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A Harry Potter Hen Do Part 1

22 Monday May 2017

Posted by lotales in Show & Tell, Things I do

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Harry Potter, Harry Potter Hen Do, hen do, Liverpool

Way back when Miss Rebecca Higgins first asked me to be one of her bridesmaids I was beyond excited!! Not only for the wedding, but also because I’d get to help organise her hen do!!

Once all the bridesmaids had joined the ‘hen do planning must have group whatsapp chat’ the discussions began and it was decided early on that Becca’s love for Harry Potter should 100% be a part of the weekend, but also that it should just be blooming amazing, lots of fun and a little bit naughty!!! haha

This excited me no end, as I too am a massive potter head! So we all went off and started thinking about ideas and where we could go and of course, good old pinterest played a huge part in the inspiration for the weekend!

I’ve made the board public now so feel free to take a look if you fancy doing something similar. We DIY’d a lot of the things ourselves to save money but there are so many resources and things out there, which you can buy if crafting isn’t really your thing!

I mixed and matched things up and customized a lot of free online downloads too to make them fit Becca’s Hen!

The first thing we had to sort was the location, the brief just said ‘a big city’, and because Becca lives in London we were thinking of Leeds, Liverpool or Manchester….

During one late night online research session along the lines of ‘Hen Do Venues for 20 people’ I stumbled across The Shankley Hotel in Liverpool and its amazing rooms!!

The hotel was obviously designed for hen and stag dos and boasted loads of big dormitory style rooms. We initially fell in love with ‘The Vault’ a huge room with bunk beds for grown ups and your own private underground bar with Jacuzzi…. Sounds good right!!!?!?!?

As fate would have it, it wasn’t available on the dates we wanted and it was also quite a bit over our budget. When I say fate, I mean it, as this meant I kept looking and discovered ‘The Laurent Perrier Suite’.

This room could have been made for us, and Becca, and the theme. A huge, indulgent room that slept 24; 12 nooks, each containing a comfy double bed and wet room behind plush gold velvet curtains all around the star feature of the suite; a huge roman bath which ran the length of the room! The sleeping nooks were split over two floors from a split staircase on the back wall and overlooked the lower level! As you came in through the huge medieval looking, vault-like doors there was also a seating area and a small kitchenette. It was perfect!! We contacted them straight away and booked it…. It was obviously meant to be!!

Not only was the room impressive to look at, it had an amazing luxurious feel to it (think hues of gold everywhere) but it also meant we’d all be together, all weekend!! Any girl will tell you that one of the best parts of a night out is the getting ready, the gossiping, the trying outfits on for approval, the doing hair for each other and obviously the vast amounts of prosecco that are needed to fuel the getting ready process.

By being all-together, it would ensure no one would feel left out or that they were missing out on some of the fun, a must have for our beautiful bride to be! The other obvious bonus to the room was that it looked like it cold have been plucked from the pages of Harry Potter; a mash up of a prefects bathroom and what I imagine the Hufflepuff dormitory would have looked liked!

So with a city and the accommodation sorted it was on to the décor, the games and the general tomfoolery!

Being a creative little sod I was in my element and now that it’s been and gone, I kinda miss my HP themed crafting evenings!! (all though the wedding has taken over all crafting evenings)

In this post I’m gonna concentrate on a few of the things we made to make the room even more special!

First up goody bags!

No good hen do is complete without a few goodies for the brides best gals. One of the bridesmaids suggested Velvet for the ultimate wizard-esq bag so a trip to fabricland and a day at my sewing machine later 17 little velvet pouches (in house colours don’t ya know) where made and waiting to be filled.

Any Harry Potter themed party needs a wand so I spent an amusing evening crafting these from wooden chopsticks, glue guns and some various spray paints/pens! The fact they were somewhat phallic also added to the Hen Party vibe too!

Being it was a hen do alcohol was also required. We brought and found a collection of various miniatures and these were then transformed into potion bottles that Severus Snape himself would have been proud of! I soaked off the labels and replaced them with ones I made or downloaded. Check out these links for some of the ones I used.

I was so happy with how they turned out and with potions including Love Potion, Truth Serum and Liquid Luck, I felt all pretty apt considering their alcoholic contents!!

