Julia Roberts Jubilee

Pretty Women, Mirror Mirror, Erin Brockovich...what do these all have in common?  Julia Roberts!  I wanted to do something completely different with this month's monthly dinner theme, and I decided to host a Julia Roberts Jubilee.  She has so many great films, and I had so much fun coming up with ideas to incorporate her movies.

Entry Decor: I borrow the long red carpet from my high school ASB to put on the walkway leading up to the door. I made a Hollywood Walk of Fame inspired star using foam board, glue, glitter, and letters cut out with my Cricut machine. (Fun fact: Did you know Julia Roberts doesn't really have a star on the walk of fame?  She did for this party though!) I also made a popcorn wreath inspired by Pinterest.  It was much more difficult than the directions I read online though.  I glued all the popcorn on a piece of circular foam using Elmer's glue.  The following morning the popcorn had shriveled up & it looked horrible! I ended up purchasing spray adhesive instead.  This worked, but didn't look as good up close.

Inside Decor: I set up my table and party room to incorporate as many Julia Roberts movies as possible, but in the middle of the table I had this centerpiece.  I used paint pen to write the party details and filled the box with popcorn.  The film strip it is sitting on I made using 12x12 scrapbook paper. I used my Cricut machine to cut out the squares on each side.

Along the table, I placed 4 of the scrapbook paper film strips and focused on one of Julia's movies on each one.  New running shoes (I needed them anyway) and a bouquet for Runaway Bride, a bound stack of papers with a title page and a pelican beanie baby for The Pelican Brief, the famous Van Gogh painting and paint brushes for Mona Lisa Smile, and poker chips and cards for Ocean's Eleven.  I made the film labels using photos from Google of scenes for each movie.

Other spots in the room highlighted the boombox and perfectly aligned cans for Sleeping with the Enemy and champagne and strawberries for Pretty Woman.

And of course, I served water from Hinkley, CA to fit with my favorite scene in Erin Brockovich.

The photos behind my table were covered with quotes from Julia Roberts' movies.  You could do this as a party game instead, but I decided to use it as decor. IMDb is a great source for quotes.

One of my favorite decor parts of the party was the place cards. We took posters from Julia Roberts' movies, and Photoshopped my friend's faces in place of Julia's.  We also took out Julie's name and replaced it with the guest's!  How amazing are these!!  One of my student's helped me with them, which is why they are totally awesome.  I really need to learn Photoshop myself, so I can do things as great as these. 

Here's a couple more just because I love them!

The photos were jpegs, so I shrunk them down to use as the wine charms as well.

Menu:  I wanted to try to pull in food items from Julia Roberts' films, and this is what I came up with....

We started with the Mirror Mirror Apple Salad which was just romaine lettuce, feta, walnuts, and apple slices.  I served it with a choice of Italian dressing or Raspberry Vinegariette.  It was a great salad that was not too filling.

The next course was A Slice of Heaven Pizza from the movie Mystic Pizza.  This was the Julia I dressed up as for the party.  I used paint pen to make my t-shirt like hers in the movie and pulled out my old Ruby's apron from my days as a waitress.

Alongside the pizza, I served Eat, Pray, Love Pasta.  I grilled the chicken on the bbq and then added it to spaghetti sauce, orange pepper, zucchini, and spices.

For dessert, we had the Armadillo Groom's Cake from the movie Steel Magnolias.  I must thank my friend Deanna for doing the decorating on this one!  All I did was bake the red velvet cakes, and she did the rest!  FYI - the body was baked in a football cake pan (purchased at Michaels) and the rest was cut from a 9x13 cake.  It turned out perfectly and was super yummy!

Favor:  As my parting gift, I made my guest's each a Tinkerbell dress box with pixie sticks inside to go with Julia as Tinkerball in the movie Hook.  I could not find a box pattern online, so I just created one myself.  This took a bit of time, but I love the finished product.  The wings are cut from my Cricut and attached by the green and purple ribbon (no glue on those).  I was pretty impressed with my tag as well.  It read:

Yes, we truly were "hook"ed on Julia Roberts for one evening.  The girls and I had a great time dressing up as one of Julia's characters.  We had everything from Pretty Woman representations, to Flatliners, Erin Brockovich, and Runaway Bride! So much fun once again!

*Reminder: If you would like the movie film strips, menu tags, or favor tags feel free to email me. As usual, I never mind sharing.  Hope you enjoyed this post!!  Leave me a comment if you did...I love reading them!