Last week I shared the details of our small family celebration that I put together for my sister when she came home from her mission. What I didn’t mention is that was a couple of days after she’d been home and the night she got home, I actually put together a full-scale Wizard of Oz “there’s no place like home” themed party for her, complete with all of my typical goodies. And the best part? She came home to Kansas, so the theme fit perfectly. And I am so excited to share all of these details from this Wizard of Oz party with you. I think this was my favorite party yet, although I feel like I say that about every party!
Sorry for the insane amount of pictures in this post, there were just so many cute details that I couldn’t choose which ones to share. So I’m sharing them all! Let’s start with the main party table. Since this was a welcome home party, I wanted to put the emphasis on the “There’s no place like home,” so you’ll see a lot of red ruby slippers, hot air balloons, and yellow brick roads. All of the things that were supposed to lead Dorothy home in the movie. And all of the designs were done by the incredibly talented Donna from Swish Printables. She has an awesome set of Wizard of Oz printables and made some custom items to go along with my crazy “follow the movie scenes” party plan.
While I was planning out what I wanted on my party table, I watched the movie multiple times. And every time, I wrote down about a million things that I wanted to include. I couldn’t narrow it down so rather than try, I decided to do a table with sections that represented each element in the Wizard of Oz movie starting in the front with the “black and white” part of the movie. I found the perfect antique pickup truck at a craft store and filled it with Cow Tales, which are only sold at Casey’s General Store in Kansas by the way. And in front of the truck, black and white Oreo cookies set up next to the cutest tornado and storm cloud die cuts from Tutus and Bowties Events.
And don’t forget to take note of the darling black and white food cards that Donna made specifically for my party. She’s seriously the best with custom designs!
After the tornado, Dorothy lands in munchkin land and is greeted by the good witch and the munchkins. Naturally I had to have an area on the table for this bright and cheerful point in the movie. Sweet U Off Your Feet made sparkly chocolate covered pretzel rods for good witch wands, and I put them in pink bubble (get it, bubble like the good witch’s bubble) gum. Next to the pretzel wands, I put a jar full of munchkin donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts and topped them with fun poms from Fizzy Party in various colors to look like the munchkin hats.
And finally, I created a lollipop guild using Lollipics with the “There’s no place like home” design and a photo of my sister saying goodbye when she left on it. Lollipics are seriously one of my favorite ways to personalize a party, the edible photos are brilliant! And K absolutely loves them, as is evident by his blue covered face.
Next up in the movie, they meet the tin man. I knew I wanted to do something with an oil can and something with a heart for the tin man for obvious reasons. My husband came up with the brilliant idea to serve chocolate pudding in tin cans, and I added little gummy hearts on top. The gummy hearts were a hit with the kids, especially because I put them on toothpicks, and kids seem to go crazy for anything on a stick. And did you notice those cute food cards, yep, Swish Printables again. She made little cards with each of the characters to go along with their food.
One of the most iconic pictures and scenes from the movie is when the four friends are skipping down the yellow brick road together. I knew I wanted to incorporate that somehow and fortunately Stacie from Fancy & Fold read my mind and came up with the idea to do a garland for the front of the table that incorporated a piece of each of the characters – tin, blue gingham, lion mane, and straw. I placed it across the yellow brick road fabric to make it seem like they were skipping along together.
Along the yellow brick road, Dorothy and friends end up in a poppy field. My poppy field consisted of the same bright red cupcakes I used for my sister’s favorite things celebration. Topped with cupcake toppers from Swish Printables, they added the perfect “pop” of color.
Oz sends them away and tells them to go get the broomstick from the Wicked Witch of the West. The witch watches them closely with her purple magic ball (cake balls anyone) and eventually Dorothy melts the witch with a bucket full of water, or in my case, bottles of witch melting water.
The friends return to Oz who leaves them high (literally) and dry in a hot air balloon. And my hot air balloons? The most perfect cupcake toppers from 4 Kids Cakes that incorporate a hot air balloon and a yellow brick road. Seriously people never cease to amaze me with their creativity. I also added some glittery hot air balloon die cuts from Tutus and Bowties to the top of the rest of the cupcakes to add a little more sparkle to the table.
Behind the table, I used cloud wrapping paper topped with a rainbow colored curtain that I picked up from IKEA. And to top it off, I ordered this hot air balloon to tie it all together. And I put out place settings that matched the fabrics and patterns I used for the party.
Now let’s check out the rest of the setup. As soon as my sister walked in the door, she was greeted with a Dorothy style basket filled with Gourmet Macarons by Mindy Boyce Cone, Toto, and a pair of red Toms, pretty much her version of ruby red slippers.
Next up, she had to pick out her costume for the evening at the costume table. I decorated a vintage suitcase using an awesome ribbon garland that Tutus and Bowties created for the party. Can you pick out all of the characters in the garland? And HensonCreations made me an entire set of these awesome Wizard of Oz party hats for the party. My sister wisely chose to be the good witch using one of the cute wands from Fancy and Fold, while my aunt Amy chose the Wicked Witch hat (matched her outfit nicely).
And that’s it! We were going to play this fantastic give the tin man his heart game from PartyPlanItDesigns, but my sister’s flight was delayed so we ended up getting in too late to play. It’s the perfect addition to any Wizard of Oz party!
Thank you to everyone who worked with me on this party. It was seriously so fun to put together all of the colorful and delicious things! Check out these awesome vendors to plan your own Wizard of Oz welcome home party.
Party styling and photography – Play. Party. Pin.
Printable Designs – Swish Printables
Pretzel Wands – Sweet U Off Your Feet
Toulle Poms – Fizzy Party
Cake Pops and Cake Balls – Pop Culture Cake Pops
Diploma Chocolate Covered Oreos – CandKSweetShoppe
Candy Kabobs – Sweets Indeed
Cake – Mixing It Up
Cookies – Jess Add Sprinkles
Cupcake Toppers – 4 Kids Cakes
Die Cuts & Ribbon Garland – Tutus and Bowties
Wands and Circle Garland – Fancy & Fold
Party Hats – HensonCreations
Glitter Jars – Always the Occasion
Picture Lollipops – Lollipics
Give the Heart a Tin Man Game – PartyPlanItDesigns
Party Props – Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and Home Goods
*This post contains affiliate links. If you click on them and purchase things through those links, I may receive compensation. But I’ve only linked out to the things I actually used so you know they’re great!
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