Lol you seem to know what you want, why are you even asking :P It's all good, although get that family friend instead of paying a professional, it's the same thing. DJ's overcharge. And don't worry about what will happen if its too simple, a party's fun level depends on who is there. That is all. If everyone has good chemistry and enjoys each others company, it can be the "boringest" party and everyone will still have fun.

Okay, so i'm turning 16 in November, and i know it's early but i want my party to be amazing! Basically It's going to be a "shared" party with one of my best friends because our birthdays are a week apart and we are splitting the cost and our parents are pitching in some as well. I found the perfect venue, it's $500 6 hours, and it's beautiful. For a DJ, we're either going to hire a professional one (we found a decent one for $300 for the whole night) or we will just use our family friend who is a former DJ, but we would still pay him $150 or so out of courtesy... Anyways, the only thing i don't think we'll be able to afford is catering. I was thinking we could start the part at 8:00 (so hopefully people have already had dinner) and then we'll just have a table with hors d'oeuvres and then dessert/cake. The thing is there will be 100 or so people at the party, so i don't think my family would be able to make that many hors d'oeuvres. I was considering getting a bunch of sushi trays, and then just have a few hors d'oeuvres. For dessert we aren't getting a professional cake, probably just simple cupcakes with sprinkles! So we can make those. We are trying to keep the party around $1200, so split it's only $600 each, which we will be paying for ourselves mostly. Is this a good idea? Also, for decorations, should we just do balloons, streamers, lights, candles etc? Keep it simple? white tablecloths? Thanks in advance :)