The Ultimate Guide To Planning a 21st Birthday Week

This post is all about the ultimate guide to planning a 21st birthday week

You’re going to be 21 soon, right? How exciting! Lucky for you, I created this ultimate guide to your 21st birthday week.

I’ll be walking you through the timeline of planning a 21st birthday week and will be giving you many ideas of what to do on the 21st birthday and throughout the week.

This post mainly targets people that are planning their own 21st birthday bit it can also be used to plan someone else’s 21st birthday too!

What’s So Great About Celebrating 21st Birthdays?

I am a firm believer in going all out for birthdays and 21st birthdays are the perfect birthday to go 10x more all-out than other birthday years.

Why?

Because year 21 is when you’re finally able to legally drink in the US, book a hotel room, gamble in the casino, and more!

It also took me 21 years to realize that I should not be settling for less than I deserve if I want to maximize my life experiences.

Doing more gives me more to reflect on and document for my future self to time travel back to the great past life.

So, if you’re waiting for the “right time” to become your best self and don’t know when that is, make your 21st birthday be the right time.

Feel free to reorganize any events or any part of the timeline that I recommend for you. I am just here to help you brainstorm and make your 21st birthday week as perfect as mine.

Why Should You Celebrate a 21st Birthday Week?

Because, why not? You’ve reached a really big year! You survived for 21 years!

Also, 24 hours might not be enough to do everything that you want to do. You’ll be spending 8 of those hours sleeping too.

So, you technically only have 16 hours to celebrate. For everything that I wanted to do, 16 hours was not enough time. Therefore, I celebrated my birthday week.

This post is all about the ultimate guide to planning a 21st birthday week

Disclaimer

I am not a professional in planning birthdays and am in no way trying to kill your wallet or tell you what to do for your special day. This post is for informational purposes only. You, the reader, will be reading at your own risk. I am not affiliated with any of the organizations or companies that I list below.

Everything in this post is my personal opinion only and is based on my experiences alone. This post is not intended to offend anyone or make anyone else’s life feel less than what it is. I only intend to show you how amazing life can be if you make it what you want it to be. You should not use this post to make any decisions. If you do, I will not be held responsible.

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Let’s begin.

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The Ultimate Guide To Planning A 21st Birthday Week

Two Months in Advance: Briefly Plan

Start thinking about what you want to do and where you want to go. Not only can you start booking reservations for whatever it is you want to do, but you will also have plenty of time to change plans if you change your mind later.

Two months in advance is when I started talking with my parents about a brief description of what we were doing for my 21st. My parents both agreed that they were taking me to a casino the weekend after my birthday.

That was all that we planned two months in advance.

One Month in Advance: Let Friends/ Family Know Of Your Plans and Make Reservations

Start inviting people and letting everyone you care about know what you want to do.

It is a very good idea to let the people around you know ahead of time what you plan on doing for your birthday and how you want them to participate (if they are willing).

Not only does it show that you respect their time (because you don’t want to tell them last minute and make them feel pressured to drop everything for you) but you are also more likely to have everyone that you invite set time aside to hang out with you for your big day.

One month in advance is when I talked with my parents about where we were going and what we were doing when we were there.

I was given options and I decided to go to the Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino because it’s the hotel and casino that we have gone to the most (obviously my brother and I were just in the hotel eating Terrace Cafe buffalo wings and watching tv.)

After we decided on a location, my parents began booking hotels and dinner reservations at Br Prime. We were really lucky with getting rooms because apparently there were lots of events going on. There was a concert and a golf tournament happening in Biloxi on my birthday weekend.

I think if we had booked our reservations any later, we wouldn’t have been able to get the rooms in Beau Rivage.

Three Weeks in Advance

Wrap up any booking and reservations of hotels, activities, and/or whatever it is that you want to do that may need to be reserved ahead of time. (If you haven’t already.)

You do not want to wait last minute to reserve your spots or else your 21st birthday will not go as planned.

If you already did everything one month in advance of your 21st birthday, then you most likely don’t need to do anything 3 weeks in advance.