We also had some sweet treats, some chocolates (incase of dementor attacks), a golden snitch (made from a good old Ferrero roche) and also some miniature boxes of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans!! I made small versions of these by scanning in a full size box (which I brought at the Harry Potter Studios which we visited in November for Maxwell’s Birthday) and scaling it down on photoshop. These were then constructed and filled with good ol’ Jellybeans!! Cute huh!!

Also in the goody bag were Dark Mark tattoos (which I also brought from the HP Studio), A personalized champagne flute, a little deathly hallows bracelet which I made, ‘I solemnly Swear I’m up to no good’ badge (which you can get here), a lumos sparkler (get it?!), A HP themed hangover kit and some Butter Beer lip balms which I pimped!!

All of which were super easy to do, it just needed a bit of imagination and quite a bit of time! At some point, after all the weddings have been and gone, I’ll share some of the templates I made/used/created!!

Goody Bags sorted; lets talk about Décor…

The Room didn’t need much, but we did a few bits here and there…

Lindsay found and printed off a load of harry potter themed photobooth props which towards the end of the first night were brought out and amused and abused! Haha. We also did directional signposts (Diagon Alley, Privet Drive, Gringotts etc_ and I used some of my trusty Kraft DIY bunting to spell out phrases such as Muggle to Mrs, Team Gryffindor, I solemnly Swear I’m up to no good and our hilarious hashtag #SnitchAndSnatch17

Kelly and I also made loads of quite amusing Education Decree Posters using this really good downloadable template and some undesirable no.1 posters of Becca!! Haha

We also did a few signs and bits and bobs here and there, which if you’re HP fan, you’d really get and would make you chuckle!! These included:

*Beware, the stairs move (on the stairs obviously)

*A Fat Lady (for the front door)

*A moaning Myrtle (stuck on the inside of Becca’s toilet lid – haha)

*A Potions Making Station Sign (to hang above the bar)

*Plastic spiders (as in ‘follow the spiders’)

*’The third floor corridor is strictly off bounds to anyone not wanting to die a most painful death’ sign

*’Free Invisibility Cloaks’ sign

*Photos of Bec throughout her life (super cute idea for any hen!)

Urm….. and some balloons?! Haha…

All this came together to just make the room look even more magical!

Caroline also made the most AMAZING sorting hat!!! (I’ll explain a little bit more about that below) When Becca walked in to the room and saw it all for the first time her face was priceless and was worth every second and every penny!!!! So So Good!!!

The last thing we need to discuss is the games…. A hen do is not a hen do with out a bit of gaming so here goes… Here’s what we did and how we did it:

THE SORTING

Being that there was such a big group of us we thought it wise to split the group up into smaller teams, and being that this was a HP themed Hen Do the answer was easy. The girls would all be split into the 4 Hogwarts houses and we 4 bridesmaids would be house prefects!! The idea was that over the course of the weekend any good behavior (excessive drinking, impressive dance moves, winning games) would earn house points, any bad behavior (going to bed early, being sensible/boring) would loose you house points!! The team with the most points at the end of the weekend could win the house cup (aka mini bottle of champagne!!! 😉

To do the sorting we used the fab hat, which Caroline had made and asked Bernie, Becca’s lovely dad, to record a pre written script which (as if by magic) made hilarious comments and musings about the person whom it sat on and decided what house they would be in!! This was so funny and even the girls who were utterly HP clueless still found the whole thing very silly and funny!!

MR & MRS

A Hen Do Favourite!! In a book I created for Bec, We asked Edward her Fiancé 20 questions that Bec had to guess his anwsers!! I used tiny envelopes brought from Paperchase and my favourite Typewriter!!

I MUST NOT TELL LIES

A fun game of our own invention… We asked the girls to share with us a naughty/funny/saucy/embarrassing story about Becca and we may have also added in a few fake stories…. The game is simple, Becca would read them one at a time, out loud, and the girls (split into house teams) would then have to guess if she was telling the truth or not! Correct answers = house points… you get the jist!!

QUIDDITCH PROSECCO PONG

A pimped up HP hen do version of Beer Pong (with quidditch hoops made by my lovely fiancé)

LIVERPOOL SCAVENGER HUNT

This was a great way to get out and about and see all the best bits of Liverpool. Lindsay used the add called GooseChase and added in loads of funny HP/Hen Do tasks as well as some standard Liverpool-esq ones.

