20 Ways to Save Money on Your Quinceañera!

Tip 1: Limit the Guest List and Set a Budget to Save Money on Your Quinceañera

The following is a sample budget set at $2,500 for 50 guests:
Dress & Accessories: $300
Hair & Makeup: $100
Venue Rental: $350
Ceremony Fees: $50
Flowers and Decorations: $150
Food & Beverages: $500 ($10 per person)
Cake: $150
Music: $150
Photo & Video: $350
Invitations: $100
Limo: $200
Favors: $100

Tip 2: Pick a Dress That Can Be Reused for Prom

When choosing your quince dress, consider a dress that can be converted into a simpler style to be worn to prom. For example, the skirt of a ball gown quince dress can be removed or shortened to create a new style using the same materials. You can also have a tailor attach the bodice of your quince dress to a different skirt more appropriate for prom. Using one dress for two events will save you tons of money.

Tip 3: Get Free Photo/Video by Using Friends & Family to Save Money on Your Quinceañera!

If you’re tight and budget and can’t afford to spend money on a photographer or videographer, remind your friends and family to bring their cameras and snap away the whole night. You’ll get pictures and videos from different perspectives, as well as plenty of candids. You can even come up with a hashtag for your quinceañera, such as #MonicasQuince, which you can revisit anytime to see the pictures!

Tip 4: Create Centerpieces Using Items from the Dollar Store

You can create beautiful and simple centerpieces using floating tea light candles and flowers. Buy glass bowls or vases from the dollar store and fill them halfway with water. Add the tea lights and flowers of your choice; you can even coordinate the colors of the flowers and water to your quince theme. Instead of water you also use sand and seashells for an underwater or nautical theme.

Tip 5: Use Balloons to Decorate Instead of Flowers

Balloons are much cheaper than flowers and make just as big of a statement! You can create a balloon arc over the table of the Corte de Honor, tie balloons to the back of the chairs, or create colorful balloon bouquets as centerpieces.

Tip 6: Get a Few Small Cakes Instead of One Big Cake

Order a small, beautiful cake as a centerpiece to the dessert table. Ask friends and relatives to bake smaller cakes with similar designs to place around your centerpiece. Not only will your dessert table stand out, but your guests will have many different flavors of delicious cake to choose from!

Tip 7: Instead of a Sit-Down Dinner, Serve Finger Foods

When it comes to food, appetizers and finger foods are less expensive, especially if served buffet-style. You save money because guests serve themselves instead of a waiter serving them. Additionally, people tend to eat more when food is brought to them or set on their table instead of choosing what food to eat from a buffet.

Tip 8: Use Flowers that are In Season to Save Money on Your Quinceañera

To spend less on flower centerpieces and bouquets, choose blooms that are in season for your location at the time of your quinceañera. For example, in Los Angeles, calla lilies (a flower made famous in Mexican paintings) are in season year round, so they’re relatively affordable. This beautiful bloom doesn’t naturally grow on the East Coast, however, making it very expensive there.

Tip 9: Ask for Sponsors

You can ask padrinos and madrinas to sponsor certain aspects of your Quinceanera, like the Choosing the Perfect Quinceanera Dress, shoes, accessories, centerpieces, cake, balloons, limo, music-anything you can think of! The padrinos and madrinas can be close friends or family. You may want to write personal notes that read “I would be honored if you would be my padrino and madrina for my Quinceañera.”

Tip 10: Consider Practical Venues to Save Money on Your Quinceañera

If you don’t have a huge guest list, consider saving money on the venue for your quinceañera by hosting your party in your backyard, a park, the beach, or a recreation hall. These options will be cheaper than renting a traditional banquet hall or restaurant, and all they need is a touch of decor to look ready for your quinceañera!

Tip 11: Use Your Own Music

Instead of hiring a deejay for your quinceañera, you can compile your favorite songs into a playlist on your phone or ipod. The only thing you will need are some speakers and equipment. Once you have your playlist set, just hit the play button and start dancing the night away!

Tip 12: Make Your Own Favors

Gather your close friends and family together to help make your party favors! Your tias and abuelas will enjoy their time together socializing and getting creative. All you need is a glue gun and some supplies from your local craft store such as ribbons and flowers. You can even hand make the traditional items such as the guest book and kneeling pillow.

Tip 13: Serve Homemade Food

Instead of ordering catering for your quinceañera, create a menu of your family and friends’ favorite homemade meals. Have your close family make one dish per household, and in the end you’ll have a feast ready. You can even serve the food in pretty containers or baskets decorated with your quince color to give some cohesiveness to the food.

Tip 14: Do Hair & Makeup At Home

Salons can get pretty expensive these days. If you have a madrina of hair and makeup, like a skilled aunt, cousin, or big sister, skip the salon! Have them style you instead with your favorite hair and makeup look, with the added convenience of being at home for the process.

Tip 15: Have Your Quince When Out-of-Town Relatives are in Town

If some of your close relatives live far away, consider having your quinceañera during a time when you know most of them will be in town. Out-of-town relatives are more likely to be around during a family reunion, Christmas, or New Years. This will save them money on transportation by not flying back and forth again just for your quince, making it easier for them to be sponsors for your party.

Tip 16: Have Your Quince in Your Family’s Native Country

Some girls choose to go to their native country for their quinceañera, especially if some of their relatives reside there. It reconnects you with your roots, can be cheaper because of currency exchange rates, and it can even be an excuse for a mini vacation for you and your guests.

Tip 17: Buy in Bulk to Save Money on Your Quinceañera

When buying invitations, balloons, or other supplies that you need a lot of, it’s usually cheaper to buy in bulk instead of buying a few at a time.

Tip 18: Print Invitations Yourself

There are many pretty templates online that you can buy and print yourself, saving you money on printing. All you need is cardstock paper or blank greeting cards and a printer. Save on response cards by having guests RSVP over the phone or through email!

Tip 19: Update Your Candles

Get tall, plain velones or veladoras (they’re like the candles people light for the saints). Use photoshop to change the color settings of a color photograph to sepia (brown and white tones), print the photograph and paste it around the plain candle. You can then add some glam to the candle by gluing on sparkles, glitter, or a ring of silk flowers in the color of your quinceañera theme.

Tip 20: Use Picture Frames for Centerpieces

Instead of using flowers for centerpieces, use your own pictures in matching picture frames, one for each table on the day of your quinceañera. You can even dedicate one frame to each year of your life, making a total of 14-15 frames displaying different years of your life!