Instead, you could spend this week going over all the details of the reservations and making sure everything looks accurate and that there aren’t any changes that need to be made (number of people, location, etc.)

Lucky for me, my parents handle the reservations so all I had to do was make sure everything was set in stone and knew what was to come for the weekend.

Two Weeks in Advance: Plan Out A 21st birthday week

Plan out what you are going to do for each day of your birthday week especially if you want family or friends to celebrate throughout the week with you.

If you already notified them two weeks ago (because I said to do this one month in advance) then you can take this time to give a friendly reminder in case they forgot.

I had already notified my friends and family of what I wanted to do during the week and on my big day. So, two weeks in advance was mainly me reminding them of the plans to ensure they don’t accidentally make plans over the plans I had already made with them.

(I promise I didn’t force anyone to do anything with me. They were all very happy to be there for me for my 21st.)

Two weeks in advance is also when I wrote down what I was doing every day of the week and how much time I was going to dedicate to it (because I still had school and had to work around that.)

One Week in Advance: Shopping for the Week

Maybe you need to buy decorations if you’re having a party or you want to buy new outfits for the week (do you have money and the time for that…?)

My boyfriend wanted to make my birthday super special and bought a Finally 21 sash and a 21 tiara for me (because he didn’t know what to get me for my birthday so I asked him to because I wanted that too. Gawd, all she does it want want want.)

He also got me giant 21 balloons and regular balloons for me to hold too. (You’ll see photos later.)

I pretty much spent the majority of this week waiting for my birthday week to come and annoying all of my classmates and friends about how excited I was for it.

21st Birthday Week

Follow through with the plan and have one of your best birthdays ever!

12 Things To Do For a 21st Birthday Week

1. Make Something For Yourself

For the first day of your birthday week. You should make something for yourself.

There are tons of different things you can make depending on your skills such as knitting for yourself, drawing for yourself, or writing for yourself.

If you start off the beginning of the week by making yourself something, you will be nourishing your mind in a way by making yourself feel special.

It’s your first mini celebration for your big day. You only turn 21 once, right?

So, why not celebrate as much as you can?

What I Made For Myself

Normally I would choose the option of writing something for myself but I ended up doing that the day before my birthday instead (whoops).

This time, I decided to bake myself some pumpkin spice cookies because it’s pumpkin spice season and I absolutely love all things pumpkin spice. (Don’t judge me, it’s a delicious flavor.)

I bought the Nestle brand of prepared pumpkin spice cookie dough.

For some reason, every time I bake these pre-packaged cubes of cookie dough and bake them, I always end up burning them. So this time, I lowered the temperature from the recommended 350 degrees F to 340 degrees F.

2. Do Something For Yourself

What I mean by doing something for yourself could mean having a pamper day, going out on a date with yourself, or anything that would make you happy.

(If that means making something for yourself again, then go ahead and do that. But you already made something for yourself so why not do something new?)

Who said you had to wait for other people to treat you well on your big day? If you have the time and money, invest in yourself. It’s one of the best things you could ever do for yourself whether it’s your birthday or not.

What I Did For Myself

Three days before my birthday, I definitely did something for myself that you might never have guessed. (I got my first Brazilian wax hehe.)

Getting a wax has been in the back of my mind for a while. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to shave so it was cheaper and the least painful.

I thought about waxing myself so that it was also cheaper and resulted in better results than shaving (assuming I do it right). But in the end, I decided that getting waxed by a professional would not only save me unnecessary excess pain. It would also almost guarantee me the results that I wanted.

It was definitely an expensive investment but the results were so worth it. I tried waxing my legs before I decided on a Brazillian wax and I failed miserably. I can’t imagine waxing my sensitive regions myself.

Since I gifted myself with a Brazilian wax, I felt much more confident and happy knowing I did something for myself.

If you think you want to gift yourself with a Brazilian wax as I did, you need to book the appointment at least a month in advance. This will guarantee your spot to get waxed on the day that you want.

Don’t book it on the day of your birthday (because I did originally! But then I realized I don’t want to be in pain on my birthday. You need 3 days to fully heal.

