Quinceanera Court: How to Choose Your Damas and Chambelanes

The Quinceañera Court: How to Choose Your Damas and Chambelánes

What is a Quinceañera Court of Honor?

A Quinceañera court of honor is the equivalent to a bride’s bridal party for her wedding. In other words, bridesmaids and groomsmen. However, for the Quince court they are referred to as damas and Chambelánes.

What are Quinceañera Damas and Chambelánes?

The girls are called damas, while the boys are known as Chambelánes. Each dama is paired with a Chambelán to make a couple.

What is a Chambelán de Honor in a Quinceañera?

Traditionally, a Quinceañera will also choose a main Chambelán known as the Chambelán de Honor to be her personal escort throughout the day, but it is not always the case.

How Many Chambelánes Should a Quinceañera Have?

If you are planning on only having Chambelánes in your court, I recommend a total of three, including your Chamber de Honor, or a total of five. This way, you will always be in the middle in each group photo.

How Many Damas and Chambelánes are in a Quinceañera?

A Quinceañera’s court of honor is made up of fourteen couples, each representing a year in your life. For a total of fifteen couples when counting both you and your Chambelán de Honor. While it sounds cute on paper believe me it is a nightmare to photograph and babysit thirty teenagers for a full day while adapting to thirty different personalities.

Be mindful of how many couples you include in your Quince court and to make everyone’s job easier, I recommend you keep to either three, five or seven couples max including both you and your main Chambelán. Why? Because of symmetry. Three, five or seven couples looks balanced in photos because you will always be in the center of the group.

How Many Damas are in a Quinceañera?

If you are planning on only having damas in your Quince court, I recommend three, five or seven. Again, because of symmetry. This way, you will always be in the middle of each group photo.

What Does the Quinceañera Court Do?

The only real thing your court will do is perform the waltz at the reception party, that is it. Outside of that, they are pretty much there looking cute all day. So do not be the Quinceañera who maxes out the court count to fourteen for the sake of tradition. Keep your court size down to a minimum. All your friends DO NOT have to be in your court to enjoy your 15th birthday celebration.

Choose Your Quinceañera Court Wisely

Be very mindful of who you choose to be in your court. Because while it may seem like a fun idea to have all your friends in your court, not everyone can and will be able to afford the dress and tux, give you the afternoons required for dance practice or simple cannot dance. Keep in mind that some of your friends might be in sports, theater or other extracurricular actives after school as well. Remember, the more people you have in your court, the less photos you will have of yourself because your photographer will have to divide more time photographing your court and their families.

How To Ask Friends and Classmates to Be in Your Quince Court

I believe asking your girlfriends to be in your 15 is not too difficult because most girls love dressing up for parties. Guys on the other are a little more complicated because no guy really wants to dress up, pose for pictures and dance in front of strangers. So, bribe them with food. Inform whomever you ask that plenty of food will be present at every dance practice.

Trust me, this alone will almost certainly garner a ‘yes’ when you ask a guy to be your Chambelán. And you do not have to get too creative on how to ask either. Simply ask, “want to be in my Quince? There’s free food in it for you.” That’s it. If you get a ‘no’ let it be and move on.

More importantly, always deliver what you promise. Especially if you follow my advice on promising food at each practice. Because speaking from personal experience from the Quinceañeras I was a Chambelán in, I received absolutely nothing in return for my time. Not food or even a single picture to show I was even in a Quinceañera.

Let Your Court Choose Their Own Partner

Those in your court will be giving you hours of their time (not counting the money they will spend on the dress and tux) in exchange for pretty much nothing. So, another thing you can do next to feeding them at each practice is letting them choose their own partner from the pool of your chosen court.

Not only will it build confidence among the group by having them ask each other to be partners for your Quince, but it will pay dividends in your photos as well. I cannot even begin to tell you how many Quinces I have photographed where couples simply did not match, and it showed in the pictures.

Also, if you let them choose their own partners, they might even take the initiative to ask others who are not in your court. Thus, saving you the trouble of having to ask them in the first place. Be open to the idea.

The Quinceañera Court Outfit Color Palette

I want to believe that selecting the style (design) of a dress for most Quinceañeras and damas is not rocket science so much as coordinating a complimentary color palette. One thing I recommend above all else when it comes to color is to not match color, ever. Rather, compliment colors. Have no idea what the hell I’m talking about? Use this color wheel to visually show you which two (or three) colors complement each other. Use it as a reference as you design the overall party’s theme. Lastly, color accents and pastel colors are king.

Consider Having Only Chambelánes or No Court at All

As a photographer I much prefer to photograph Quinceañeras with only Chambelánes, even better if there is not court at all. Because not only does it make my job easier, but it also saves Quinceañeras a ton of stress from having to worry about everyone else on top of whatever else they must take care of.

Plus, if you do not have damas in your court no one will steal your spotlight at the party. It is unfortunate to say that it happens often. However, if you decide on having a Quince court, I recommend you keep it to two couples max, not counting your Chambelán de honor: three couples total including you. And if you happen to be dating someone at the time, it might seem like a good idea to have your guy as the main Chambelán, but it WILL NOT be a good idea in the long run. Trust me.

Have Your Chambelánes Buy Their Suits, Not Rent Them: Harsh Facts

Something that has never made sense to me is why damas are expected to buy their dresses, while Chambelánes are expected to rent their suit or tux. Things should not be this way because no matter how many fittings Chambelánes go in for and I’m speaking from personal experience here, they almost always end up with dirty, oversized trousers and jackets looking like they dug them up from their grandfather’s storage closet. It happened to me at every single Quince I was a Chambelán in.

As I tell my wedding clients, rented suits are meant to fit everyone, except you.

A rented suit is what? $150 to $200 on average? For what? So, your Chambelánes can only use it for one day on top of feeling uncomfortable in an oversized suit all day? It is a waste of money because you can pick up a well fitted suit plus shoes from H&M or Target for around the same price, less if you happen to catch a sale. Plus, if your Chambelánes buy their own suits for your Quince, they can then use it for Prom, Graduation or Winter Formal, essentially the suit pays for itself after a few uses. Or they can simply return it on Monday and get their money back.

That said, THE main reason I recommend Chambelánes buy their suits is because it will not matter how much money you spend on the fancy venue or the number of extravagant details at your reception, or even the hours and money invested in your dress if your Chambelánes show up in rented, baggy suits, in turn making your photos look cheap. Something Photoshop will not fix.

Consider Renting Chambelánes for Your Quince

It is not as weird as it sounds once you think about it but yes, renting Chambelánes is a thing. In fact, a good friend of mine is a Chambelán for hire in Oaxaca, Mexico. My two reasons why I recommend you book Chambelánes for your 15 are:

• Each dance practice will be breeze, assuming you already know how to dance.

• The photo session will also be easy to tackle because most Chambelánes for hire are also models.

And as I mentioned earlier no, your friends do not have to be in your court to enjoy your party. In fact, I think you will be doing them a favor by not handing them the financial burden of being in your court. Something to consider.

My name is David Cruz, I’m a 35mm film wedding photographer based in Los Angeles and I photograph Quinceañera clients on very limited basis. Click here for current Quinceañera package pricing and availability for 2023 Quinceañera parties.