Princess Party with Real Life Princesses! No Wigs!

Please don't look at the cake. It is about to fall over.

I found the banner as a free printable and changed the colors in Photoshop. Source: http://www.disneybaby.com/uncategorized/disney-princess-printable-birthday-banner/ 

Here is the chandelier I repurposed into a cookie stand. 

Pinana purchased at Walmart or some other unsavory location.

I bought paper lanterns from Sky Lanterns and spent way too long hanging them up.

Oh yeah, I made tissue paper poufs, too. 

This beautiful dress was my favorite birthday present to Little Girl. Guess what? It was "itchy" and she NEVER WORE IT.

Party favors were ribbon wands. 

Wilton food writer pens do not work very well. Ahem. I prefer sanding sugar. It hides flaws better.

I knew that I wanted to have real princesses when Little Girl wanted to have a princess party. However, I had been to a few princess parties where the "princesses" were as old as I am! Um, no. Like it or not, Disney princesses are teenagers! And the wigs just made them look fake. So, I decided to ask around to see if anyone knew any high schoolers interested in playing the part of Aurora, Cinderella or Rapunzel for the day. I interviewed the young ladies beforehand to make sure there were no surprises. I purchased the Aurora costume on Amazon, and it was very nice quality. I met with the young lady beforehand at a local boutique and had her try the dress on and I altered it to fit. 

The Cinderella dress was more difficult. The first one I ordered one was complete junk. I finally found a Cinderella dress that was good quality. I bought a petticoat to go underneath because it did not have much in the way of underskirts. 

The Rapunzel dress was the most difficult of all to obtain. Apparently, there is some sort of licensing agreement with Disney in America that disallows adult costumes, or some such nonsense. Anyway, I found a costume in the UK, but they could not guarantee it would arrive before the party. So, I had to sew one. There were no Rapunzel patterns available in adult sizes. So I followed this tutorial and used Simplicity Arkivestry pattern 2757. I made a six gore skirt using a tutorial that involved some horrific mathematical calculations the likes of which I have not done since high school. I can't find the tutorial I used, but this one looks good. 

The young ladies were just darling with the little guests. Having real teenaged girls as princesses really added to the event. They had such a youthful air about them. Plus, their hair was real. Rapunzel had really long hair to begin with, and I bought a braid extension (a "yaki pony" that matched her hair exactly) from a local wig shop (Quarter to Ten). 

This was such a fun party, although a LOT of work. Little Girl was so appreciative, it was so sweet. She thanked me profusely afterwards, without anyone prompting her. Sniff.