Party Brats: Making kids’ parties come to life

Saturday, 7 September 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Kids’ parties are quite the rage these days and some of the thematic stuff done around them are unbelievable, to say the least. The Weekend FT caught up with Nuwanthi Ruberu of Party Brats who has been making waves in this area of late to have a chat about what it takes to do this kind of thing.

“It all started with me working on my son’s birthday parties. I did pull off my son’s parties in style every year and I always had the passion for it, but only managed to do it just once a year due to work constraints. It was this year that gave me free time to experiment with this venture on a larger scale and surprisingly it did kick off well, thanks to the creativity we went in with and the positive response via FB.” “Our hallmark has always been our ability to be creative, unique and stylish to boot. Party Brats always tries to pull off our events with style and so far, we have been blessed with success. As our motto suggests, ‘the limits of our creativity are only defined by your imagination!’ That creativity and originality has always stood us in good stead and given us the opportunity to bring colour and creativity into kids’ party planning. In a lot of ways, we have been trend setters and inspired others as well, which is a great honour to us.” The creative corners introduced at various events such as the make your own angry bird badge, paint your own sea shell (Little Mermaid party), Nail Spa for little girls parties, fun photo booths, thematic games and activities such as ‘Kiss the frog prince’ (Princess party), pin the beard on Sensei (Lego Ninjago), pin the bow on Baby Bop (Barney party) along with water related activities at splash parties have kept kids entertained for hours. Being an attorney-at-law by profession, her training in that arena has prompted Nuwanthi to pay a lot of attention to detail. Taking up photography too has helped her immensely and complemented her venture in allowing her to capture her work and give a taste of it to Party Brats fans via FB. “Before I go any further, I have to credit my sister Dilanthi, who deserves the creative credit for the name under which we operate now. It was another spur of the moment thing that was sparked off while watching a movie. When the words ‘Party Brats’ popped out of her mouth, we all instantly felt that it was perfect.” So how does Party Brats cater to different age groups? “Teen parties present a different sort of challenge. We did an Oscars theme and Masquerade theme recently that allowed us to highlight our creativity and potential. The decision is sometimes made by the teen and not the parent so you need to be able to relate to that. The challenge is to realise what the overall theme is and avoid being garish without being too frugal.” Party Brats is well known for the customised décor elements created in-house. This allows for a greater control of getting the exact theme and colour coordination right and, according to Nuwanthi, is also a much more cost effective way in achieving the objectives that both she and her clients wish for. “For themes like Ninja, Pocoyo and the popular Baby TV Character Charlie, we even created the party cups and hats to match the theme, which was a lot more cost effective than importing, and was really appreciated by my client.” Good things don’t come easy, and the same applies to Party Brats’ work. Planning parties from invitation to loot bags, entertainment, etc., can be tiring, especially when handling few different themes from end to end. “However I find the satisfaction, admiration and most of all the appreciation I get at the end of every party amazing and inspiring. I was quite tickled when a friend rang me up just to tell me “do you know that Party Brats are being referred to as THE kids’ party planners in Colombo?” “It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t say a big thank you to PB fans and followers, for all your support and appreciation. It would also be amiss if I did not thank my family and close friends who always believed in this side of me and for support and encouraging words given at all times. A big thank you to my family, especially to my supportive husband Praveen, for all your energy and time at set-up time. Your little tips on colour and artistic touch are greatly appreciated. I also have to thank my nephew and my five-year-old son for all the crash courses when planning boys’ parties. “I have a lovely team, with so much energy, giving me that gentle push when I feel tired and might let go of the finest points. Thank you to my team for all the lovely creative work that brings my ideas to life. I have come a long way since January and there’s much more to be done in revolutionising kids’ events. For instance, I am determined to do things to help needy kids and bring a smile to their faces and hopefully the day will not be too far away that PB is able to do that.” Next step for Party Brats? “We are definitely looking to move forward into doing more corporate-related events for our clientele, albeit on a small scale. There have been several inquiries that have prompted us to think along these lines. So that’s one definite move we plan to do.” Nuwanthi certainly seems to have got the formula right and it looks as if she will go from strength to strength.