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A PrincessPrincess DianaDiana Iconic Costume Party
A few months ago I came up with the idea of planning a Princess Diana iconic costume party with friends and later decided I would do it for my birthday since I’m named after her and Queen Elizabeth. Here’s a wrap up on the ICONIC event and every detail so you can plan one too!
I can’t believe I get to blog about this Princess Diana iconic costume party I hosted last weekend just a few days after my birthday – as my birthday party. This idea came to me with some friends while we were antique shopping last summer – the idea of an iconic Princess Diana costume! I gave it some thought and I thought the best time of year would be fall and why not since I was named after Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth?
But who would be on board for this? My greatest friends of course! And so the guest list was created filled with my greatest friends. I knew the RSVPs and commitment would be a resounding YES I WILL BE THERE and then came WITH A WIG ON TOO! So there I was suddenly realizing as a host I had to go all out, I couldn’t be the host who didn’t wear a wig so I ordered one and well, the rest of the photos are history and ones I hardy recognize myself in! Haha! I hope you enjoy as I share the details of this memorable party with you.
Black folding tables / Black plastic stacking chairs / Crystal bowl: Tiffany & Co. / White lace plates: Williams-Sonoma / Roses: Grace Rose Farms / Blue and white vases: Antique Stores
It’s true, I made a Princess Diana Wedding dress birthday cake! 
I felt so clever when I thought of it. I ran to my computer went online to find a vintage Diana wedding doll, with two veils – her church veil and the floral one she wore on the balcony, shoes, and the epic train! I remember my friends daughter having a Barbie cake many years ago so when this idea popped into my head I really felt like I was beyond creative. Of course I washed her because um vintage dust doesn’t taste good.
I had the dress made at a grocery store bakery and the cream cheese frosting was the perfect color to match her ivory dress! Ordering this and making it work was a little more complicated which I will explain at the end of this post. It was worth it because the reaction on my friends faces when the realized what it was, was truly priceless and memorable. I love giving my best friends an experience!
I used a Mackenzie Childs metal planter table that can flip over to fill with ice for drinks, or flip to be a table. I placed a silver tray on top that went across which held the plastic cups, straws and scoop on as guests mixed their London Fog drinks – with instructions on the sign hanging above. Princes Charles did help scoop ice and the mixer in as a starter as friends created their own drink with their milk or milk substitute. I like when guests can make their own drinks because it’s one less thing to watch over. I’ll link to the mix at the bottom of this post.
Then, the Princess Diana’s started to arrive. We screamed and laughed, admired, and cheered at how everyone looked in their outfit and wig. There was no way anyone felt weird because we were all pushing the limits and going all out. Having a costume party and friends who really participate is wonderful because everyone gets to enjoy one another’s efforts and it makes for a great experience, everyone tries hard and it is part of the overall party experience!
This was our look as a couple, this shot must’ve been from a Canada polo event. I figured Charles had to match my outfit! Finding the parts to these took a while but I am thankful for Amazon! Links will be below.
Many have asked about this sweater and how I found it – the original makers have brought it back! You can buy Diana’s red sheep sweater now and size up, they run small! I am in size large (I am usually a XS or S size) but I could have been fine in a medium but definitely not a small especially with layering.
My pants are Tibi, I needed a loose drapey pant. My shoes are vintage Ferragamo, a gift from Brooke, who wore the hot pink outfit!
I am so blessed by my husband Mr. Wonderful. He is always a great sport with everything in my life – from helping me set up tables, put things away, acting a part, he is truly my best mate in life! I am so thankful he makes life fun, easy and really enjoys and loves the things I do and loves my friends — and they seem to adore him too!
Each place setting had Diana’s actual signature I found somewhere online –
I added Princess of (last name) because Wales was her royal last name and if you know royal last names they can change with their titles as they move up, or down whatever you want to call it. I designed them using a Cricut Joy to design them and bought acrylic name place cards on Amazon. Each guest took them home and I was glad they liked them because they were a lot of work to create but worth it!
Princess Diana Pop Quiz
I created a fun pop quiz about Princess Diana, I’ll post it here so you can see and borrow it! I used Canva to design it. On the back I had a thumbnail of each Princess Diana and their outfit and their title (Princess of Steffen) and they had to circle who they voted for.
Some voted before the runway show which I joked was early ballot voting and that the ones who wanted to wait until after the fashion show were day of voting. Then we started cracking up making jokes about making sure our votes were hand counted and authenticated. Haha!!
I searched the web and also went to the Diana museum in Las Vegas a few months ago with my girl gang so I snapped a few facts! It was fun because Princes Charles gave the answers in a British voice of course and to see the girls react aw or yesssss when they graded themselves was quite enjoyable.
Answers:
- D
- B
- A
- C
- A
- B
- Obey
- C
- C
PRINCESS DIANA ICONIC COSTUME CONTEST
After the quiz we lined up the chairs for a fashion show! I increased the volume for it to start and began with Diana by One Direction! Click here to the link to the playlist if you want Diana vibes.
Here are the winners, runner-up was The Revenge Dress and the winner with half the votes was British Lung Foundation outfit! You have to see the IG reels of the show it was incredible and so funny! I am going to embed it in this blog and hope it show up well.
I began to open gifts an here’s a quick gallery of some of the gifts. All were incredibly special, and so sweet and generous of my friends to take the time to not only give a Saturday morning for me, but to work on an outfit, wig, and shower me with gifts. I am truly blessed by each of these souls.
