Since I did a lot of research online for inspiration on how to plan my Twilight party, I thought that doing the same thing would be a great idea! I think themed parties are so much fun since you get really crafty and creative with your party planning.
PLANNING
It took me about 6 months to start gathering items (decorations and such) and doing a lot of research on how to create my ideal Twilight themed party. I was smart and rumbled through after-Christmas sales to grab great deals on decorations.
For me, it's easier to sketch out what I want to do. For table layout, I sketched it as well and wrote down things I wanted to use for the decorations and centerpieces. I did the same with the food and dessert buffet. The main thing I was focusing on was to stay on budget, so planning carefully was very important.
VENDORS
Cards & Pockets - I handmade my invitations and bought my cards from Cards and Pockets. They offer great products at a reasonable price. They pre-cut all of their cardstock and have so many colors and types of cards to choose from!
ABC Party Rental - A local party rental store that offer affordable prices for all of their items. I rented 30 chairs, 3 tables (to fit up to 10 people), wine glasses, china plates, dinner forks and spoons, and 3 black linen table clothes.
Fab Cakes - The local bakery who designed and made my cake. The bakers are absolutely awesome! I gave them the ideas I wanted for my cake and they exceeded my expectations.
Simply Jenuine Creations - She created some of my invitations (the smaller sized ones). She's an excellent card maker and she also provided free Twilight circle tags with my order!
Posh Party Studio - Posh Party Studio created custom made Twilight themed cupcake toppers. Since I didn't have cupcakes in my dessert buffet, I used them as table top decorations (as shown below).
JLMould Custom Stamps - I wanted to have custom made stamps for my invitations and she offered different sizes. I had one made with my address and also one with the Cullen crest.
Party Starters - I loved the idea of mini cake favors for my party. Party Starters provided the design I wanted (in damask print). They were absolutely cute!
Do It With Icing - A local store for bakers. I bought some of my baking material from here. A great store to go to if the things you need are not in Michael's.
Hostess With the Mostess - This website is an excellent resource for party planning! I printed the Twilight quotes from this website - free of charge!
Kinkos - Since I don't have a laser printer, I had my paper decorations printed here all for a reasonable price!
Walmart - You can purchase great stuff from here! I bought most of my vases from here. I also bought baking supplies, cardstock, glue sticks, and other craft items. The Walmart near me is a super Walmart so they had groceries. I bought black and red M&Ms in a carton and Twizzlers from here.
Party City - Bought the paper napkins, plastic forks and spoons, table covers, and other party related stuff.
Michael's - A store specializing in crafts and baking goods. I would advise to take advantage of their weekly ads and clip out their 40% off coupon to save you some money. If you plan early, you can start buying weeks in advance. They also have good deals every week, so check their ads often!
WHERE TO BUY
Table Decorations
I bought most of my vases from Walmart (prices range from $3-$5). Other vases were bought at Target and Michael's (I would use the weekly 40% off coupon for the vases or would buy them when they would go on sale). I bought a set of apothecary jars from Sears that went on sale for $25.
The frames used for the Twilight themed quotes were purchased from Walmart. They are $3 each. Ribbons were purchased at Michael's and Walmart. They prices range from $0.50 - $4.00. It depends what the length, width and material is.
The gems (as shown below) were purchased from Michael's. I bought them after Christmas from Michael's and they were 60% off. I bought them for $1.25 a pack.
I bought an apple shaped paper cutter from Michael's and used red cardstock to create the confetti. I purchased battery operated LED lights for the tables. I bought them from eBay at $1.00 a set. The gemstone stickers were purchased from Michael's at $4 a pack.
The red candle light holders were purchased from Walmart and they cost $0.50 a piece. Very affordable! I also had personalized napkins made for my party and bought them from Ebay. They were $14 for 50 pieces.
The Refreshment Bar
The red gems for the refreshment bar were purchased from a local wedding supply store. I also bough the red and black feathers from the same store. The damask printed candle holders were from the same store. If you don't have a local wedding supply store, Save on Crafts is a good place to buy similar items. The black bowl for the white chocolate pretzels are from Party City and they cost $4.
The parrot tulip flowers are extremely hard to find. The ones I did find were too costly and I was able to find a seller on Ebay who sold them for under $2 a piece.
While I served beer and wine, I also had Apple cider for those who can't drink or don't drink alcohol. The red bottles that are used to look like blood are actually strawberry flavored soda. I bought a 6-pack from Walmart for $2.50.
I was giving away 3 different types of party favors. On a previous post, I described each favor.
I hand dipped the pretzels in Baker's white chocolate. Very yummy! I also served red velvet cake truffles, which I also made from scratch. Very yummy and they went fast!
The Food
I served a variety of food including finger food. I had chicken wings, fried rice, homemade spagehetti, breadsticks, salad and also had ravioli (no mushroom, though) since that was Bella's entree of choice when she had dinner with Edward.
I also had 2 red candles and a small tabletop decoration with the food. The candle holders were purchased from Michael's and the candles from Walmart.
The dessert Buffet
When I created the dessert buffet, it was my first time ever doing one. I was actually really surprised on how great it came out!
For the candy I served cherry and vanilla flavored jelly beans, cherry flavored taffy (which I named "La Push Saltwater Taffy", since La Push has beaches), personalized M&Ms (that had Team Edward or Team Jacob imprinted on them), raspberry and blackberry gummies (that I named "Forks Forest Berries"), cherry sugar sticks, sour cherries, strawberry Twizzlers (since Bella was eating this at La Push in Twilight) and Ghiardelli chocolates in crisp and almond with chocolate (the wrappers were white and red & white) and melon gummy rings. I had Hershey kisses and Tootsie Rolls but I forgot to bring them (DOH!). The Hershey Kisses were named "Vampire Kisses".
In addition to the candy, I also served mini cheesecakes with strawberry as the topping that I made. I also had french vanilla Pirouettes that are hand dipped in red and black chocolate wafers that were sprinkled with white sprinkles.
The sign that reads "Edible Art, Bella?" is from Hostess With The Mostess. You can download a bunch of Twilight & New Moon themed printables for your party. The "Sweet Fangs?" sign was made by me and it reads "Sweet Fangs? Sometimes when blood doesn't satisfy your hunger...."
The cake was the highlight of the dessert buffet. The chess pieces are actual plastic pieces and I bought the apple from Walmart. For the cake design, I wanted the harlequin pattern versus the checkerboard pattern. I thought it was more elegant and I really wanted to have the silver decorative balls.
The damask printed napkins can be found at Target. I only used them for the white plates. The plastic goody bags are in damask print and I bought them from a seller on Ebay.
That's it! I had so much fun planning this party and really happy with how it came out. My best advice? Early planning and doing a lot of research on resources. I did a lot of comparing with prices, etc. and did a lot of "do it your own" projects (such as the invitations, tags, favors, and some displays). I did the DIY projects little by little so that when it came close to the party, I wasn't so stressed.
Hope you enjoyed reading my blog! Thanks for visiting =)