3. Buy Something For Yourself

If you’re not a materialistic person then you can completely ignore this idea for what to do for your 21st birthday week.

But if you are a materialistic person, your birthday is a perfect opportunity to buy yourself that one thing you always wanted.

Maybe you have been eyeing a new makeup set, a new videogame, or a new kitchen gadget. There are plenty of more things that you might want besides what I listed but the point I am trying to make is that you should most definitely make your little heart happy and finally buy what your heart desires.

If you want to go on a shopping spree, then you go on that shopping spree.

Although, I would highly highly recommend that you intentionally set money aside weeks and maybe even months prior to ensure you have the money to go on your shopping spree.

After you finally buy that desired item, you will feel luxurious. Your 21st birthday week is going to begin feeling like the best week of your life.

Buying yourself a gift builds up the anticipation for your birthday significantly. Don’t underestimate the power of shopping.

What I Bought For Myself

So, I did just mention that I gifted myself with a Brazillian wax, but I thought buying myself with a materialistic gift would also be another way to make myself feel special.

It is my 21st birthday after all so I wanted to go all out.

I have been wanting to make myself a charcuterie board. You know, those cheese boards you see at fancy group parties of people that want to look and feel luxurious? At least that’s how I see these types of boards and the people that eat them and make them.

Charcuterie boards are also very fun to eat from because it feels sort of adult. Something about assembling your own food is very fun and adult-like, even if it is just cheese and crackers.

The charcuterie board I bought was $40 from amazon. It came with charcuterie utensils, 2 ceramic sauce bowls, and chalkboard labels (which I probably won’t use).

The box that the board came in looked fancy to me so this materialistic item definitely made me feel luxurious for my birthday week.

I am really glad I bought it in time because it showed up the day before my birthday. I didn’t see any boards in-store that I liked which is why I resorted to Amazon. Never settle for less!

Bonus Purchase

I also got a new top and shorts! My best friend was kind enough to buy me the shorts *blush*.

These pieces were from Copper Closet. I also bought myself a Chick-Fil-A Milkshake two days before my birthday. I asked for extra cherries so I had 3!

4. Dress Up Every Day of the Week

When it’s your birthday week, I encourage you to dress up every day of it! You could style your hair every day with or without heat. You could also wear nicer clothes than you normally would every day.

For your birthday week, you’ll feel much more special if you dress well. The way you dress and present yourself plays a very big role in how you feel that day.I highly recommend it!

How I Dressed Up Every Day of the Week

Four days before my birthday, I put my hair in a half up half down style. I made two mini french braids over the top of my head.

I didn’t do anything special clothes-wise because I had to go to a lab class that day and didn’t want to potentially ruin my nice clothes.

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Three days before my birthday (when I went to get my Brazilian wax), I wore a pink ruffle dress, wore white vans canvas shoes, and wore my hair down.

One of my best friends took me out to breakfast after the waxing appointment too. Doesn’t the food look delicious?? It was.

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Two days before my birthday, I had to go to a lab again so I put my hair up in two french braids (boxer braids some people may call them.) Despite me wearing normal clothes this day, I thought I still looked really cute.

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One day before my birthday? I did absolutely nothing this day because I chose this day to be my hardcore catch-up day for school work to ensure I could take the next three days off to celebrate my birthday. (My birthday fell on a Friday and my parents had plans for me over the weekend.)

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You’re gonna have to keep reading to know how I dressed up for my big 21st birthday day!

5. Go All Out For The Big Day

Dress Up

Yay! You’re officially 21 years old! Aren’t you glad you celebrated a 21st birthday week to build up the anticipation for your birthday day (yes, birthday day)?

First things first, you need to dress the way you want to feel today.

Do you want to be extra comfortable on your birthday? Do you want to fancy up your look and wear all your jewelry accessories and luxurious outfits?

Today is the day you should put 10x more emphasis on how you want to feel with your look. It’s your birthday!

What I Wore For My 21st Birthday

You’ve been waiting for my birthday outfit, haven’t you?? Well, here it is!

I went for a classic and simple look with a white romper. Originally, I thought it had pockets because my other rompers did but this one was the odd one out.

