The Great Gatsby

Last year, the release of The Great Gatsby movie coincided with my birthday. I took this as a sign and used it as inspiration for my birthday celebration. A little party never hurt anybody… *wink*

 

I think this was the book cover
at the time...

I read the book for the first time in high       school, more than 10 years ago. The joke is that it was not even one of my set           curriculum books! I had found the book in a cupboard, thought it was interesting;  stole borrowed it, read it, and then returned it to the teacher. I absolutely LOVED it. The description of Daisy and Tom as ‘careless people’ struck a chord with me. I promised myself to NOT be a Daisy as I grew up. I thought she was the worst  person in the world! I felt frustrated by (spoiler alert) Gatsby’s death, and her and Tom’s escape from all responsibility and consequences. Life was so unfair!

ANYWAY. The Great Gatsby movie was being directed by Baz Luhrman, another favourite of mine. He had directed Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2000), and these visual spectacles are two of my all-time favourite classic movies. The dialogue (or is it script?), the costumes, the acting, the soundtrack… Oh, the awesomeness continued for the full 120 minute running time for each! I waited in anticipation for the release of The Great Gatsby in South Africa on 18 May 2013.

"Gatsby... He had a grand vision for his life, since he was a boy."

As a build up to the movie release, a Great Gatsby-themed monogram creator was made available. This tiny little thing got my creative juices flowing and spurred me into full party-planner mode! I think this was about two weeks before my birthday so my preparation time was quite short *gulp* But there was NO WAY that I was going to pass up this preordained birthday theme!

Invitation

I wrote the words for the invitation, but these would not fit on the stationery I had downloaded. I would therefore have to make my own invitation. I googled ‘Great Gatsby wallpaper’ for ideas and used one of the image results as the background for the invitation. I used Microsoft PowerPoint to create the invitation, combining the wallpaper and my stationery initials (thanks S for the photoshop editing skills). I was, and still am, absolutely in love with the end result – it’s so Gatsby! I pdf’d the invitation and emailed it to the guests. *score for going paperless*

Great Gatsby Invitation

Activities

I had initially decided on three activities for the day:

1.  An afternoon garden tea party with games (badminton, lawn boules, hula hoop).
2. The movie screening at The Labia, South Africa's oldest independent cinema. (Thanks to The Labia for also giving me the Leo cardboard cutout!)
3.  A 1920s swinging dance party that was being hosted by a Cape Town dance group.

Alas, the dance party fell through and was moved to a later date. Not to blow my own horn, but it was me who had alerted them to the fact that they could host a party to honour the movie release. They replied positively to the message, but the time was probably too short for them to pull off the required party by the deadline. *sadness* The party they eventually held looked fantastic and I was doubly sad that it was not on my party date.

Food bought

Savoury platter (Checkers), vegetarian springrolls and fritters (Simply Asia), marshmallows, peanuts & raisins, liquorice. I also bought the ingredients for a snack platter: cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, cheese, chips (sweet chilli pepper Doritos), dips (tsatsiki & hummus), salticrax; and put together the platter myself.

Food made

Scones (thanks N), chocolate cake (thanks V), cupcakes and jelly. My friend from My Baking Obsession also made my Great Gatsby-themed red velvet birthday cake. It was dee-lee-cious!

Music

I downloaded The Great Gatsby movie soundtrack. Banging tunes all round! However, on the day my docking station decided not to work for some reason *fail*

Fashion

I had so much fun finding fashion (alliteration FTW) inspiration via google! I used all manner and combination of search terms: 1920s, The Great Gatsby, garden party, Daisy Buchanan, etc. (Yes, I succumbed and typed ‘Daisy’ into the search bar.) A couple of friends were also asking what they should wear, so I would just send them my google search results (this was before I had a Pinterest account).

My Forever New Great Gatsby Dress

I visited Canal Walk with my fashion friend to find an outfit. I say outfit rather than costume because I did not want to hire something and wanted a dress/skirt that I could wear again. The very first shop we visited was Forever New and here I found the dream dress! This was also the start of my love affair with all things Forever New. The few times I am in a mall, I make sure to visit the store and visually feed my fashion soul with all the pretty, shiny things on display. *sigh*

I paired the dress with silver heels. Accessories included pink coloured 'diamond' earrings, a pink & white ‘diamond’ bracelet, a chunky silver bangle and a pink feather clip in my up-hairstyle. I also had a free makeover at The Body Shop (before they got yucky and put a limit on the number of free makeovers for members). Lastly, a friend (J) gifted me a beautiful silver beaded Forever New purse to complete my outfit. *girly scream*

All-in-all, a Great Gatsby party (get it?) with fabulous friends J

A Great Gatsby Party

Movie review: It was/is ok. A great visual spectacle (like Baz’s other movies), but it lacks substance. Scenes are disjointed. Tobey Maguire’s acting is not great. The movie is really long and you notice the painfully slow passing of time. BUT I still bought the DVD. Just watch the trailer below and you will understand...

W