Choose a date, book a venue, find a dress, pick your music and make invitations. This may sound like the process devote to a wedding, however it is the task for a 15-year-old girl planning her Sweet Sixteen party. The extensive process takes up to a year’s worth of preparation. This has lead to even this year’s freshmen arranging a party that is a year away.

“I began to plan my sweet in early September,” freshman Hannah Marcotrigiano said. “A lot of the dates for next year for different venues have booked up already, so it is a good time to look now.”

Sweet sixteens have been a tradition for a long time, however they have changed from the once smaller and special gatherings which emphasized the tradition of becoming a woman. Now they have become all out extreme parties in which an inexpensive party can be from 300 dollars to about 5,000 dollars and a expensive one can be up to 200,000 dollars. When throwing a party like this, that could possibly be to same extreme as a wedding, the preparation seems never ending. For this reason some people decide to hire party planners but other take on everything themselves.

“The worst aspect is my mom because we both have completely different ideas. It is hard to put those ideas together and compromise,” sophomore Isabella Vitella said. Her sweet is set for next month.

Girls who have already gone through the process or are in the midst of planning say that the stress, no matter how much in advance you began preparing, will come. They say that there is a point in the process where it hits you that your sweet is approaching.  

“In the beginning I was just having so much fun with it, but as the day got closer and closer I realized there was so much stuff that I had to do so it got really stressful,” senior Ria Shah said. “Like literally, in March, I felt like I had a mental breakdown. There was so much that I had to do.”

However, some people are unclear about whether or not they want the whole extravagant party. Ria Shah choose to have an all out party with about 300 people on Ellis Island, but others believe that there is no need because you can have a smaller sized party.

“Seeing my sister have one made me want one because she had so much fun at hers, but I realized it just wasn’t for me,” junior Francesca Apito said. “I didn’t want a sweet because I don’t really like when all the attention is on me and the idea of people coming to celebrate me.”

Ultimately the decision on having a sweet or not is up to the girl. This is because they must decide if they want to deal with all the stress of organizing, but have the reward of an amazing party. One that she will remember.