I left my hair naturally down (because I forgot to style it that morning). With this outfit, I wore a pair of mediumly large moon-shaped earrings that I bought from a lady that makes her own jewelry with real flowers (Earthologie).

For the shoes, I wanted to wear my nude heels but I had a lot of walking and activities planned for the day so I just stuck with my Birkenstocks.

6. Some Form Of Activity

You could plan to do an activity with friends and/or families such as a little picnic or group bowling.

For my birthday, I went parasailing with my boyfriend and it was a fun and new experience for me. We were high up in the air in the Gulf Of Mexico in complete silence (and some wind).

If you’re not doing an activity how else would you spend your birthday? Having a cake and blowing out candles is obviously the staple for birthdays but don’t you want to do more than what everyone else is doing?

Be different! Make your birthday different and memorable every year!

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7. Have A Family Dinner

The drink was actually tasty after the first few sips, don’t worry.

Having a family dinner is a great event to plan for your birthday because your parents want to be part of your 21st birthday almost as much as you do.

They did raise you after all and want to celebrate you growing into the person you are for 21 years.

I think that having a family dinner is special because it’s the only time of day where everyone is guaranteed to be together. I have divorced parents too so I don’t remember a time where I had dinner with both of my parents at the same time.

For my 21st birthday, I wanted to do everything with both of them so we all went to TGI Friday’s for dinner. I chose TGI Fridays because I was really feeling ribs that night. (Don’t worry, I originally did want sushi but ribs were really speaking to me.)

I also knew that both my mom and dad wanted to see me have my first drink so I had to have dinner with them both at the same time anyway.

My first drink was the Double Berry Mojito.

After having only a couple of sips of this drink, I realized that I might be a weak drinker. My face started feeling flushed within 5 minutes, but every family member said it’s because I haven’t eaten anything yet. (We were still waiting on food.)

So, the first lesson of being 21 is to make sure to eat before drinking.

How did it taste, you might be asking? It was bitter which I expected.

The more I sipped, the tastier it got because I got used to it.

The waitress also brought out ice cream for me and sang happy birthday to me along with my family.

So, if you’re close to your family and they can go out with you, you should try to have a family dinner with them.

Making as many memories as possible with your family members is a must and you’ll feel more joy knowing you still have good relationships with them. In the future, you’ll be glad you did.

8. Have A Fancy Dinner Out

Since you’re turning 21, the year that is considered your right of passage into official adulthood, you should consider going out to a fancy adult-like dinner.

You should consider having dinner with fancy alcoholic drinks too because you’re officially legal to drink in the US!

I was fortunate to be able to have both a family dinner on my birthday and a Fancy dinner the night after.

We drove out to Biloxi and ate at the Br Prime in the Beau Rivage Casino. It was a $$$$ restaurant so everything was very expensive but the experience was so worth it.

I had my Dad, my mom, my step-parents, my brothers, step-grandparents, and of course my lovely boyfriend. It was a giant family dinner of 10.

What Should You Eat At Br Prime?

If you decide to visit this place, I recommend the Blue Crab Cake, the Tuna Tartare, Calamari (that comes from the restaurant next door hehe), and one of the steak dishes. The steak that we got was the Tomahawk Ribeye. We also ordered two of them which is how and why I am seen holding the bone of both steaks.

The portions aren’t too big but you get complimentary bread too.

I highly discourage getting your own meal. With how expensive this restaurant is and how tasty everything is, you should consider sharing every piece of food on the table so that everyone gets a little taste of everything.

Your experience will be more fulfilling and worthwhile this way too. To be fair, my entire family eats this way anyway. Sharing every food item on the food so that we are all eating the same thing and maximizing our taste buds, I mean. (And save money!)

If you aren’t into the foods that I mentioned based on the name alone, here is the Br Prime menu.

Happenings That Made Me Feel Extra Special

Our waiter was very nice. He let me try a red wine and a white wine. They were both bitter but the white wine was a little bit more subtle so I liked the white wine more. They didn’t give me too much though because I was only taste testing.

