Encanto was a number 1 hit in 2021! Who wants to talk about Bruno? Who regrets reading this sentence because they are now singing that catchy song? The movie provided a lot of fun content to get creative. We had the opportunity to plan two different Encanto parties; an Isabella-themed and a Bruno-themed. Now that the song is playing in your head let us talk about our parties.
As always, we start with our Faithful 5. My son wanted an Encanto movie party when it came out, six months from the movie release date. You would think he would change his mind at some point, but he did not. We concocted the decoration, food, and games based on the movie. We also planned a birthday party for a little girl whose favorite character was Isabella. Below you will see how we brought this movie to life, and we may have to talk about Bruno in the process
To include each of the characters in the movie, we created stations throughout the party for each strength.
Mirabel–
Mirabel is the main character in this movie. Throughout the film, it was perceived that she was not given a special gift like other people in her family. Mirabel finds out by the end of the movie that her talent is much more immense than she could have believed. Mirabel’s gift was to be able to bring to light her family’s true strengths. Butterflies were often used throughout the movie when she was around and in the final scenes when she discovered her special gift. To depict Marabel, we used gold butterflies throughout the party. They were beautiful.
Isabella–
Her special gift is to make everything beautiful. She finds in the end that beautiful does not mean perfect. She was able to see that beauty was found in asymmetrical things. Isabella made flowers grow up walls and all over. We made flowers grow up a column for her station at our party. We placed flowers and cactus around.
Isabela’s color party. We are lucky enough to have been introduced to color parties by one of our friends from India. We were able to order colors, and we played “What else can we do” if you are familiar with the movie, we brought the song to life. The children loved this part. We pre-warn parents of this before the party, but to the children, it was a complete surprise.
Bruno–
We aren’t supposed to talk about Bruno, but let’s do it. This song hit the top of the charts passing over. Let it Go from Frozen and became the most played song by Disney. So how do you incorporate this into your party? We represented Bruno in two different ways.
We made a shirt for the Birthday boy that said, “Bruno talks about me.”
We created two different desserts that represented Bruno:
– Bruno Cupcakes
– Bruno Hostess
Luisa–
Luisa’s special gift was physical strength. Throughout the movie, she lifts houses, carries donkeys, and picks p other heavy items. As a way to represent Luisa, we created a game. We purchased the blow-up donkeys represented in the picture below and had relays where they had to carry them.
Pepa–
Pepa’s special gift was that she could control the weather. In the movie, they spoke a lot about rain. So to represent her we put umbrellas around as decoration.
Julieta–
Julieta healed people with her food. Throughout the movie, she feeds the Colombian family food, such as arepas. For our party, we cooked Arepas and Chicken Salteado. The food was so flavorful.
Antonio–
Antonio was the littlest of the group. He received his special gift during the movie. Antonio’s gift was that he could communicate with all animals. To represent Antonio, we put out stuffed animals in a basket.
Decorations!
Let us talk about decorations! Oh, the colors for this theme are beautiful. We searched around different stores for bright colors, purchased some cactuses, and made a backdrop. When decorating for a party with a specific theme or character to save money, we focus on colors instead of purchasing decorations explicitly made for the chosen theme. For example, instead of buying things with Encanto characters on them or items expressly created for this movie, we looked at the colors in the movie, location, and different unique themes within the film. Thus, we could decorate using purple and teal colors, cactuses, and other flowers. We looked at Columbian-themed parties and were able to draw from that to create a beautiful backdrop.
Food–
Encanto took place in Columbia. To stay true to the theme, we looked through Columbian cookbooks and found some yummy recipes on which we put our twist. We kept in mind that there were children for this party, so we chose Arepas and Chicken Salteado. We did find a delicious adult beverage that was a hit for the Mommas!
