Harry Potter Party: Getting the Party Started

This wasn't the kind of party where you just come, hang out and play with balloons, and walk off with a party favor. Nosiree.

Guests arrived in "Diagon Alley," where they visited Flourish and Blotts for their textbook, Magic for Muggles (I'll post the concept for that later), then on to Ollivanders, where they chose from a selection of wands—inspired by this blog's fabulous idea—made from wooden dowels that I stained, and some oven-dried clay. My husband and I spent an entertaining evening doing that and watching Inglourious Basterds. We're cool like that.

But you don't just grab a wand and that's that. You have to test it out. Fortunately, my sunroom ceiling fan has a remote control. So I hid that behind my back and had them say, "Lumos." Just to see if it worked. (It almost always did.)

Then it was through 9 3/4, and into the Great Hall for the sorting hat ceremony. The felt hat I glued together from the banner scraps looked delightfully scruffy. The guests put it on, then grabbed pins with the various house crests on them, to be "sorted" into their houses.

Once that was done, it was time to head out to their classes...