Invitations: I used Avatar as my inspiration this year. It was nominated for:
Best Art Direction -- Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg and Kim Sinclair
Best Cinematography --Mauro Fiore
Best Director -- James Cameron
Best Film Editing -- Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
Best Original Score -- James Horner
Best Picture
Best Sound Editing -- Christopher Boyle and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
Best Sound Mixing -- Christopher Boyles, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
Best Visual Effects -- Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones
I found some cute little plants that were kind of willowy looking like the Tree of Souls in the movie and spray painted them with white marking spray (the kind used for football fields.)
Then I wrapped the pots in a yarn I found at Wal-mart that was fuzzy and has those hyper colors of purple, fuchsia, blues & greens.
Then I created this cover on card stock, sprayed it with glitter body paint, and attached the actual invite behind it.
Red Carpet Entrance:
I've actually never done this before, so I was excited to do it-albeit on a much smaller scale. Next year! Here's the tutorial I was using at Celebrations.com.
Paparazzi Booth:
So CUTE! Found on 2000dollarwedding.com.
Games: Everyone has to pick a celebrity and write that celebrity's initials on a gold star they receive. They also get 5 safety pins. Then you go around and ask people questions to try and guess who their celebrity is. If you get it right, the celebrity owner gives you a safety pin. Whoever has the most pins at the end wins a prize. I was going to be:
We also were going to have "poison-dipped" arrows (paintballs) for a bit of an Avatar show.
Children's Games/Crafts/Decor: Princess & the Frog - Hide & Go Frog Seek - Hide a bunch of frogs & let the kids go for it.
Princess & the Frog is nominated for:
| Best Animated Feature | Ron Clements and John Musker |
| Best Original Song | Randy Newman ("Almost There") |
| Randy Newman ("Down in New Orleans") |
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - decorate pretzel wands. Harry's nominated for Best Cinematography.
Up - Have helium balloons tied to small doll houses (that the my girls have in their toy collection).
Up is nominated for: Best Picture (Awesome!) & Best Animated Feature.
Ballots & prizes: I was in the process of creating a nominees video that we would loop through during the pre-awards show. Here's The Young Victoria. I really enjoyed this film! It's nominated for:
- Best Art Direction
- Best Costume Design
- Best Makeup
Here's the link to the official ballot page: http://oscar.go.com/media/2010/pdf/OSCAR_BALLOT.pdf
For prizes I've always had the same thing, and I think people like it. Gift cards to the movies, gift cards to Blockbuster & gift cards to Barnes & Nobles. (All movies start with a story.)
Food: We always do a potluck. I give everyone a fun theme when I create the invites, and this year it was "What Wolfgang would create for the Governor's Ball." YUMMY! But as you can see the main course is deceivingly simple, so I was going to do a crock pot version. (Which is nice for me when I'm the hostess and don't want to worry about food during the actual party.) I was also going to buy some chocolate truffles.
Last but not least: FAVORS! I found these on Bakerella.com. She is incredible!
I was so excited about these that I think I'm still going to make them and give them out to those invited.
Well, that's it! Fun to plan. Will be fun to execute next year. Feel free to use any of these ideas for yourselves!
Hollywood HoustonW
