A Wicked for Good Party

For our November monthly dinner, I decided to host a Wicked themed party.  Wicked for Good will be released later this month and Halloween just passed, so I was inspired.  My mind started generating ideas, and everything worked out great.

Invite: There are a lot of google images and backgrounds that go with this theme, so it was fairly easy to find one that I liked as I wanted to mix the green of Elphaba and the pink of Glinda.  I added an image of both characters to the middle of the oval.  Beyond that it was a straightforward invitation wording.  I asked guests to dress in green or pink for this, and it worked out great.

Decor: I thought it would be fun to separate my dining table and the decor to match the Elphaba/Glinda characters.  I used a green tablecloth and witch decor on one side and a pink tablecloth and Glinda decor on the other side.

For the centerpiece, I found a gold ball with twinkle lights inside at my local Target. I used this at the very center of the table to represent the Emerald City. 

For the Elphaba side, I borrowed a witch hat, green wig, spider lights, and a black lace shawl from friend of mine's Halloween stash. I also found a small broom in the gutter the night after Halloween that a trick or treater must have dropped.  It was perfect for the centerpiece.

For the Glinda side, I placed two pink vases with white flowers that I usually use to decorate for Easter on a silver glitter runner I found at the Dollar Tree. I borrowed a Glinda wand and tiara from a friend. I also set out some long white gloves (that I wore to Prom in high school!) to add to that side.

I used my white ceramic plates and added a black or pink paper plate to pull in more color.  On the Elphaba side of the table, I used lime green napkins and made witch's brooms by painting wooden candy sticks and adding brown yarn. I wrapped cardstock with each guest's name on it around the napkin and broom.  The names were of the guests that RSVP'd that they would wear black.

For the Glinda side, it was a pink napkin and a wand made with the same candy sticks painted pink and the star topper made with glitter cardstock.

The wine charms were images of various symbols from the Wicked movie - witch's hat, Glinda's bubble,  Shiz Academy, Emerald City, etc.  I printed them on cardstock and then attached them to the glass stem.

Designing the wine labels was fun.  I tried to pull in sayings or songs from the movie.  With the white wine, I designed the label to have Elphaba and Glinda facing each other with a glass of chardonnay in the middle.  I added text to say, "Drink This and You'll Be Changed for Good." The red wine was an image of a witch that I used PhotoShop to swap in Elphaba's head and her broom. The text read, "Defying Gravity - the Glass Gets Lighter with Each Sip."

I purchased two cereal boxes with Wicked designs which I used as added decor on my mantle along with a moon cycle light-up piece I borrowed from a friend.

Menu: Continuing with the green vs pink idea, I decided to theme my menu with that same idea in mind.  We started with an appetizer of guacamole and black tortilla chips. I called this "One Short Dip in the Emerald City" after the Wicked song, "One Short Day."

I served a green salad with mostly green toppings -- green bell pepper, cucumber, green pumpkin seeds, and goat cheese. I made a strawberry and Greek yogurt salad dressing to add add pink.  My menu tag called these Changed for Good Greens.

As a main dish, I served spaghetti with pink sauce and green pesto sauce. I called this "Wicked Green & Goodly Pink Pasta on my menu card. 

I made these super cute breadsticks shaped like witches brooms to go with the pasta.  I rolled out Pillsbury pizza dough, sliced it in 1" strips,  then sliced the middle of that strip 3/4 of the way down twisting those two strips around each other.  The bottom was sliced into 4 or 5 smaller pieces and separated to look like a broom. I baked them in the oven and then brushed them with garlic butter before serving.  These I called Elphaba's Broomstick Breadsticks.

I made two different ice cream cakes for dessert to represent both characters.  Elphaba's Dark Delight was an oreo cookie crust with mint chip ice cream, Cool Whip, and chocolate shavings on top.  A witch's hat made with melted chocolate was set atop each piece.  Glinda's Pink Perfection was a vanilla wafer crust with strawberry ice cream, Cool Whip, and edible pink glitter on top.  A tiara made with melted pink chocolate was on top.  I used an empty can to cut these 9x13 cakes into small circles for serving. Just for fun, I called these Defying Calories Cakes.

