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.

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.

Home Alone Christmas

It's the holiday season, and one of my kids' favorite holiday movies is Home Alone.  It is part of our family traditions to watch this movie together each year.  It made for a fun theme for my monthly dinner this December as well.

Invite: I found some Home Alone images online that I incorporated into the invitation.  These included the stack of Little Nero's Pizza boxes, the movie logo, and the pizza can.

Decorations: There are so many fun ideas for decorations that go with this movie.  You could boobytrap your home with obstacles for guests to weave through!  For my decorations, I kept it simple with just table and some other decor.  I set the table with a red tablecloth & a centerpiece with some of the Battle Plan hazards from the movie.

I covered a small paint can with black construction paper and added the word tar on the front.  I set this on top of piece of black sandpaper with the largest nail I could find sticking out the top for the part of the movie where Marv walks up the tar stairs and brings his foot down on the huge nail.

I purchased large paint cans and used my Cricut cutter to cut out paint drips in a few colors.  Even empty, these were a bit too heavy to hang from the ceiling, but I did attach them to the ceiling above the dining table.  These represented when Harry and Marv are clocked by the swinging paint cans in the movie.

Next on the table was a VHS movie of "Angels with Filthy Souls."  I printed out the labels from images online, and attached them to an old VHS of a different movie.  In front of the VHS, I had a crowbar and a BB gun like Kevin and Marv use in the film as wells hot wheels cars.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Harry walks through the door into saran wrap covered in glue and then Kevin turns on a fan which covers him in white feathers! To incorporate this scene into my table, I added a box of saran wrap, a mini fan, and put some white feathers in the fan.

Another favorite scene is when Marv goes to turn on the light in the basement and an iron comes down the laundry shoot to smack him in the face. Hence...an iron as part of the centerpiece.

Lastly, I added a photo of Buzz's girlfriend with Kevin's famous line from the movie, "Buzz' girlfiend, Woof!"

For placecards, I printed out Kevin's mom's photo from when she realizes they forgot Kevin at home, and instead of her screaming out "Kevin!" I replaced it with each guest's name.

As a napkin ring/decoration, I put a box of Tic Tacs and created a ring with the line from the movie when the smoking Santa has run out of candycanes and gives Kevin two Tic Tacs instead saying, "There you go. Don't Spoil your dinner."

My daughter also drew out the Battle Plan from the movie on a piece of foam board that I used over the drink table.  I would traced it, but she's so talented she did it all by hand!

Just for fun, I also put a photo of Marv's face coming through the dog door on my wall.  I put some hot wheels in front it - another one of Kevin's hazards.

On my front door, I put a paper electric BBQ starter like Kevin uses in the movie to heat up his door handle.  I don't have a real one, so I just used scrapbook paper.

Coming up with sayings to put my wine bottles is always fun.  For my red wine, I decided to use the famous line from the movie during the battle when Kevin asks, "You guys give up or ya thirsty for more?"  I simply added "red wine" to the end of this phrase!  For the white wine, I played off the part in the movie where Kevin thinks he made his family disappear and then challenged the guests to make the white wine disappear.  I also served a rose wine.  For this label, I used the lines from when Kevin's mom calls the police station and talks to Rose, then gets transferred to another cop, then this cop sends the call back to Rose saying, "Rose, hyper on 2."

For wine charms, I cut out iconic people or items from the movie.  Some of my favorites were the Michael Jordan cutout used to fool the robbers, the "Kenosha Kickers" jacket that John Candy wore with is polka band, a bottle of Brut aftershave for the famous "AAAHHH scene," and a toothbrush "approved by the American Dental Association." 

Menu: I wanted to incorporate Buzz's tarantula from the movie into the evening somewhere, and I didn't think I could handle having even a fake one on my table while we ate, so I decided to incorporate it into my menu. I made mini tostada boats and cut olives to look like spiders.  The boats were simple with refried beans, taco seasoned meat, cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce, sour cream was piped on to look like a spider web, and then the spider olives went on top of that. 

For a main dish, we of course had pizza as Kevin orders "a lovely cheese pizza just for me" in the movie after he doesn't get any of the pizza when the whole family is there.  I went to my local pizza joint, and purchased a pizza box.  Then I covered the top with white posterboard and created a Little Nero's Pizza logo to put on the top.  I made a pizza, but cheated a bit by adding pepperoni and mushrooms after asking the guests their topping preferences.

I also served a caesar salad. I took the line from the movie when Kevin's sisters taunts him with, "You are what the French call les incompetents" and just replaced the last two words with la salad Cesar (cesar salad in French).

Right before the robbers invade the McCallister home in the movie, Kevin makes himself a microwavable Mac and Cheese dinner.  I incorporated this into my menu by making macaroni and cheese cups in muffin tins.

For dessert, we had Rubbish Ice Cream sundaes.  A small ice cream sundae bar with toppings.

Favor: I was pressed for time and needed an easy parting favor for guests.  I purchased cans of Pepsi and red striped straws.  My tag read, "Fuller! Go easy on the Pepsi!" to go with that line from the movie when Fuller's parents are trying to limit his soda intake.

This was a fun night with my girlfriends.  I did purchase or borrow a few things to make the decor happen, but most of it I had around my house (like Kevin did).  This kept my costs for decor low.  I would totally recommend this theme for a holiday movie night or dinner with friends.