New Year’s Eve in New York City can be mayhem. We prefer an intimate evening on NYE with our closest friends. This year, we cohosted a memorable rave with our friends, Harlan and Morgan, to properly bid adieu to 2015 and welcome in 2016. Raves originally referred to underground bohemian parties in London in the late 1950s but today they are largely about electronic music and dancing! It was an excellent way to ring in the new year and we are excited to share the details with you!
Electronic music is the most IMPORTANT element of a rave. We usually play Pandora at our parties, but Harlan created a special Spotify music playlist appropriate for the evening. Lighting is also KEY to set the rave atmosphere inside a traditional NYC apartment. We incorporated backlights and strobe lights throughout the space. We decorated our guests with glow sticks and glow in the dark body paint. We also placed whimsical neon gummy bear lights on the window sill. Guests shared their NYE resolutions and special messages on white wallpaper with glow in the dark markers. Our space even included a balcony with a beautiful view of NYC.
The menu was fairly simple: chips with guacamole, salsa and hummus and a cheese plate with Brie, Blue Cheese, White Cheddar, Goat Cheese, Horseradish Cheddar and Jalapeño with crackers, nuts and cured meats. Remember to serve a variety of cheeses – sharp, creamy, funky, spicy, nutty and/or fresh and incorporate cheese labels and cheese knives.
For dessert, Archana baked a SCRUMPTIOUS seasonal treat: cranberry orange cupcakes with yellow, blue and pink vanilla buttercream in both regular and mini sizes. Since it’s NYE, she spiked the frosting with a little Triple Sec. We used the 12 regular sized cupcakes to create a countdown clock. We used two Twix bars to create the clock handles and white chocolate and numerical molds to make the numbers. We like to adjust the clock every 30 minutes. As an added bonus, the countdown cupcakes helped our guests tell the time! Adults usually prefer a small bite of sweetness, so the rest of the cupcakes were miniature sized. These cupcakes were so YUMMY, many guests definitely had more than one. We also served homemade sea salt chocolate chip cookies.
For drinks, we served red and white wine. We started off the evening with a Hypnotiq shot topped with whipped cream, made by our friend Sunny. At midnight, guests enjoyed a glass of champagne.
Guests were asked to dress in “anything that looks good under a blacklight.” We recommend white and neon colored clothing. We decorated our guests with large and small glow sticks, which transformed into bracelets, necklaces, belts and anklets. Our guests had as much fun as we did with them! We also bought blacklight pens and face/body paint. We do not recommend the blacklight pens- they were hard to write with and we couldn’t see our designs under the backlights. The paint was MESSY but looked AMAZING at our rave. Our designer friend, Shima, hand painted original designs on our arms and Harlan’s face!
We had a fantastic time at our rave. Thanks to everyone that joined us and here’s to an AMAZING 2016!
“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”––Oprah Winfrey
Recipes From This Post:
Cranberry Orange Cupcakes: Taste and Tell Blog (replace orange extract with 1 tablespoon of triple sec liquor and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract)
Buttercream Frosting: Toba Garrett plus 2 tablespoons of triple sec liquor
Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies: Martha Stewart
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Stand Mixer: Kitchen Aid Tilt Head; Kitchen Aid Bowl Lift (we prefer the bowl lift model, but it’s more expensive)
Cupcake Carrier: Wilton (includes cupcake and mini-cupcake pans)
Wine Glasses: IKEA
Champagne Flutes: IKEA
I used to go to raves a lot in London as a student in low budget! These recipes look great! Nice idea for an alternative NY with friends!
I have never been to a rave. They came along after I aged out of that scene. I would honestly still go to one, though. They always look like so much fun!
I’ve never been to a rave, but my son goes to them whenever he can. He’s always bringing back photos and videos. They look like a lot of fun, but they’re too much energy for me. LOL
Never attended a rave – didn’t even really know what they are. But your photos made it clear. They sure do look like fun.
Never been to a rave – Sounds like so much fun. Are you doing it again this year? Looking forward to hearing what you’ve got planned.
That would be a lovelyy place visit. Thanks for the nice recipe and sharing.
Never been to a rave but after reading this I would love to. Great decorations to welcome a new year and looks like a good time was had by all.
This sounds like such an amazing event! What a fun party idea to do with friends, it looks like everyone had a blast.
This sounds like a great year-ender party. The energy and enthusiasm they bring to celebrating are contagious. I wish we could have that this coming New Year celebration.
Check out the views through the window! Amazing. It looks like everyone had a great time.
You can’t disappoint with a cheese plate! And the added sweets seals the deal for a satisfying afternoon.
Oh yyeessss! I love this so much. It reminds me of the end of the year party I had at one of the top hotels here and it was jam packed like yours here. 2016 and 2015 were truly special years to me.
It’s amazing to celebrate with friends and family the new year. Great memories writing posts like this.