Our Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party

In lieu of a Halloween Party we did a Harry Potter Mystery Dinner.

And everyone made it a total blast!

 My cousin Chelsey was Bellatrix Lestrange, her husband Nick was Mundungus Fletcher.

Travis was Professor Snape. Kaley was Dolores Umbridge.

My cute sister in-law, Kate, was Rita Skeeter.  (And Kate was amazing...the only one invited that hadn't previously read the books nor watched the movies...and she did, just for the party! She played an amazing Rita Skeeter.)

Then Dallas was Ron Weasley...that amazing hair, came from a long red head wig.

Cameron was Gilderoy Lockhart. My parents were Mrs. Weasley and Filch the Care Taker.

They are way too good to me.  They agreed to drive all the way to Utah, just to help me with this party.  They worked in the kitchen and served each course of the meal, and put our little house elves to bed, while the rest of us enjoyed the party care free.  They are amazing and great sports. They worked for days before hand helping me transform the basement, make costume, food, etc.

 My brother in law Lance was Draco Malfoy...definitely not type cast or anything. (Maybe I should clarify: for looks, not for personality.)

My sister Alyssa was Luna Lovegood. Harry Potter was played by Eric and Angela played Hermione Granger. Isn't Mundungus' brief case amazing... made by his cute wife Chelsey.

 And the cute Ginny Weasley was played by Travis' girlfriend Abby.  She's a great sport getting thrown into all of our crazy get togethers. And after coming to the Pirate Party then this party, she wanted to know if all of our parties require costumes and what she should prepare for next.  We laughed.

So here we are after the dinner ended and the suspect was discovered!

It was a great night.

Now for a few of the details...actually for an overload of the details.

First was the invitations...Sent by "owl".

 Then after they returned their RSVP...I sent out the Character Profiles.

These included Polyjuice potion, with some item from their character to add to it.

It also had a Hogwarts Express Train Ticket and all the needed information for their part.

Then, we transformed the house.  Starting outside.

Then once you came in, you entered Hogsmeade.

 There were random wizard things all around the house...

Flying Keys, Floo Powder, Broom Parking, Daily Prophets, Quibblers, Old Books, Cobwebs, Spiders, Posters, Wanted Posters, Old Wood Signs, Skulls and Skeletons.

 The bathroom though, was my favorite.  It had spiders heading to the faucet, "A Ministry of Magic this Way" sign in the toilet...and best of all was the audio clips of Moaning Murtle playing from a hidden Ipod.  So you had pleasant ghostly company in the restroom.  It was awesome!  Thanks to some help from Nick.

 Look at the cool wood signs Dallas made me...and he made more for the outside too.

Then in Hogsmeade we had lots of the shops.

The Three Broomsticks Inn, which served Butterbeer and appetizers. 

 Everyone brought an appetizer with them, which was a huge help...but I took pictures before they arrived, so I missed taking their pictures.

Then there was the Wand Shop.

Although most everyone came with their own wands.  I was so impressed with everyone and the crazy details they went to for this whole night.  It was so cool and makes me smile just thinking about it!

 Then there was Zonko's Joke Shop.

Thanks to my crazy brother Brandon, he sent a ton of gross candy, treats, and toys for Halloween...way more than my kids could eat before this party.  So we put them to good use. 

 And more of the treats he sent were used in 

Honeyduke's Sweet Shop.

 And I was so excited to find a template for the Chocolate Frog Box with a Dumbledore Trading card.

Then we had Madame Puddifoot's Shop.

It had all kinds of drinks, and make your own concoction and potions. 

Think Italian Sodas, with crazy mix-ins.

Then after Drinks and Appetizers on the main floor, we headed through the Bricks of Platform 9 3/4 down the stairs to Hogwarts. Oh, and there were extendable ears as we went down the stairs!  I liked that little feature.

Then the downstairs was the main transformation.

This was one time I was grateful for an unfinished basement.

It made the whole castle experience so much easier to create.

But there were a few areas between the framing, that didn't have walls, so we put up cardboard and painted them like stones.  (My dad slaved away painting with me...it sounded like a simple project, but it was time consuming. He was a good sport.)

But, when you got into the basement, we set up the different classrooms and random Hogwarts items.

Then we had the Great Hall for our dinner.

It even had curtains and sconces on the walls and a roaring fire (on a TV)

We had a fancy 5 course meal with help from Chelsey and my mom.

 Oh and we had house banners, that I love.  My mom helped a ton and a neighbor owns an embroidery company, which I used for the names.

 And for the Mystery Dinner.

Well, I couldn't find much online, so I put it together...and it wasn't done until moments before the party.  But it made it just in time.

 Oh, I also made a sorting hat, which basically filled a corner, but you can't have Hogwarts with out one.

 Here is my favorite of the classes we had, Potions. We had a cauldron, but then I saw the dutch ovens in our storage section of the basement and they looked perfect.  So we used those too.

Overall, it was a huge endeavor to say the least.  But it was so much fun preparing the whole thing.

I would do it again in a heart beat, but Dallas said we can't keep doing Harry Potter Parties, or we will look like crazy Star Trek obsessors. So now I have a ton of Harry Potter decorations, just to store.

Oh well, it was great. 

 The rest of the pictures and printables are all on my other blog, 

www.justsweetandsimple.blogspot.com