Devil Wears Prada Dinner

The Devil Wears Prada 2 just came out, so I thought it would be fun to host our monthly dinner party with this theme and then go see the movie with the girls at a later date.  My own fashion sense and style is more like Andy pre-Runway for sure, but I definitely had fun pulling things together for this theme.

Invite: I recreated a movie poster with the iconic devil heel for my invitation.  Then kept the rest of the invite simple.  I added "Attendance is Not Optional" for a little Miranda Priestly humor.

Decor: I went with a color scheme of black, white, and red.  I set out a black tablecloth with white and black plates and a red "runway" down the center.  For the centerpiece, I borrowed a Prada wallet and a Louis Vuitton handbag from a friend along with the boxes they came in. I added a vase of white roses (a favorite of Miranda's) and used my Cricut to cut a large red heel to match the invitation.

I also recreated Miranda's Runway binder to add to the centerpiece.  I bought a large spiral notebook from Michaels (I couldn't find white), printed the original cover from the movie to place on the front, and added post-it tabs along the sides and top like the book in the movie.

I folded red paper napkins to look like pleated dresses.  These were easy to make - I just fan folded the napkin and tied a blue ribbon around the waist to secure it.  Then folded the top half inward to look like a strapless dress.

For place cards, I created Runway magazine covers for each guest.  I used ChatGPT to help with these. I added fun details about each guest for taglines and asked ChatGPT to glam up the photo I uploaded of each girl.  They were fun to read and laugh at for sure.

The same friend who loaned me the wallet also had bags, so I used them on and above my beverage table for added fun.

I always design themed wine labels. For the red wine, I called it Miranda's Couture Cab with an image of Miranda and a background of fashion logos. For the white wine, I called it Andy's Cerulean Chardonnay and added an image of Andy in her not-so-glamorous cerulean sweater.

For wine charms, I found images of the main characters that I printed out and cut to adhere to the wine glass stems.  I had a pre-fashion Andy Sachs and a glammed up Andy, but the others were all single characters.

Menu: I started with an appetizer of a mini bowl (dollar store purchase) of corn chowder and a strip of grilled cheese. This was to represent Andy's choice of food in the cafeteria her first day at Runway, and Nate's special grilled cheese he makes Andy that night.

For the main dish, I served ravioli that I toasted in the oven.  I purchased fresh ravioli from Costco for this.  The directions said to boil it, but since I wanted it slow-toasted to go with Miranda's famous quote of "moving at a glacial pace," I looked up some online directions for toasting and tried it out...they were delicious this way!

Photoshopped a Prada logo to add a bowl of "Prada Parm" for added fun.

I served a Cesar Salad as well tying it in with another famous Miranda quote from the movie.

And of course breadsticks because we all need carbs in our life!

I incorporated another fun Emily quote for my dessert, but instead of a cube of cheese, it was a cube of cheesecake. Three different flavors came in the package (from Target).  They were chocolate, raspberry, and New York.

I served coffee with dessert for those interested.  Andy makes so many coffee trips in the movie and it always has to be piping hot for Miranda.

Favor:  I absolutely loved my favors for this party, and they were so simple to put together.  I purchased these mini purse favor bags from Amazon.  They come with the satin fabric to tie and were perfect for this theme.  I filled each purse with a little tissue paper and some mini chocolate bars.

This was a super fun party.  All the girls dressed up in some form, and I played the movie in the background, so it made for some fun conversations throughout the dinner.

Abra Cadabra - A Magical Dinner

I wanted to think of a simple theme I could quickly pull together for my March monthly dinner. I decided on a magician theme -an Abra Cadabra - Celebrating Magical Friendships dinner.  From wands and a top hat to bunny ears and dice decor, it was a fun night with friends.

Invite: I crated a simple black, white, and red invitation with gold glitter accents.  I used images of a top hat, bunny, wand, and cards to pull in iconic magician props. To tie in the "show" aspect, I put the details as a showtime and added the phrase "The Greatest Gathering of Girlfriends Ever Seen!"

For the table, I used a black tablecloth with white and red plates.

As a centerpiece, I set down gold glitter card stock and placed a top hat with a magic wand and a stuffed bunny on top.  I made an arch of cards gluing them to a large zip tie and then put the ends of the zip tie into small glasses filled with dice and red tissue paper to hold it in place.

I added fake bouquets of red flowers, cards, and dice on each side.

I purchased a deck of mini cards from Amazon, lightly glued 3 together, and placed each group of three on a folded napkin.

I created place cards by using hot glue on extra large dice and then adding the guest's name to the top.  I added an alliteration magician title for each guest.

I created magical wine labels for my red and white wine.  I titled the cabernet sauvignon Abraca-Cabernet with a tag line of "Now You See It...Now It's Gone" keeping the same background design as the invitation.  I swapped out the bunny's playing card for a red wine glass. For the white wine, I titled it The Vanishing Vino with a tagline of "White to Wand-erful" adding a wand and a bottle of white wine ready to "vanish" inside a top hat.

I used more cards from the mini deck I purchased as wine charms.

Added a little decoration to my everyday HOME sign.

Menu: Our appetizer was caprese skewers - tomato, mozzarella ball wrapped in a basil leaf, and then drizzled with balsamic and oil.  I called these Pick-a-Card Caprese with the intention of adding one of the mini cards to each skewer...as you can see in the photo, I got so busy I forgot to add the cards!