One of the gifts I have to share was fun to use and you may want to get yourself as another party activity keepsake for yourself, is a book on Diana’s fashion that has your friend’s outfits in there. They can sign by their outfit!
So I grabbed a sharpie and they signed away by their outfit. If they couldn’t find their outfit that Princess Diana wore, we used a polaroid like camera and took a photo and put it in the book and had them sign by it.
It makes for a fun keepsake as you read!
Aren’t these sheep incredible? I put them in the grass during most of the party for photos and the runway show but when it was cake time, we decided they needed to be propped by my Diana wedding dress cake!
The sheep figurines are from Grandin Road and you can see they are on sale now. Benjamin joked that the sheep should be the prize to go to the costume winners but I was like I’m not quite sure my friends would know what to do with them? Ha!
I like to throw parties that have an experience, activities, or something that makes every attendee feel like there’s something they are enjoying, they are special (because they are!) and a fun event that just also happens to have birthday cake too! I love spoiling my friends with these parties (see my 40th soiree here), because they spoil me with their friendship. I also know because I was asking them to come in an iconic Diana outfit that takes time and money so I was happy to really go all out on the details to make it a worthy experience for all who made such great efforts as guests and friends.
I can’t believe the day went by so fast. We all had SUCH A BLAST. I received so many texts telling me how much fun they had, sharing videos and photos and enjoying the reels I was posting. It was fun to work on reels and edit these images to share with you. Thank you for reading I hope you had a fun time seeing the details I put into this party and of course if I could invite the entire world, I would have so sharing these on the blog is my way in hopes you feel included from the comfort of your own home!
Thank you
Lauren for taking so many of these images what a gift these are for me. Brenna for also picking up the camera, and my friends for arranging the gifts, cake cutting, the things I didn’t have to think about. And thanks for helping clean and tidy up after the party. I love each and every one of you so much and I am grateful for the deep, dependable, fun, loyal friendship we have. I treasure each one of you as sisters I have chosen. Thank you for being a part of my fun day and taking part in my idea!
Here is a reel of 90 second highlights of the party, enjoy!
Links to DIANA outfit
and party details
THE DIANA BLACK SHEEP SWEATER OUTFIT
I love this look so much because I know it’s iconic, and I know I’ll wear the sweater again in the future. I also wanted to be comfortable and bright at my birthday party, you know I love color!
But can we talk about the red shoes? I decided instead to look up some vintage Ferragamos! These were a gift from my friend Brooke (pink dress Princess Di).
The sheep sweater by Warm and Wonderful is part of Rowing Blazers. It is $295 but you can find used/new on Poshmark! They run very small so I would bet she was wearing a medium size here. I would probably be best in a medium if I bought it again but I got a large and it was fine too!
I needed a Peter Pan collared shirt to put under –
But wait, there’s the rose quilted clutch she had which is by Souleiado.
Then there’s the aviator sunglasses –
Let’s also not forget a wig – these are only $14!
I bought this one below because it matched my look, but had to give it a few snips in the back and recurl it to feather it. Recurling fake hair is not easy it goes straight so you have to actually curl it but hold it with your hand until it cools to keep it in shape and it will stay that way. Honesty my hair looks more like Camilla now (oops) but whatever.
^^ This is the Princess Diana wig I bought but gave it a trim in the back.
^^ Get this root spray in Medium blonde incase your wig doesn’t come in thee right color. This added some nice yellow blonde that I needed.
PRINCES CHARLES
CANADA POLO LOOK
PRINCESS DIANA
BIRTHDAY CAKE
I found a vintage Princess Diana doll from eBay. The dress of the cake was $39.99 at Safeway. It is usually more with a Disney princess doll and they have Disney princess dress designs and I asked for the simplest which was Rapunzel without the embellishments.
Usually the bakery will only use boxed new dolls or else you have to place the doll in there yourself (for sanitary reasons). I washed her clothes to make sure she was clean as can be before I put her in the cake. I saran wrapped the bottom of her dress before I shoved her in the middle of the cake’s small hole they left for me. I asked for extra icing too to fill in around her waist.
THE PARTY DECOR AND PRIZES
I was honored to have photographed author Kinsey Schofield the week earlier and she kindly gifted me a book for my costume winner and wrote inside, “Your outfit is to Di for.” I just couldn’t handle how sweet and generous that was of her to do!
Diana: Style Icon: A Celebration of the fashion of Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, $9
These are from Grandin Road, and come in four different colors. I bought the black and white one.
ENGLISH BREAKFAST / BRUNCH
Organic London For Tea Latte Concentrate you mix 1/4 par with milk or a milk substitute. They are only $2.99 at Target!
Catering is my thing, so I ordered from a Grande Orange here locally and picked up an hour before the party in the morning!
- English muffins with individual packets of strawberry jam and peanut butter packets
- Bircher Muesli (cold oats with milk, blueberries, almonds and strawberries)
- Variety of breakfast pastries
- Fresh fruit salad with creme-fraiche
- Turkey sausage (frozen, just microwaved placed in a warmer with hot water to prevent them from drying out)
- Orange juice, London fog tea latte concentrate, milk, milk substitute, VOSS bottled water
- Princess Diana wedding dress barbie cake (red velvet with cream cheese frosting to match ivory dress)
Click HERE for the Spotify playlist!
Here are more items I used for the party, or recommended items that give some Diana vibes!
Brooke Watton
So incredibly talented you are! Your sisters of choice live celebrating you and with you. Xo