Hogwarts Birthday Party - Part 2

Party Invitations

For my daughter's Hogwarts party, I did not want to purchase the usual pre-packaged birthday invitations. If you're going to do a theme party, you have to do it right :) That means I got to be creative with my invitations.

After reading many party sites, I patched together several ideas to create an invitation that looked like the Hogwarts letter Harry received on his 11th birthday. To start with, you need to find the perfect parchment paper to print your invitations on. I found mine at Walmart. It was a thicker stock, beige, with flecks. Looked just like parchment paper :)

Since we were inviting about 15 kids to this party, hand-writing each letter was out of the question. I found several great Harry Potter fonts on MuggleNet and used them in my design. Each letter was printed in green ink and an image of the Hogwarts crest was adapted for the letterhead.

The invitation read as follows:

Dear [friend],

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for Eva’s 7th Birthday Party.

The Hogwart’s Express leaves Newcastle Station (located at [address]) at Eleven O'clock AM sharp on October 6th, 2007 and the journey will last 3 hours. Please RSVP by Owl or by the Muggle telephony system at [phone] by Saturday, September 29th.

We look forward to your arrival at Hogwarts.

Respectfully,

[name],
Deputy Headmistress of Frolic
and Feasts, Hogwarts Academy


Of course that can be modified for your own personal needs but you get the general idea.

Matching envelopes were purchased from the dollar store to save money. I used the same Hogwarts logo as I did on the letterhead for the top left corner of the envelope and each child's name & address was printed in green ink, Harry Potter style, on the front of the envelope. I wanted to seal each envelope with a red Hogwarts wax seal. To make the stamp, I carved a small potato with the letter "H" for Hogwarts. For the sealing wax, I just used melted candle wax, which in hindsight was not the right kind of wax because they didn't really stick to the envelopes and I had to glue them on by hand. In the end, the effect was quite nice and all the kids loved them and really thought they were authentic.

Invites were sent about 4 weeks in advance to give people lots of time to respond and a better chance that they wouldn't already have plans. As rsvp's started rolling in, I took down the proper spelling of each child's name as I would need it later for the party.

Next post: Part 3 - Decorations.

Hogwarts Birthday Party - Part 1

When I decided to host a Hogwarts party for my daughter's 7th birthday, I knew it would be a lot of fun, a lot of creativity, and a lot of work. The first step to planning any big theme party is research. Luckily, I have read all 7 Harry Potter books so I at least had a head start on what Hogwarts and Harry Potter is all about. So I set forth, in any free time I had, researching Harry Potter party ideas.

If you Google "Harry Potter party" you will get about 37,500,000 results :). Some of them are useful, most of them want to sell you party supplies. Take some time to read through the better ones and take notes of any cool ideas you come across, even if you think them not feasible - you may be able to modify them for your own purpose. Make lists of ideas for food, decorations and entertainment. I used Notepad to jot down ideas as I came across them or thought of them (the mind wanders during the day ;-).

One of the best sites I came across was Britta's Hogwarts Celebration. Britta is a wonderfully creative person who likes to think outside the prepackaged box when planning and hosting parties. Take some time to look around the rest of her site if you get the chance.

Birthday Party Ideas was invaluable for ideas on kids' parties. It took a lot of time to read through all those entries but they gave me great ideas on kid-friendly foods and games. If you are throwing a party for a young child, you will need games or other structure. I actually created a detailed schedule for the day of the party that broke the party down into times for each activity. It really helped to keep things on track the day of the party. If you only have a few hours and lots to do, you certainly don't want to miss out on anything by running out of time.

MuggleNet is a great resource for all things Harry Potter related. Lots to read there including some great recipes for your party.

Once you have spent endless nights researching your party and created a list of decorations, food, party favours, costume and game ideas, the fun part can begin!