This was such good fun and the teams could do as much or as little as they wanted…. Fab fun!!!!

PIN THE LIGHTENING BOLT SCAR ON EDDY POTTER

An amusing take on the kids party game of pin the tail on the donkey!! Unfortunately the Eddy Potter face I’d made got a little chopped up! Whoops! Haha but we improvised and it was still very funny!!

THE NAKED HARRY POTTER CAST GAME

This was probably one of the funniest games I invented!!! Haha….. I spent an amusing evening googling naked/topless pictures of the cast of Harry potter then chopped off their heads! The game was to match the actor with the character, extra points given if you also knew the character name!!! Very funny/very childish/very hen party appropriate and thanks to Daniel Radcliffe’s stint on the stage quite exciting too!!! Haha

POTIONS MAKING

Quite simply – cocktail making/ pimp your prosecco station… We renamed some classic Prosecco Cocktails with a HP-esq title and provided all the herbs/fruits and mixers to create! Simple and obviously well used!

HEN DO BOOK

I also created a hen do book for Bec, a little tradition of mine, but this one was my most impressive/fullest yet!! I asked to girls to sent me notes/photos to include…. I also left space to put all the pics in which we’d inevitably take over the weekend and also other funny things like ‘design a dress for Becca’ and a space for well wishes and a card/letter from her mum and hubby to be!!

So there you have it!

A few hints and tips of you’re thinking of planning a HP Hen Do!! I hope you find this useful!! I post the actual pics separately as I think this post has enough content!!

 

The boys birthday…

23 Friday Dec 2016

Posted by lotales in Places I go, Things I do

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Behind the Scenes, Birthday Fun, Birthday Treat, Film Studio, Harry Potter, Harry Potter Tour, WB Studio Tour

I’m about a month late with this post but that seems to be a never ending trend so I’m not gonna worry too much about it!

My love celebrated his 35 Birthday last month and we celebrated with a bit of Harry Potter (because that’s what we do!)

We’d traveled up to spend a few days with my bro, sis-in-law and niece which was blooming lovely! (Lots of eating, resting and playing) 

(How cute does my niece look in her winter get up!!! 😍)

After that we traveled to Watford for a bit of early Christmas shopping and a GBK lunch… (FYI the katsu curry burger is amazing!!!)


Later that day we checked into Hunton Park Hotel for a bit of luxury and a night stay in this plush little hotel…


That evening we did a whole lot of nothing and just chilled at the hotel, making the most of the hotel pool and the room service facilities! We did make a bit of effort and enjoyed the bar/pool table for a while but in the end ordered pizza to the room and watched films in bed! Perfect way to spend a birthday eve!!

After a lazy start on Sunday (which was the boys actual birthday) we did the birthday tradition of cards and presents in bed and then it was time for the real fun to begin…


Maxwell’s main birthday treat and reason for staying in Watford was the fact that his present from me was a day at the Harry Potter Studio Tour!!!!!

Considering how big a pair of Harry Potter geeks we are it’s a mystery we’ve never been before… But the time had come and like two overgrown kids we headed off for a day of geeky fun and butter beer! We started our day as all geeky days should begin with some touristy posed pictures.

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The tour itself was amazing and the attention to detail was astounding!!! After a short film about the HP series the screen magically disappeared and the real doors to the great hall awaited us.

Maxwell joined the ‘birthday boys and girls’ hahahaha (ok so he was the only adult, but look at his face! (so cute!) and got to open the main doors and went to see Dumbledore and the other delights that awaited us

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The great hall was just that and it was quite surreal being there (you’ll only get this if you’re a true HP geek) I hope the photos do justice to the scale and detail of the place because it was truly breathtaking! (if you go I recommend hanging back to get some lovely shots of an empty hall!)