Our main dish was pulled pork sandwiches. I made the shredded pork in the crock pot, so I had less stress getting ready after getting home for work. I followed this recipe from Recipe Tin Eats for the rub and the cooking/browning portion. I skipped the homemade BBQ sauce and just used Sweet Baby Rays.  I purchase premade cole slaw to add and brioche buns. For a magic appropriate title, "Pulled from the Hat Pork - The Disappearing Swine!"

One side was green beans I baked in the oven.  Titled these "The Great Veggie-ni."

I also served baked mac and cheese. Since I taught all day and wouldn't get home from work until a couple hours before the party, I had to make these the easy way.  I found a recipe that used boxed mac and cheese that you cooked al dente and then just added breadcrumbs (I chose Panko breadcrumbs), Parmesan, and seasonings before baking it. The magic title for these was "Abraca-Delicious Mac and Cheese."

I had to pull a bunny from a hat somewhere in my menu, so of course it was dessert. We had bunny cupcakes with just the top of the head and ears showing. Simple to make with just a large marshmelow cut diagonally and then dipped in pink sugar.  The black cupcake wrappers were to help it look like a magician's hat.  The plan was to add a black card stock circle to the top of the wrapper to make it look like an upside down hat, but I ran out of time to get them cut.  We had a mini chocolate pretzel wand on the top for added fun.

Favor: Large pretzel rods dipped in chocolate to look like magic wands became my party favor.  I placed them in a bag of Trix cereal and called them Magic Trix!  I thanked my guests for "making the magic happen."

Everything about this dinner was magical - the friends, the food, and the fun details that all came together.  Hope you liked reading about the party!

Happy Grannytine's Day!

For our February monthly dinner I added a little twist to the typical Galintine's Day idea and hosted a Grannytine's Day dinner.  The girls came dressed up in bathrobes, granny glasses, cardigans and more which added a fun and silliness to the evening. It was a great chance to laugh together as even our conversations turned a little bit toward the amazing old ladies we all hope to become.

Invite: When designing the invite, I wanted to stick with Valentine's Day colors, but add in a doily and other cute granny-like images.  I kept it simple with a clipart granny holding a heart and a yarn heart with knitting needles. I added in verbiage like "supper club" and "dearie" for added fun.

Decorations: A red tablecloth and borrowed crystal vases and dishes became my centerpiece. The table runner was a white crocheted shawl that I lay across the center of the table.  I placed the crystal dishes and vases on top with simple baby's breath flowers and filled the dishes with candies that remind me of my grandmas - Werther's Originals hard candies, butterscotch circles, gum drops, Mounds and Almond Joy bars, mints, and strawberry hard candies.  I found most of these at the dollar store and/or Walmart.

For place cards, I made yarn hearts. I used an old See's candy box to cut out cardboard hearts in the size I wanted.  Then I wrapped yarn around the heart until you couldn't see the cardboard underneath.  I used hot glue at the point to help it stay and then hot glue to seal the end to the back.  I left a little extra yarn to add a tail to give the knitting look and stuck two toothpicks in the top like knitting needles.  I added the "so glad we're knit together" for added fun.

My mom happened to have just enough of these Valentine's Day napkins which were perfect for this dinner with their doily hearts.

I designed some creative wine labels in theme.  First was the red wine which I termed Prescription Strength Prune Juice. I used the same doily and grandma image from the invitation.  For the chardonnay, I wanted to play off the word "glasses" using it both in terms of eyeglasses and wine glasses.  I found an image of a grandma with a wine glass online and asked AI to use that image, but add wine glasses surrounding her. Voila!  I took the common grandma phrase, "Where Are My Glasses?" to put at the top to tie it all together.

For wine charms, I simply printed out icons often associated with grannies - yarn with needles, crossword puzzle, prescription bottle, dentures in a glass, eyeglasses, bridge cards, rocking chair, and newspaper with magnifying glass.

Menu: I wanted to have fun with the granny theme without being too harsh on grannies.  I decided to serve a casserole as my main dish. I chose a casserole that my mom made often when we were kids and one I know I liked - Ground Beef and Noodles in Sour-Cream Sauce.  I called it a "well-seasoned" casserole to pull in the theme.

I also served simple breadsticks - Breadsticks of the Golden Years.

The danger of accidentally peeing when you sneeze is not just a granny problem, but I had fun making this the title of the peas!

For dessert I made a 2-ingredient fluff (strawberry jello/sweetened condensed milk). I called this DEPENDS-ably Sweet dessert for a little old lady humor.  A friend gave me the super cute Valentine paper cups to serve them in which was perfect. A little whipped cream and a half strawberry to top them off and done.

Party Game: What old lady event is not complete without BINGO!  I designed a Bingo sheet to look like my invitation, but instead of numbers, I had grannyisms and things associated with grannies - bridge club, "Back in my Day," "Turn That Music Down," Sunday Supper, "I've Got Coupons," etc.  The free space was the same yarn heart with knitting needles from my invitation. As markers, we used conversation hearts from the party favor.

I gave the Bingo winner a puzzle! I looked for a cat puzzle or a knitting-related puzzle, but went with an old country scene instead.  Made sure it had "extra large pieces" and was only 300 pieces.

Also gave a box of chocolates to the best dressed granny of the evening.  I looked for a Whitman's Sampler because that reminds me of my grandma, but I didn't find one easily, so I went with the next closest thing.

Favor: As mentioned above, my party favor was a pill box for the week.  I filled it with conversation hearts that we used during Bingo, so the favor served two purposes.  I created a tag to go with it that read "A Daily Dose of Friendship."

Not all our ladies could make it to this dinner, but those of us that made it had a great time laughing and really getting into character.  It was a super fun theme!