the girl who lived

i've dropped hints about this party, especially on instagram, and i hope you guys are excited to see it as excited i am to show you how it all went down!

i won't even begin to proclaim that i am the biggest harry potter nerd ever. i know several who are WAY bigger potterheads then me. still though, harry potter is THE book of my childhood. half of the movies were released my birthday weekend. the two fantastic beasts movies will come out that same weekend. november 16, 2001 i had my birthday party at the first official movie release. i bought tickets, FROM THE THEATRE, weeks in advance. that was before fandango people. i had to wait in a LINE. it was magical. flash forward a million years and here i am, 30 years old. and having another harry potter birthday party. because i'm an old lady. 

i planned this party for weeks! it really helped me keep sane while i was going through a tough patch in my depression. pinterest was my best friend! i knew i wanted a couple's dinner party which was perfect because meghan wanted to throw one. and thankfully since justin was feeling super guilty, he agreed to dress up and not grumble about it all. which is really hard for justin because he's the person form of grumpy cat.

invitations were sent via white owl to my friends a few weeks before. i had a picture on instagram and am too lazy to post it up here. i bought some stuff from china and ebay, some from hobby lobby, but most decorations were just printed and taped on. that's the bread and butter of my parties! around the house i had various decorations: framed picture of dumbledore, potion bottles, and house banners. in the bathroom i had a picture of moaning myrtle, directions to the ministry and also a haunting message from ginny. on the table i had some spell books, floating candles, wands, the mauruder's map. greeting our guests was the entrance to platform 9 and three quarters.

meghan and holly helped me with the menu since a) i'm not that great of a cook and b) i was super swamped that day. i really wanted to make a decadent chocolate cake and this one did not disappoint. it was delicious and everyone waned to take some home- the sign of a good cake.

i wanted the meal to center around my favorite - thanksgiving dinner. unfortunately i put off buying my turkey and then got sick friday night. i sent justin to the store with directions to buy a frozen turkey and awoke at 5am saturday to a frozen cajun turkey breast. imagine my horror! i rushed off to albertsons to find a non-cajun kind and was disappointed. i bought some pot roast but then realized that wouldn't work with my gluten-free friend. so cajun turkey it was! it wasn't as bad as i thought but definitely was not my favorite. the meal was still delicious.

my king's table finally got used to capacity and the setting was gorgeous. i especially love meghan's floating candles. notice the cute golden snitches i made.

 i told my friends that if they didn't show up in costume, they would be refused at the door. i made an exception for ali because she just had a baby a week ago. and hasn't been the movies. holly & nate were bellatrix and voldemort [the skull cap didn't quite work out but he got sown into his costume and she had on fake nails. so they won 'most dedicated']. kim & victor were ron & mcgonagall. she was supposed to be hermoine but forgot. meghan & steven were mcgonagall [she even bought a turtleneck. never seen the movies either]. steven was hagrid.

we got sorted into houses, played horocrux hunt, and some harry potter trivia. then we tried bernie's every flavor beans and they were disgusting but super fun at the same time.

 it was a ton of work for a three hour dinner party but it was still a blast and everything i hoped it would be. meghan asked me as we were cleaning up [which took forever] if i was sad it was over but i wasn't. november is going to be super jammed packed for me, especially with parties and things to look forward to. bring it on!