Harry Potter Hen Weekend - The Final Adventure!

The Harry Potter Crew after a little magic!
{Can you work out who everyone is?!}

So the treasure hunt was completed, the clues had all been found and now everyone was relaxing in the local pub with a well deserved drink....but with a new member to the group – Harry Potter (well... sort of!) so what next? Well while the girls ordered some more drinks the “maids” (aka myself, Jude & Hayley!) went back to the house to begin the rest of “Operation HP”. Unbeknown to the rest of the group our beautiful house was about to be transformed into Harry Potter land complete with Platform 9 ¾, Diagon Alley, Honey Dukes Sweet Shop and of course Hogwarts! Once the decorations and props were in place work continued on the next main part of the day – The Grand Feast! The feast was a mixture of some of Lauren's favourite dishes to eat along with a few whimsical Harry Potter inspired dishes. On the menu for the Grand Feast was........

Prawns with Spicy Dipping Sauce

Smoked Salmon Blinis

Dates wrapped in Bacon with Maple Syrup

Bruschetta

Pork Crackling Straws (bought from M&S)

Honey Garlic Chicken Legs*

Hot & Spicy Chicken Legs*

Mini Pulled Pork Buns with coleslaw

Vine-ripened cherry tomatoes

Butterbeer Jelly

Popping Candy Grass Hopper Pie

Top Hats

Golden Snitch Topiary
Dragon Eggs (left over from the Treasure Hunt)

Flower Pot Ice Cream Sundaes

Fruit
~~~

Butterbeer Jelly & The Goblet of Helga Hufflepuff filled with gold coins

Golden Snitch Topiary

Dragon Eggs

Popping Grass Hopper Pie (Zero marks for presentation!!)

The food was prepared and the table set complete with place cards for all of the characters, gold cutlery, sugar mice, crystal balls and plenty of candles! Right on cue the girls arrived back at the house to find the front door closed. With a quick ring of the bell to let us know they were back I had enough time to hit 'Play' on the CD player. The volume was turned up and just as the door was opened the Harry Potter theme tune began! With a shriek and then a lot of laughter the girls discovered that upon opening the front door they were transported to Platform 9 ¾ and in order to get into the house they had to run through the famous brick wall! The party was finally all coming together. Once inside the house they entered Diagon Alley which was plastered with Wanted posters of Harry Potter and other characters. The living room was the entrance of Hogwarts and was decorated with plenty of cobwebs and a few balloons to keep us in the party mood then it was through to the main room – the kitchen, which had become The Great Hall and the setting of our Grand Feast! A potions corner and Honey Dukes Sweet Shop completed the transformation! All that was left was for the characters to appear so once everyone had a drink in hand we all disappeared off to our rooms to let the transformation begin and what a job everyone did!! I still can't believe the effort they all went to so I was more than delighted that I had done so much work – it really completed the day and turned the party into full on movie set Harry Potter. Wands were waved and the characters made their grand entrance down the fabulous staircase where Lauren was waiting to see who everyone had become. Coincidentally as soon as we were all changed an eerie mist came into the village which provided us with the perfect back drop for some outside photographs which a poor unsuspecting neighbour was asked to take!!

Platform 9 3/4 

The Grand Feast Table before all the food was served.

Harry Potters Seat

Ginny Weasley's seat, Top Hats a Crystal Ball and if you catch it, a little mouse scurrying through!

Honey Dukes Candy Bar

Potions Corner

Polyjuice Potion

Gillyweed & Madrake Juice

Hogwarts Flag (a little damaged after the trip home!)

Gryffindor House Flag

Marauder's Map

With photos taken we returned inside for the Grand Feast. The food was devoured and the rest of the night was a non-stop party filled with a lot of laughter and entertainment, lots of food, plenty of drinks and most of all great company! It will definitely go down in my books as the most unusual but most fun hen party I have ever been to!!

~~~~~

Here is a collection of some of my favourite pictures. I hope they make you laugh as much as I have!.....

Harry, Voldemort & Hagrid

Draco Malfoy, Moaning Murtle & Hermione

Mrs McGonagall; Mad Eye Moody & Luna Lovegod

Sybill Trelawney, Prof. Snape & Dumbledore

Rita Skeeter & Bellatrix Lestrange

Ginny, Ron & Molly Weasley

~~~~~

Run Harry!

Avada Kedavra!!

Hello Hagrid!

Voldmort - Winner of the Best Costume
{Hagrid & Dumbledore were runners up!}

Harry, Hermione & Ron (with scabbers!)

~~~~~~

All of the dishes that I made using my own recipe will be appearing over the next couple of weeks starting with my recipe for Pulled Pork Buns with Coleslaw.

THE END!

EXPELLIARMUS!!!

~~~~~

CREDITS

I just want to say once again thank you so much to Lisa at Lotus Lodge and Drumlanrig Castle for making our weekend possible. Both locations provided the perfect backdrop for our weekend. Also a big thank you to my Mum who helped to make the Lasagnes and made the Top Hats and bought quite a few things for the weekend to help out. And finally to all of the girls for making it such a fantastic weekend -it really was amazing!

*The chicken legs were originally meant to be chicken wings but when I went to buy them they were sold out!