For dessert, I also wanted a creme brulee because it is so tasty at Br Prime. Our waiter went a little extra and brought it out with a candle on top. He lit it up and they all sang happy birthday to me.

If you decide to visit the Beau Rivage in Biloxi Mississippi one day, I highly recommend you try the Br Prime. Save up your money!

9. Go To The Casino

Since you’re legal to gamble, of course, you have to go gambling!

If you don’t want to risk losing money then you don’t have to gamble but you could at least walk around and know what it feels like for the security dude to check your ID and let you in.

You could also just gamble a couple of dollars instead of the couple hundred dollars that most people gamble (aka my parents).

If you want to be like me and be super extra with your 21st birthday like I obviously did, you should wear your sash and tiara the entire night. At your fancy dinner and at the casino (because that’s what I did!).

My family and I were already in the casino because Br Prime is located in the back of it. We just had to bring my younger brothers back to the hotel room before we could go down and experience the casino. (Yes, they were of age to stay in the hotel room alone.)

We also went to the casino the day after my birthday because:

I wanted to do other things on my actual birthday.
My other family members were working on my birthday.
I wanted to make sure I was 100% 21 years old to try different wines and walk into the casino.

My Gambling Experience

When I went into the casino, I was really hoping for beginner’s luck. And I sort of did have it! It feels good to say that I left with a profit.

I played slot machines and roulette. I lost all my budget bettings with roulette but won one of the big wins with slot machines!

There were 3 different slot machines that I played and the 3rd one I played (per my mom’s recommendation) won me back my money plus $200 in winnings. How cool is that!

Also, since I was wearing my sash and tiara the whole night I was at the casino, I received some free money from strangers since it was very obvious that I am a newly legal gal (they are such nice people!).

One dude gave me a freshly printed $2 bill and another lady from a poker table next door where my dad was playing gave me $100 in chips. (Crazy, right?!) She is such a nice lady.

She said she was a doctor from Nigeria (I think that is where she said.) It was her $100 that I used on roulette and lost it all though… whoops.

I felt really lucky this night.

Overall, the casino was a really fun night. Especially seeing my parents in action when they gamble because they always talk about how fun it is. (They aren’t habitual gamblers, I don’t think. But when they are in the casino, they make the most of their time and are the people that stay out till 3 am.)

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10. Have Someone Else Plan The Day For You

If you’re not a big planner for your birthday or anything in general, you could always have someone else plan your birthday for you. Maybe there is someone in your life that is willing to go the extra mile and do that for you.

Lucky for me, my boyfriend was mine (how many times have I said lucky for me?).

So, when I said I went parasailing, that wasn’t my idea. My boyfriend surprised me with parasailing reservations.

I had planned every aspect of my birthday (and birthday week) except the activity that I would do during midday on my birthday. I reserved that time for my boyfriend to plan an activity. He chose a good one.

I’m so glad I was able to have someone plan part of my day for me because I had something to look forward to.

If you can get someone else to plan your birthday for you, you should do that because it makes the planning process that much more fun. You’ll be anxiously curious about what’s to come next.

11. Redeem Your Free Gifts From Retail Stores + Restaurants

Let me tell you now that redeeming free anything is so fun. It’s free!

On your birthday, you are appreciated by not only your friends and family but also the retail and food locations that you visit often.

But obviously, you can’t be appreciated if they don’t know who you are.

This means that you have to be signed up for rewards. This isn’t me telling you to apply for every single rewards program that is offered at whatever location you’re at.

I recommend that you sign up for the rewards programs at places that you go to often that also let you sign up for free.

We’re here to get free gifts so we have to make sure signing up for them is free too.

The only sacrifice you’ll be making is your email address but it’s not that bad, right?

Where Did I Go To Redeem My Free Gifts?

So, I have a lot of places that I am in the rewards program for. However, because there were so many, I wasn’t able to redeem all of them.

But that’s okay because they offer the freebie to me every year anyway.

So I had to prioritize. The places I went for my freebies for my 21st were Victoria’s Secret, Ulta, and Sephora.

I also had freebies from Starbucks, Panera, BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, Krispy Kreme, and others that I can’t quite remember.