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The next stage was the BTS props and sets and again we were blown away by the level of detail that went in to everything. It was so clear that is was a joy to work on because the level of craftsmanship and quality was top notch.

dscf6774 dscf6761 dscf6767The costumes and hair and make up section was fab (being a former fashion student and all) and it was lovely seeing all the fantastic costumes from the films, in particular the Yule Ball outfits. In the same section we were also wowed by the chocolate sculptures you can see below, some of them were actually made of real chocolate too which is even more impressive!
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In the middle section of the main warehouse was lots of various parts of different sets which was incredible to see all together…. from walls of artwork to the boys dormitory, the leaky cauldron, Dumbledores office, the hidden staircase and the Griffindor Common room, this part was so fun!dscf6778 dscf6779 dscf6782 dscf6788 dscf6792 dscf6797 dscf6805


in the middle of all the sets they also had a huge section on props, from the golden snitch and the philosophers stone to the casts wands and bottles of skelegrow! There was this huge caged section which was basically all the props from the room of requirement! Amazing…
dscf6813 dscf6825 dscf6834 dscf6840 Also fun fact – my fiancé is like a mini Hagrid! haha!!dscf6842 dscf6844

Round the next bend and the sets took a darker turn; Dementors, Borgin & Burke, Umbridge’s Office and Malfoy Manor! (I can only imagine what this sounds like if you’re not a Hp fan! haha sorry!!)
dscf6846 dscf6853 dscf6854 Next on the tour was platform 9 3/4…. This was great. They had the real train there which was used in the films! We got to run through the wall (or at least pose like we were any way!), go on board and see carriages from each of the films and even have a go acting with a green screen background!

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I wasn’t allowed to take any photos but we also got to try our hand at acting and experiment with a bit of green screen / CGI fun. This was ridiculous but we weren’t the only adults so we just kind of went for it!!! Most amusing!!

After that we took a break and enjoyed a butterbeer and a few snacks in the backstage café… (FYI UK Butterbeer is much tastier/less sweet then it’s American counterpart)

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Once refreshed, we headed outside and saw No. 4 Privett Drive and other iconic larger sets and vechicles (did some more posing – such geeks) then it was on to the SfX department!

dscf6924 dscf6935 dscf6938From costumes and prosthetics to animatronics and full scale models this part of the tour was equally amazing. You could see various goblin masks and Luna’s fake feet (fun HP fact for you there), Hagrid’s half giant costume, Buckbeak, moving mandrakes and a full size aragog!!  dscf6947 dscf6949 dscf6955 dscf6965 dscf6966 dscf6970

 

After that (and a million more photos) it was on to Diagon Alley. We’d seen a Diagon Alley previously when we went to America last year but it was still so amazing to see all the shops and look in the windows. Again the level of detail was fantastic!!dscf6988 dscf6990 dscf6991 dscf6992

The bit that was an unexpected treat was the technical drawings and paper model section. I guess because of the work Maxwell and I do this appealed to us both. Before any prop or set could be made it had to be drawn first, once the sketches were approved scaled down paper models could be made. This process applied for not only items but also full locations like Hogsmeade!

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Finally, the last proper part of the tour and one you can’t not be amazed by, is the scale castle model. I’d previously seen photos and even still I was still amazed by the scale and detail of the castle!! It was used for all the wide angle shots of the castle mixed with CGI magic… We spent ages here, it really was very special!

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So there you have it… a incredibly fun and utterly geeky birthday treat for the boy!

One more part of the tour that was worth mentioning as it was really lovely was the Olivanders Wand shop which you walked through on the way to the gift shop. The was about 4000 wands on show, all with individual labels on for everyone who was involved in the film, actors, set designers, film crew, everyone who helped on the films had a wand box. With the help of a very knowledgable lady we sought out all the famous actors including Maggie Smith and the late Alan Rickman!

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So there you go, so for the massive photo overload but it really was just so good! If you’ve never been before I can’t recommend it enough, I think regardless of if you’re a HP fan or not this will still be something to enjoy (but even more so if you are) Finally, book well in advance and book an early slot as possible. Our time was 4ish (but they did let us in about an hour early so bear that in mind!!) and we left about 10ish absolutely knackered so a few more breaks throughout the day would have been nice!

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Ami Lowman is a maker, blogger & owner of the creative brand Mia Mai who lives with her fiancé in the seaside town of Southsea, Uk.

Ami is currently planning the wedding of their dreams, loves all things vintage, takes too many photos and has a thing for the old, weird and forgotten.

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