Hello there! It has been quite awhile since I blogged. Life has just been busy with work, especially I am becoming more hyper-aware how quickly my kiddos are growing and I am trying to be present as much as I can. As such, crafting time gets pushed to the back burner. However, the first half of this year has been such a whirlwind experience with LOTS of crafting and designing a real-life Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry here in San Diego! I CANNOT wait to finally blog about it. Are you ready? Might I suggest you put on some Harry Potter soundtrack on the background as you relive the magic with me? ✨
The #HogwartsByTheSea project is one for the books! If you were following me on Instagram, I’m sure you saw the progress in my stories. Check out the HP Party highlight on my profile to see it all.
Because this project was such a big one, I don’t think I could sum it all in a single blog post. So, to ensure no magical details are left out, I’m going to break it down into separate posts:
- Project Introduction
- Rooms/Spaces (no joke, we recreated 20+ Hogwarts spaces)
- DIY Projects
Project Brief:
- Harry Potter theme
- A joint kid birthday party for 100 guests (about half kids, half adults)
- Party audience: young kids (ages 3-12) plus parents
- Client’s top wishes: immersive and interactive, WOW factor, amazing cake
- ~4 months to plan
- 4,000sf empty space
Oh yeah, you read that right…I had 4,000 square feet of space to fill and decorate. GULP! 😳😳😳
First things first, I knew I couldn’t do this alone so I recruited two of my best event-planning friends/superstars (and their hubs helped too…haha, it’s what happens when you’re married to event planners).
We are a team of moms so we worked on this project while kids were in school, dragged brought the kids to the project site after school on some days, and worked weekends whenever needed. Here’s a quick timeline of how the project schedule looked:
- First meeting with client – December 2023
- Research, Planning, Designing – January and February
- Sourcing and Decorating – February thru April. Decorating was in full force starting mid-March.
My client is actually a dear friend from college who is a big HP enthusiast! We discussed event goals and how/where she could support since it was going to be a big project. The collaboration was great, especially since she came up with fantastic ideas such as recreating Umbridge’s Office in her dining room, which already had a hanging crystal chandelier. This was one of my favorite rooms because it was a nice colorful and whimsical surprise where it was mostly dark academia vibes throughout the rest of the home.
Research, Planning, Designing
Before I begin any project, a site visit is a must. So, I took lots of pictures/videos and even measurements. I was lucky to get my hands on a digital copy of the floorplan, which I imported into Adobe Illustrator to create diagrams and triple-check measurements.
Since we aimed to recreate Hogwarts as closely as possible, the next order of business was watching all the Harry Potter films. Pro tip: I highly recommend watching the movies back to back! Harry Potter came out when I was in college and I really didn’t get into it then. But after seeing it in marathon-mode, it was a much better and exciting experience! I took most of my notes from the first and second movies, noting the many rooms in Hogwarts and decorative/iconic elements that could be recreated for the party.
With research complete, it was time for the fun and hard part…planning and designing!
It didn’t take long to realize that my client’s home was meant to be transformed into Hogwarts. The living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows immediately felt like the perfect backdrop for Great Hall, the family room’s rustic and oversized stone fireplace is exactly what you would picture in Hagrid’s Hut, and the grand (double!) stairwells were practically begging for hanging portraits! Last but not least, the expansive game room presented a blank canvas, the ideal space to recreate the bustling Diagon Alley. We envisioned it brimming with shops adorned with fantastical window displays.
Nailing these iconic spaces was crucial, as immediate recognition would be key to transporting our guests to Hogwarts. This would give us the confidence to tackle the remaining rooms, and even allowing for a bit more flexibility with our interpretations of the castle’s other magical spaces.
As a visual person, one of my favorite designing method is to start with sketching ideas on the Procreate app on my iPad. Here’s how I do it:
- I drop in a photo of the space and bring down the opacity
- On a new layer, I use the pencil tool to sketch the structure of the space/room
- Add a new layer, in which I sketch out ideas/decors to fill the space
- Lastly, I color in the sketch which brings the whole thing to life!
In the end, I made 10 different sketches, which I think really helped with my design/plan presentation. Check out the reel below showing you the sketch/design process. And here’s another of how I designed Hogwarts’ Great Hall.
At this point, my team and I had less than two full months left until the party so we kicked it into high gear by divvying up the rooms while sourcing and decorating simultaneously.
One of the greatest benefits of doing a popular theme like Harry Potter is that there are a lot of resources (products and blog posts) readily available online. Pinterest was a really useful tool to visualize how others have done their parties. Shopping at local consignment or thrift stores became a weekly habit as we sourced classic pieces that really made our Hogwarts recreation look as realistic as possible.
Another HUGE benefit my team had was access to the empty home for the entire duration of the project. We spent a lot of time, transforming each room and sometimes a few rooms at a time because we would source items as we went. One of the biggest lessons we learned was that whatever we would normally purchase or use to decorate a party…we needed A LOT more. This home is HUGE! The people at FedEx Office probably thought I was the craziest customer for all the stairwell portraits that I had printed!
An over-the-top party of this scale required many party vendors who excelled at their craft. Below is the list of the ones we researched and hired. Note: I am based in San Diego, CA.
- Magician: Jeffrey Lee (@jeffreyleemagic)
- Harry Potter Prop Rentals: Chakoda Design (@chakodadesign)
- Furniture Rentals: Wonder Event Rentals (@wonder.eventrentals)
- Cake Artist: Lori’s Custom Cakes (@loriscustomcakes)
- Catering: Bleu Oak Charcuterie (@bleu_oak_charcuterie)
- Balloons: Gather and Pop (@gatherandpop)
- Dumbledore Character: Royal Entertainers (@royalentertainers)
- Potion Instructor: ArtBeat San Diego (@artbeatsandiego)
- Foamcore Walls: BloomPrints (@bloomprintsllc)
- Bounce House: Lux Inflatables (@luxinflatables.sd)
- Photographer: Christel Tran Photography (@christel.tran.photo)
- Birthday banner: Shea (@notsoclishea)
Purchases were made from the following retailers:
- Oriental Trading
- Michaels
- Meri Meri
- My Mind’s Eye
- Target
- Walmart
- Dollar Tree
- 99c Store
- Home Goods
- Home Depot
- Craft Cuts
- Wayfair
- Amazon
- Candy Warehouse
In addition to planning the party, I was really stoked to put my graphic design and crafting background to use! For example, I designed a custom Marauder’s Map that showed the floorplan of their home, which we printed on parchment paper and mailed to each guest as a preview of what to expect. More details to come in separate posts covering all the DIY projects from the party!
That’s it for Part 1! Are you ready to see the numerous rooms inside the #HogwartsByTheSea castle? Click here to jump to Part 2: Rooms & Spaces!
