Augusto Saenz Photography • 614-353-1421: Quinceañeras

A Quinceañera is the Hispanic tradition of celebrating
a young girl's coming of age - her 15th birthday.

Today's celebrations embrace religious customs, and the virtues of family and social responsibility. The Quinceanera tradition celebrates the young girl (la Quinceañera), and recognizes her journey from childhood to maturity. The customs highlight God, family, friends, music, food, and dance.

Interestingly, many families today are merging their Hispanic and American heritages by choosing to celebrate a Sweet Sixteen. For their Sweet 16 party, the families do the full-blown quinceañera traditions – the religious ceremony, the reception, the tiara with the number 16, and more. We encourage families to select the customs that have special meaning to them and to add to the customs as they wish. That is what makes the celebration unique and very special.

In the Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central and South American traditions, the custom can be referred to as a Quince (XV) Años, a quinces,a Quinceañera, a Quinceañero or a Fiesta Rosa.

The Quinceañera celebration traditionally begins with a religious ceremony. A Reception is held in the home or a banquet hall. The festivities include food and music, and in most, a choreographed waltz or dance performed by the Quinceañera and her Court.

It is traditional for the Quinceañera to choose special friends to participate in what is called the Court of Honor. Usually, these young people are her closest friends, her brothers, sisters, cousins – the special people in her life with whom she wants to share the spotlight. The Quinceañera's Court of Honor can be comprised of all young girls (called Damas), all young men (called Chambelanes or Escorte or Galán) or a combination of both. The Quinceañera traditionally wears a ball gown, with her Court dressed in gowns and tuxedos. Guests usually receive small tokens, cápias and cerámicas, to commemorate the celebration.

Johanna's Sweet Sixteen

On July 20th, Johanna had her sweet sixteen celebration. Even though it was 90 degrees out there, she was a trooper and gave us the best of her and we were able to capture these images. Enjoy!