My priorities were obviously the free gifts that I did redeem. Luckily, most of these free gifts can be redeemed throughout your birthday month so if you don’t have time to go on your birthday, you have some leeway.

As I am writing this, I still have time before my free gift redemption expires.

The only freebie that I missed out on that is only offered on my birthday day is the Starbucks free customized drink.

Instead of getting Starbucks that day, I went to get a S’mores ice cream scoop in a waffle bowl (which I don’t regret whatsoever) because the Starbucks line was too long.

Also, those two free Sephora gift cards in the photo were given to me because my boyfriend and I each did a survey with a guy standing outside of Sephora and would give us each a $10 gift card after we did the survey.

I also went to Ulta Beauty after this photo was taken which is why my Ulta freebie isn’t in the photo.

Extra Note: Why You Shouldn’t Feel Weird About Going In Stores to Only Redeem Free Gifts

I was talking to a friend of mine about how I only go around to redeem free gifts without purchasing anything.

She was telling me about how she is too shy and didn’t want to look weird.

First of all, it’s your birthday! You can literally do whatever your heart desires! (Assuming it is legal and ethical.)

Also, the employees you see will most likely not remember you if you ever come back to the store. You may see them again but they will not remember ever having seen you unless you tell them so.

I am sure they are envious of you and happy for you taking the initiative to go out and take advantage of all the birthday benefits that you get once a year.

Overall, don’t worry what other people think. Only worry about what you want and how it will make you feel when you finally do what you want.

12. Decorate With 21st Birthday Decorations

Who said 21st birthdays had to stop at experiences? You should decorate too!

Get those balloons. get the inflatables. Get anything you can get your hands on to decorate with!

Don’t be fooled because I actually didn’t decorate my room. My lovely mother did.

I actually don’t live at home because I am in college. I decided to come home for my birthday because I wanted to be with my family and I knew they would want to be with me too.

When I came home, I came to my room being decorated like this and it made me so happy. I don’t know how she does it but she always knows how to make me feel special and knows exactly how I want to feel special.

I definitely did not ask her to do this. I appreciate her so much and am so glad I am loved by her as much as I am.

13. Write Yourself A Journal Entry Reflecting on Your Past Year

I actually write myself a letter every single year reflecting on what I had done, what I had learned, and what I hope to happen in my next year.

This idea goes with my Time Capsule idea for writing letters to my future self.

In your letter, you should try to be as detailed as possible. The point of you writing this letter is for your future self to relive the memories of their past. Make this letter a happy one!

If you want to remember the bad memories too for learning purposes or whatever reason you have, then do that too.

Whatever it is you want to do, document your year in some kind of way. Photos, videos, writing, anything.

You will never regret documenting your memories.

Ending Note

It’s kind of sad for me that I made it to the end of the post already.

That pretty much wraps up my experience and my ultimate guide on how you should plan your 21st birthday week.

I think that my 21st birthday was absolutely perfect. Everything went as planned if not better because of the few extras that came along with it.

Note that I didn’t get drunk or party all night at the club or anything and still had loads of fun for my 21st birthday.

I am all about experiences and you can definitely tell from this post that my birthday revolved around experiences.

I did receive gifts which I am so grateful for but I don’t think those are necessary for sharing.

Those will be written about in my time capsule instead to keep for my future self and her alone.

Hopefully, this post inspires you of the many possibilities of what you can do for your 21st birthday and your 21st birthday week.

If you’re not at your 21st yet or are already past that age, you can most definitely apply this post to the other birthdays that you’ll have as well.

You might not get as much special treatment as you would on your 21st but birthdays are still birthdays.

I hope you love this post as much as I loved writing it and reflecting on my 21st birthday week. Thank you for getting this far and reading the entire post.

I hope you have a great day and a wonderful birthday.

P.S.

I most definitely used this blog post to document my 21st birthday so that I will never forget how perfect the experience was and to remember all the people that made it so special. It also makes for good inspiration for you and your future birthdays too.

This post was all about the ultimate guide to planning a 21st birthday.

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