So last year, after watching HP 7.1 at midnight with Eric, I had the idea that we should do our Harry Potter Parties again. In 2009, when movie 6 came out, we did a party for each movie and had a blast. I did some quick math and realized that movie 7.2 comes out in July, seven months into the year. With seven books, that gives us a book a month to read and then have the party. Eric loved the idea. And, thankfully, he has time to be on facebook so he got the ball rolling. He created a group, invited people and started booking volunteers to host all the parties. I was so excited to see it all come together. And to see how many people we know who love the books and want to party!
Tonight was the first of our seven Harry Potter Pallooza parties. It was a huge hit! There are some pictures on the bottom of this post. So many people came! We had Mrs. Figg, Aunt Petunia, James and Lily Potter, Gryffindor’s Head Boy, Luna, Prof Quirrell, Hermione, Hannah Abbot, a Slyrerin student and even one of the actors who got typed out at auditions. We had several muggles and many new additions to our celebrations.
Setting up the house is always my favorite part. Well, that and planning the entire party. I spent hours online researching what to serve and ideas for decorations. I read about other HP parties and what worked and what didn’t. I love that it’s a group effort and people always have awesome ideas. Greg, Chase and I co-hosted this party and we used their house for the main event. It’s perfect because it’s filled with dark wood and arched hallways. Greg bought Hogwarts House Colors lights for outside and we just replaced the blubs from the Christmas lights that were still up. Since we are also doing next month’s party it works out perfectly. Then we used some of the lanterns they had at their wedding and put candles in them for outside to set the mood even more. It was awesome!
Inside, the house crests were up on the walls and a day by day calendar of all that happened in the first year. We set up a Honeydukes (the candy shop in Hogsmeade) and had Dumbledore Lemonheads, Fizzing Whizbees, Bernie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, Golden Galleons, Cauldron Cakes and Pumpkin Pasties (complete with cinnamon whipped cream, which was stupid amazing). It was so cool. Everyone brought plenty of snacking foods and no one went home hungry. To drink we had sangria and Butterbeer. Such a wonderful night.
I have it worked into my monthly budget to purchase the Ultimate Harry Potter Blu-Ray for each movie that is out. So next week I get to buy movie 2! It is completely worth it. I have all the movies on DVD but the extended-ultimate Blu-Ray is sooooo much better! The movie is the extended version, and there are STILL scenes that you can watch in the special features section. There is a “Making of” documentary for each movie as well as games, interactive online things and every TV spot that was ever done for each movie as well as all the trailers and teasers that were ever made. It’s really quite amazing.
Watching the movie on Blu-Ray was awesome. The picture was clear and clean and so gorgeous. Having the extended scenes included into the running of the movie made it even more fun for those of us who have seen the movie many, many times. They were like little surprises. And we were all rolling with laughter at the new stuff. It was so worth it. I had just finished reading the book and it was really neat to see the scenes that were originally cut out of the movie get put back in. It made for a longer movie, but even truer to the book than the original is. Made reading the book worth it! Now I get to start on book #2!
I think my lasting memory of tonight will be how utterly happy I was. The entire night. I was surrounded by people I truly loved and enjoyed spending time with. I was watching a movie that I love. I love to plan parties and having this one go off without a hitch was a true gift. I had a smile on my face the entire time. I found myself constantly stopping, looking around and saying “I am so happy”. There was nowhere else I wanted to be at that moment. I felt lucky. I felt blessed. I felt loved and I was truly happy. Those moments are what all the awful things make survivable.
I already miss everyone. Good thing our next movie is in three weeks.
And you? Do you like HP? Do you read them? Favorite or least favorite thing about book 1?
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