Whether you’re Irish or simply Irish at heart, St. Patrick’s Day is a great early spring pastime that everyone can enjoy – particularly local businesses who host promotions. While bars and restaurants are typically the big winners on St. Patrick’s Day, almost every kind of establishment can see a distinct boost if they focus on hosting can’t-miss special events and getting their signage in order. Here are a few ways to create an unforgettable St. Patrick’s Day promotion.

Encourage Guests to Get Into the Spirit
This holiday is a joyful celebration of all things Irish, with people regularly dressing to the (green) nines. Encourage your guests to get all dolled up and visit your establishment by installing a photo booth. A custom St. Patrick’s Day banner in the booth is a great way to get people to take and share pictures of their outfits — and awarding prizes to the most elaborate costumes can help enhance the fun. EasyPromos suggests running a social media photo promotion where patrons submit photos with the caption “Why I Feel Lucky” to enter into a contest.

Go Green or Go Home
Come St. Patrick’s Day, most businesses and brands play with a variety of traditional Irish iconography: four leaf clovers, leprechauns, pots of gold, shamrocks and more. However, there is essentially one thing that unifies all St. Patrick’s day aesthetics – the color green. Green is overwhelmingly associated with the holiday, so much so that those not wearing green may find themselves playfully hassled by celebrants! To ensure that your clientele knows your establishment has gotten into the spirit, deck the halls with lush seasonal colors. Green signs, table clothes, napkins, even server uniforms are all encouraged. Any promotional materials – like a custom backdrop – should be printed in green and white to be in line with the holiday.

Partner with Local Businesses
Consider the St. Patrick’s Day stalwarts: Beer (often green), Irish food and entertainment. While some restaurants and pubs may be able to cover all the bases, others may be able to offer only one of the elements. This is what makes St. Patrick’s Day an ideal time to partner with other local businesses to create a comprehensive event. Seek out local breweries, restaurants for catering and entertainment companies to combine forces with and make a single can’t-miss event.

Get an Early Start – or Give Guests a Place to Crash
Celebrants of the holiday often take the entire day to do a bar crawl and see the sights. This can be fun – but after several hours of walking and drinking beer, exhaustion can set in. To make sure your establishment isn’t skipped, consider starting your event early. Offering a hearty traditional Irish breakfast can attract customers before they set out on their adventures and give them the energy they need to go the distance. If you are looking to get some late-in-the-day traffic, consider tailoring your event to be a relaxing place to crash – with plenty of food, comfortable seating and Irish folk music to give weary patrons a break from the festivities.

Look for the Pot o’ Gold at the End of the Rainbow
One novel promotion idea is a scavenger hunt. As Aaron Allen and Associates points out, many establishments hosting holiday events encourage guests to search out hidden prizes like a (figurative) pot of gold. A custom designed sign can come in handy as a way to direct patron attention toward markers they need to find.

This St. Patrick’s Day, take the time to make sure your signage is on point. Working with an industry leader like Sign Art Etc is the perfect way to make sure your event stands out. Contact us today to get started.

A quinceañera is a fundamental right of passage for many girls of Latin American descent — the celebration of their 15th birthday and symbolic transition from childhood to young adulthood.

Creating a fun and exciting party that pleases both the birthday girl and other guests can be tricky. You have to integrate aspects of religious tradition and cultural heritage with the contemporary fashions and activities modern teenagers adore.

There are staples of every quince (as it is often referred to) including customized quinceanera backdrops, entertainment and decorations, but within all these areas of focus there are nearly endless possibilities. With that in mind, here are a few tips to plan an unforgettable celebration.

Start Planning Early
Quinceanera.com has one piece of simple advice that holds true for almost any event: Begin the planning early – more than 4 months ahead of time if you can. There are a variety of moving parts associated with planning a quince, including booking the venue for the party (and mass) choosing a theme, sending out invitations, finding a caterer and hiring entertainment. As part of the site’s quince planning tips, they encourage families to hire a party planner or enlist a friend to help work within a budget and distribute some of the planning labor.

Think About Decorations

Since the guest list at a quince can be diverse and multi-generational, these parties need to have a broad appeal. This kind of consideration should go into the choosing of your theme, which in turn will help guide your decoration choices. Themes like “Hollywood glamour” or “high fashion” can appeal to the teenage girls in attendance (including the birthday girl herself) as well as be amenable to the family.

To make sure you’re getting the most out of the big day, set up backdrops for photos so your guests can show off their best party duds! Your backdrop can be customized with photos of the birthday girl, a special message or other images she would love. SignArtEtc has a professional design team that can do the layout — all you have to do is upload the graphics.

Choose the Waltz Music
The quinceanera waltz – a dance shared by the birthday girl and her father or grandfather – is an important part of the quinceanera tradition. Often, there is choreographed dancing and a ceremonial element that may need to be planned ahead of time. While there are more traditional song choices such as “El Vals de las Mariposas” and “Tiempo de Vals,” as Quinceanera.com points out, almost any sentimental song with an emotional meaning can be used for this dance.

Pick Your Damas and Chambelanes
Another traditional aspect of the party is the picking of the Corte de Honor. This is essentially an entourage traditionally composed of 14 girls (damas) and 14 boys (chambelanes) who are friends and family of the birthday girl. While 14 of each is recommended, as Q by Da Vinci points out, there are a few hard and fast rules governing how many there need to be and their specific role in the ceremony.

The Corte de Honor will often perform alongside the honoree for the quince waltz and other dances during the party. Since this group typically is comprised of close friends of the honoree, it’s important to gather the entire group together for photos and video – in front of the backdrop is a perfect spot!

The Last Doll
One of the more heartfelt and symbolic traditions that is part of a quinceanera is that of the “last doll.” This is a doll or toy, ceremonially gifted from the father figure to the birthday girl during the party, symbolizing the last remaining vestiges of childhood. The doll then takes on a role as part of the proceedings, pinned and wrapped with cápias – printed ribbons with the Quinceanera’s name and the date printed on them. The ribbons are then given to different family members throughout the party as a token of thanks. To cap the night, the last doll can be ceremonially gifted to a younger sibling or friend, symbolizing the transition to adulthood.

Sign Art Etc specializes in high-quality, low-cost custom banners and backdrops, perfect for any celebration. To learn more, contact Sign Art Etc today.