Harry Potter Party - Decorations

Earlier this week I told you about my Harry Potter Party and all the amazing characters who showed up.  Now I get to tell you about my decorations.  I had so much fun trying to make the party feel like a Harry Potter Party and not just some party where we dressed up like Harry Potter characters.

I was really excited to have an actual reason to buy HP things and not have my husband constantly asking why we needed them so I figured it would be the perfect time to buy these amazing movie posters I found.

I'm in love with my posters! Yes they stayed up permanently after the party.

If you can't tell by the picture, the one on the left is from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and it has the boats pulling up to the castle and it says "the magic begins soon" (that's my favorite part) and the one on the right is from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and it is the castle on fire with the words "it all ends here" (that is my second favorite part and holy crap I can't wait for the last movie!). 

I made little hats for the house elves to find so they could be free.  I originally meant for them to be used as a wine glass rings so we wouldn't get our glasses mixed up but I figured out something else.

The table with all the party favors.

I picked up wine glasses from the dollar store for everyone and used my husband's paint pens (the red and gold were dried up - come on those were the most important colors!) to write "HP 2011" and a lightening bolt and then all the guests were able to write their names on their glasses as they arrived.  My husband (Ron) thought it would be stupid to use the character names instead of our real names (he thought he was too cool for all this...he also thought he was too cool to die his hair red but I convinced him otherwise) but as soon as my step-brother showed up with Ron's wand he was all into it!

 

My wine glass with my name on it.

My work friend (Tonks) told me I should hang candles from the ceiling.  At first I thought I would never be able to pull it off but it turned out to be so amazing!  I found some reasonably priced flameless candles, fishing line, and some awesome mini hooks with the easy remove tabs and I was set!

Lights on the ceiling of the Great Hall

Advise on hanging lights from the ceiling...

1.      don’t let the husband take them down 

2.      If the husband tries to take them down, he will take off part of ceiling so don’t let the husband take them down

3.      don’t place them in a spot that has apparently been patched and then repainted before you moved in

4.      don’t drop them...although they seem to be plastic, they will shatter