1st Annual Harry Potter Party

I've always dreamed of having my own Harry Potter party just for the sake of having a Harry Potter party! And this weekend that dream finally came true. Here is a breakdown of how I made my friends night truly magical:


Food and Drinks

I am not the best at cooking, so I just fed my guests light snacks and a mixed drink. My friend Sarah made an amazing pasta salad dish I called "Herbology Compost" and Pumpkin Pasties! I downloaded a Harry Potter font off the internet, cut the labels and taped them onto folded notecards for placards!

For Golden Snitches, I used printouts from Bite Sized Biggie and Lindor white chocolates.

My Pensieve did not go quite as well as the one from Rae Gun Ramblings. We were unable to insert the cool whip/jello into the jello with a funnel as I did not have one. Instead, we poured the cool whip/jello mixture on top of the jello. Then, we took blue food coloring and swirled it on top using a fork.

For Dragon Eggs, we added blue food coloring to my mom's deviled egg filling. 

Chocolate frogs are super easy - just order a frog mold like this one and candy melts. Melt the candy, place in the mold and refrigerate! I made dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate to make things a little more colorful!

We used Cooking with Curls' recipe for Polyjuice Potion. The supermarkets near my house did not have lime sherbert, so I got Great Value rainbow sherbert from Walmart instead. We added a little green food coloring, and the end result looked super cool!

I wanted to have a fun non-alcoholic drink option for my friends who were driving or do not drink, so I found "Flying Cauldron" butterscotch soft drinks at IT'SUGAR Charleston. They were a little bit on the expensive side so I only bought a few!

Decor

I love decorating for parties! For my party, I was lucky because I already have a lot of Harry Potter themed stuff. I placed my English and Spanish versions of the Harry Potter books out for display. I also have "floating candles" from a previous party I attached to the ceiling. I made them by hot gluing a flameless tea candle into a toilet paper or paper towel roll and then using my hot glue to shape "wax drippings around the edge of the roll. Then I painted each "candle" white with acrylic paint and attached a piece of fishing line to each side to attach it to the ceiling.

When guests walked up to our front door, they were greeted by a brick background paper I ordered off Amazon on our front door. I printed out a sign that said "Platform 9 3/4" to make them feel like they were entering the magical world of Harry Potter!

When they entered our front hall, they were greeted by a Hogwarts scarf on our coat rack, the Sorting Hat on a stool, life sized cardboard cutouts of the trio (also available on Amazon), and this set up. I bought cheap Harry Potter glasses and lightening bolt temp tattoos off Amazon. I made wands for each of my friends by hot gluing fun designs on wooden sticks (takeout chopsticks work AMAZING too) and then painting them with acrylic paint. I ordered these cute photobooth props for pictures. Finally, I google searched some Harry Potter newspaper clipping and taped them to our walls.

My boyfriend Will surprised me and ordered a print of the Fat Lady from Staples. We attached it to a door so we could take photos of our friends pretending to peek out the Gryffindor common room.

In the bathroom, I took some red lipstick and wrote a message from the heir of Slytherin. I also placed a photo of Moaning Myrtle on the toilet. It was a huge hit whenever a guest would leave for a bathroom break!

Activities

I think the best parties have fun activities planned so I tried to come up with some good ones! We were sorted into houses, played Quidditch, found the Sorcerer's Stone in a mini escape room I created in our office, and pinned the scar on Harry Potter.

To sort my friends into houses, I printed out and colored these ties from East Coast Mommy and colored them the BOOK Hogwarts house colors (I like to stay true to book canon - also, Ravenclaw's animal is an eagle, not a raven). I placed the ties in a cool looking gift bag. When each friend picked from the bag they sat down on a stool and wore the Sorting Hat I ordered off Amazon. Everyone got really excited to get sorted into a house! It also made it easy to sort people into teams for games later on.

Our first activity was Quidditch! My amazing boyfriend Will made Quidditch hoops with PVC pipes, adapters, and flexible PVC pipes(?). If you are interested in how he made them, comment and I will get the instructions from him! He spray painted the finished product with gold paint and they looked so realistic, my friends were freaking out! To play, I sorted my friends into teams and gave them each a broomstick to "ride". We had a red playground kickball we used as a Quaffle. At the beginning of the game and after each score, we threw the Quaffle into the air to allow the teams to fight to catch it. Each goal counted for 10 points. The only real rules were that you couldn't grab the Quaffle out of someone else's hands and you also had to stay on your broomstick at all times. After an amount of time, I changed into a yellow tshirt I purchased from Michael's and held two wings I made from posterboard and ran out into the yard as the Snitch. The team that "caught" me received 150 points and ended the game. We had a blast and everyone is still raving about the game!


After Quidditch, we played the Escape room I created. I am hoping to use the game in the future, so I don't really want to divulge the details!

After the Escape room, I let everyone relax, eat, and drink. After an hour or two, we played pin the scar on Harry Potter! Dobby had placed it on the wall for me, so it was very close to the ground. I drew my best attempt at Harry on a posterboard and my friends took the lightening bolt temporary tattoos I mentioned earlier in my post, closed their eyes, spun around three times and attempted to place it on his head. It was a fun, calmer game to wind down the evening after lots of fun activities!

The party was a great success and I am looking forward to planning a Fantastic Beasts party for the movie coming out in November. After all the positive feedback, I will definitely have this party again next year!