Favor: I kept my party favor simple and just found pink and green candy -- green watermelon Mike 'n Ikes and pink Starburst. I designed the tag to read, "Because I Knew You, I Have Been Changed for Good."

I pulled the planning for this dinner off in one day, so it is definitely one you can do for an upcoming party if you are a wicked fan or going to see the movie/play.  It was inexpensive and a fun evening together.

19 Years - 19 Crimes

Crazy to say, but this month we celebrated 19 YEARS of continuous monthly dinners! Our group of ladies has changed a little bit over the years, but the majority of us have been enjoying these dinners together every month for the entire time.  Every October when we have an anniversary celebration I like to theme my dinner around the number somehow.  For this dinner, I decided to theme our dinner around 19 Crimes - the wine company.  

Invitation: I wanted the invitation to read like an old-time prison charge and sentence, so I had fun coming up with fun wording. Other than that, just a 19 Crimes bottle image and the logo on the invite.

Decorations: For all the decor for this dinner, I tried to keep a muted tone with criminal elements to match the vibe of 19 Crimes wine. I reached out to the 19 Crimes company to see if they might be willing to provide some images, decor, or even wine, but I didn't get a response, so I had to do it all on my own.  

For the centerpiece, I stayed simple with just bottles of 19 Crimes wine on a serving platter with small additions.  The small additions were two pairs of handcuffs, a decorative sphere piece made of old keys that I already owned, and my daughter's dying bouquet from her Homecoming dance.

I spray-painted an empty wine bottle black, and designed a wine label with all our monthly dinner girls in a photo from one of our dinners to add to the centerpiece.  Under the photo, I included "Guilty of Friendship - Sentenced to 19 Years (and Counting)."

As a mini table runner next to the platter, I printed out a "wrapping paper" image that I found on the 19 Crimes website.

I had a bit of fun making my place cards and turning my imagination into reality. I had the idea to fold my dollar store paper napkins to look like wine bottles.  They didn't come out perfect, but I think they look alright! I folded them around a toilet paper roll and taped the top around a wine cork. 

I created the personalized labels for the place cards on Photoshop.  The photos used for each guest are from monthly dinners throughout the span of the 19 years we've had our dinners.  It was so fun to look back on all these.  My close friend and fellow monthly dinner guest helped me with the write-ups to make sure they were fun crimes that matched the monthly dinner they were taken from.

Loved pulling even more past monthly themes into my wine labels.  Like the placecards, I used the format of a 19 Crimes wine label that I designed on PhotoShop.  The photos were changed to black and white sepia tones.  I chose a photo from Our Kentucky Derby themed monthly dinner we had in 2014 for the red wine.  I made the crime "Horseplay in the Winner's Circle with Red Wine."  The white wine was a photo from our Wii Love Bowling monthly dinner where we bowled on the Wii as teams for added fun.  The crime for this one was "Bowling Under the Influence of Chardonnay."

On the 19 Crimes website, they tell the 19 crimes and have one crime on each wine cork.  I used these images as my wine charms.

Menu: With each course, I tweaked a criminal charge in some way to reflect what I was serving.  We started with spinach artichoke dip and french bed.  Instead of Obstruction of Justice and Possession with Intent to Sell, I tweaked it to Obstruction of CRUSTice and Possession with Intent to DIP.

Next it was my family's favorite meatloaf -- a Grand Larceny Loaf.

As a side, I made mashed potatoes. The crime for these was Assault & Buttery (instead of Battery).

The green beans were drizzled with lemon and garlic.  Their crime was Resisting a Zest (Arrest).

To help me out, one of my close friends/guests made the dessert.  She made a delicious chocolate poke cake that was drizzled with caramel.  This crime?  Baking an Entering (instead of Breaking).

