Neverending Story Theme Party

Our son, Bastian, was turning one, so we decided to do a Neverending Story Theme Party. Cuz, duh.  This ended up being quite challenging since the movie came out in 1984.  I was surprised, though, to find the amount of stuff I saw on Etsy. Most everything on EBay were movie collectibles and that's not what I was looking for. Amazon didn't really have much either.   I ended up incorporating elements from book theme parties as well.

Invitation

https://www.etsy.com/listing/877830225/neverending-story-digital-party

We used Evite and paid to upload a custom invitation. I would not recommend this.  The invitation ended up really small and you could not zoom in to see the details.  I ended up manually texting people the picture of the invitation and keeping track of RSVPs in a Google Sheet. Also, we were supposed to get free thank you notes, but when I clicked on it, I get an error. So, so much for that. If anyone knows a better service, let me know. 

Gifts/Cards/Activities Table

The backdrop screen was made of pallets and painted black. It's actually reused from a past party.

The garland, cake stand, never-ending story blank book, and photo props was purchased on Amazon. The photo props came with glue dots and dowels and were easy to assemble. 

We asked our guests to write a story for Bastian in the Neverending Story blank book. 

I printed out coloring book pages from Google for kids to color.

The blue and yellow flowers, crayons and markers, and chalkboard frame were purchased from Dollar Tree. I went to 3 different stores. It amazing that each store keeps different stock even though they are pretty close to each other.

The figurines were from Etsy. I thought they were going to be bigger, but they were cute anyway.  

https://etsy.me/3yTLRKo

https://www.etsy.com/listing/725653238/never-ending-story-direction-sign-post

For the card box, I found a box at Michael's that looked like a book. Then I printed out the book cover and attached it to the front. It was 50% off, and don't forget those 20% off store coupons. Score!

Photo booth backdrop

The backdrop holder, garland and balloons are from Amazon. My backdrop kit only came with two clamps. I would recommend getting more clamps to secure the backdrop to the frame.

Dessert/Cake/Candy Buffet Table

The cupcake stands were from Target.  The candy bowls, tongs and treat bags were from Dollar Tree. I used Hershey Eggs for the Dragon Eggs, Bugles for the Luck Dragon claws and Rolos for Luck Dragon Gold. I had a $20 coupon Instacart coupon. So I didn't even have to leave my house for the treats. Another score!

The crocheted Falkor was from Etsy.

 https://www.etsy.com/listing/782979636/crochet-luck-dragon-never-ending

The cupcake toppers were from Etsy. I printed them out on cardstock. Cut them out, glued two together with a toothpick in the middle. To make things easier, you can buy a 2" hole punch.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/875217999/the-neverending-story-cupcake-toppers

We bought the smash cake, cupcakes and sheet cake from the Acme bakery. We actual tried several bakeries to get a custom cake with fondant work but, alas, it was not meant to be. That is a story for another time. Besides the sheet cake getting a bit smooshed, it turned out pretty good.

The balloons, garland kit, and arch kit were purchased on Amazon. My cousins did all the balloon decorations.  They did an amazing job.  The letter boxes were also DIY and it added a nice touch to the display.

Centerpieces/Favors

And since I'm a glutton for punishment.  I decided to make paper flowers from book pages for the centerpieces.  I used this tutorial

https://www.instructables.com/Book-Page-Roses/  I looked at a bunch of different tutorials and this one seemed to be the easiest to follow.  It still took a long time to make though. I ended up making 14 centerpieces times 3 flowers each = 42 flowers.  I filled the mason jars with decorative moss, blue and clear acrylic gems, and yellow potpourri (from Dollar Tree).

I printed out bookmarks from Walgreens and ordered bookmark sleeves from Amazon.

I made mini book chocolates from Hershey nuggets, cardstock and paper.  I used the tutorial from https://tikkido.com/blog/mini-chocolate-book-favor-tutorial .  I used the open source software GIMP to create the Neverending Story page and then used Google Doc to print them out. 

Coincidentally, there ended up being 12 tables. I printed out monthly pictures and put one on each table as table numbers.

Finally, the party wouldn't be complete without a giant hand-painted photo cut out board. Who wouldn't wanna ride Falkor?!

So, that was the party.  For more ideas, check out my Pinterest board https://pin.it/5WLjbsW. There were so many ideas but enough time.