did the evil. There is nothing to suggest that these men did evil because of their birthdays. These men did evil all the time not just on their birthdays. Also, in the Genesis account, Pharaoh also did some good by setting a man free!
Witnesses often argue that there is no mention of birthdays being celebrated by any of God's servants in the Bible. Although there are no explicit references, it would appear that there is a possible implicit reference to birthday celebrations in Job (Job 1:4, 5). If this is talking about birthday celebrations, they seem to be being spoken of favourably. Job talks about Job's sons each holding a feast on "his day". In Job 3:1-4, the same Hebrew word for "day" (yowm) is used when Job curses the "day" of his birth.
Another point worth considering is that of the vast amount of chronological data in the Bible, regarding the ages of people. Obviously, there can be no doubt that Jews and Christians were certainly keeping track of people's ages. Just a couple of brief example: Moses was 40 when he was called and died at age 80 in the wilderness. There is even the recording of Jesus' age, when He was 12 and visited Jerusalem with His parents (Luke 2:42). Are we really to conclude that the arrival of a persons birthday would produce no celebration, or emotional response at all? In the light of the fact that Christians were certainly keeping a record of people's ages, one could easily imagine that such an occasion could well lead to some sort of celebration. What is an individuals definition of `celebration`?
There is nothing explicit in the Bible that that commands us to celebrate or not to celebrate birthdays. Rather, the Bible has given us a general guide on this issue when it says that we should each be convinced in our own minds (Rom. 14:5) as to the importance or non-importance of a particular day, and that it should be a matter for the conscience of the individual, between them and God, as to whether we celebrate that day or not. However, in contrast to all this, the Watchtower clearly enforces the non-celebration of certain days, to the point that a person's standing before God Himself is in jeopardy, if a birthday is celebrated in any way. The sad thing about all of this is that it is the Jehovah's Witnesses themselves who end up suffering, particularly their young people. Jehovah's Witness children can be made to feel unnecessarily isolated from their class mates when they have to decline invitations to birthday parties, and non-Witness relatives can be unnecessarily offended by the refusal of JW relatives to send them birthday or Christmas cards.
God Bless!
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