Favor: I don't think 19 Crimes makes mini bottles of their wines, so I decided to buy the only mini bottles the grocery store near me sells. I designed a mini wine label for each bottle with a different image from one of our 228 dinners throughout the 19 years. The labels were small, so I had to keep the crimes on these only a few words, so they could be easily read.  For example: "Defying Gravity in the News" for a photo from our Broadway Show theme where I am in a Newsies costume and another guest is in a Wicked costume.  For our B party where everyone had to come dressed as something that starts with B, the crime was "Boldly Being Boisterous."

It was been 19 amazing years of looking forward to seeing these ladies each month (plus the few that couldn't make it this time).  Can't wait to continue the tradition for even more years! 

It's Fall, Doll!

This month's dinner was a bit of an odd theme, but it ended up being pretty fun and nostalgic to plan.  I hosted this dinner with a paper doll theme, and since it is the beginning of fall, I called it "It's Fall, Doll!" I'm excited to share the details of this theme with you.

Invite: The invitation was simple and straightforward with fall colors and paper doll images/clothing pieces. I don't love the doll I initially chose, and would have switched her to one of the other dolls I used in the party, but at the time I designed this invite, I didn't have the rest of the decor prepared. I do like the paper doll-related wording for added fun.

Decorations: I covered the dinner table with a brown tablecloth and purchased some dried fall flowers for the center. Along the middle line of the table, I placed paper doll clothing pieces that I cut out from images I found online.

I also cut out paper doll chains in fall colors.

Each place setting had a paper doll for guest's to dress with items from the middle of the table. I used my Cricut to cut out mini hangers with small "blankets" hanging from them.  The "blankets" were the place cards with each guest's name and instructions to doll her up.

The fall colored napkins also had an item of paper doll clothing on the top.

I designed my wine labels to play off aspects of the theme. For the red wine, I designed the label to have a paper doll with a red dress on and holding a wine bottle like it was a paper doll accessory with tabs on it.  The wine bottle was "An Essential Accessory" and I included a tag line that stated, "Because no outfit is complete without Cabernet."  For the white wine, I played off the little black dress idea, but changed it to "Little White Dress Chardonnay" with an image of a paper doll white dress.  The tagline was, "A must-have cut-out in every doll's closet."

For wine charms, I just used small paper doll clothing items in various colors.

Menu: I always like my menu to go with theme, and this was a bit challenging with this theme because I had a specific idea in mind.  I wanted to have each menu item reflective of a specific article of clothing that would then be added to a paper doll throughout the meal to create a complete outfit by the end.  

We started with an Autumn Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette to represent a beret and titled it Greens Beret.  I mostly followed the recipe, but I did leave out the cranberries and the bacon.  I love bacon, but I just ran out of time to cook it.  The dressing and recipe were great without it, but I'm sure its amazing with.

Our menu doll's next article of clothing was a petticoat represented by Petticoat Potatoes.  I purchased boxed scalloped potatoes to save time.  They honestly tasted great and were so easy to make in the oven.

Next article of clothing was the skirt to cover the petticoat.  For this I served Skirt Steak with Lime that my husband grilled for us.  It was so tender and delicious.

For the doll's top, I served cooked carrots that I called Cardigan Carrots.

For dessert, we cut frosted cookies in half and put them together with frosting to make a purse.  For the handle, we used Mamba Magic Sticks candy.  The bead clasp on the front was just an edible candy ball.  I served these Clutch Cookies with a small bowl of ice cream.

And our doll at the end of the meal...

Favor: For the parting gift, I made Hello Dolly bars.  The tag read, "Because every doll deserves a little something sweet."  These bars were easy to make, but do take a lot of ingredients, so the price adds up.  They lived up to my tag though, as they are super sweet and tasty.

These are the details of this fun dinner!  If you planned more ahead than I did, you can probably order a book with paper doll cutouts to save time.  Thanks for reading!  Hope you enjoyed this dinner theme!