The Fantastic Fashions Of Our Fantastic Beasts Party!

The best part of our Fantastic Beasts Potter Party was, hands down, all our friends who came. They dressed as flappers, nifflers, goblins, witches, and oh-so-dapper wizards. And oh yes, I HAVE PICTURES.

I posted these first ones on my Instagram Story the day of the party, but of course a lot of you aren't on Instagram, or missed the 24-hour window to see them. Not to worry, though; I got ya:

(I thought of this the night before the party, and I'm STILL giggling.)

 

My outfit. I lasted in the heels for about an hour, then switched to sparkly flip-flops. :D

The dress is $30 here on Amazon, then I added the sheer cape/sleeves by hand-stitching a wrap I already owned under the shoulder straps. Since the wrap hung down to my wrists anyway, I added another stitch so the ends would fit over my wrists like sleeves and move with my arms. Hard to describe, but super easy to do. (The dress is comfy and nicely made, btw, A+ would recommend.) I made the headdress from scratch, you can see how here.
 

 

 

Traci made her own cape, too, which is attached to those sparkly silver armbands and bracelets. Sparkliest Ravenclaw flapper EVER. (You can follow Traci's Disneybounding & Cosplay adventures on FB here.)

 

These two look like they walked off the set of Downton Abbey! (Chris is even wearing a tail coat!)

Christie up there and her sister Robyn (below) are more incredible cosplayers - you can follow them here.

Tim (in the middle) dressed as a goblin, and between the prosthetics and the fact that he shaved his beard I didn't recognize him AT ALL when I opened the door. Ha!

Made by our friend Steph. Look at those apple roses!

Let's take a closer look at those wands, shall we?

Whaaaaat.

Speaking of wands, everyone in this next picture is sporting a custom design by Elliot's Wands:

...and that's the Wand Maker himself, Dana, in the middle! (Go follow his page for incredible wands AND cosplay.)

(Those circles you see people wearing are the Art Deco name tags I printed on sticker paper. Super handy when you've got 35+ people who don't all know each other!)

I should mention - since I'm feeling chatty - that I only know all of these wonderful people because of Epbot, so it seems only right sharing their lovely mugs with the rest of you. Most are artists or cosplayers that I've featured here, or readers that asked for a meetup and just clicked. Seven or eight years ago John and I used to talk about how we didn't have friends, how everyone was having kids and leaving us behind, how lonely it felt sometimes. Now we know all these incredible people, and best of all, we're still making new friends all the time - all because I found our tribe here online. 

We better move on before this gets mushy. ;)

These two cracked me up recreating the famous window scene:

So check this out: Bonnie is wearing a full Niffler onesie(?) with a hand-painted hat for the face! Genius! And gotta love Dennis' long-suffering expression. (He painted the hat, but they're both incredible artists.)

We told folks they could bring food if they wanted to this time, and BOY DID THEY. I'm still eating Christmas cookies for breakfast.

Madi's Holiday Fever Fudge was mint on one side and spicy cinnamon & cayenne pepper on the other - which sounds disgusting, but actually tasted pretty awesome!

Hogwarts represent!

Here's Madi, btw:

It really was.
(Though we forgot to add the shimmer powder, drat.)

My other favorite drinks - since some of you asked - included a Dark Mark (Left Hand Milk Stout mixed with Root Beer, NOMZ) and Otter's Orange Obliviate (Sunny D mixed with cream soda in a glass rimmed with brown sugar and cinnamon). Our Felix Felicis mystery shot was chocolate vodka... dyed yellow just to mess with your brain.

Yup. I'm still riding this party high.

The owl gifts you see there were the prizes for the scavenger hunt. The gifts were a mix of fancy salt-water taffy, mini Harry Potter ornaments, and some patronus/doe slide bracelets I made using embroidery floss and beads:

But wait, there's more!

John and I also used our flash rig to take pictures of everyone, since we wanted them to have a nice portrait in their snazzy outfits. Here are a few of my favorite flash shots:

I love the contrast between these two, ha.

And finally a look at that crafty Niffler's face:

These two solemnly swear they are up to no good.

And since I just realized I don't have a single other picture of John, I guess you get our portrait, too:

(We handed off the camera and flashes to friends for this one.)

Hope you guys enjoyed seeing some of our fabulous friends!

Stay tuned for the photo walk-through next, where I'll take you through all the fun details and party projects with a less seasick camera. ;) I also promise video of the moving painting actually moving is coming soon!