Hogsmeade and Hogwarts Castle at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Universal Studios Hollywood

It was a day long awaited getting to walk through the arch to Hogsmeade in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood this past weekend. The weekend before Thanksgiving when the USA is the coziest and most magical in anticipation of warm meals and hearts and the Christmas season. Hogsmeade was alight with garland and twinkle lights, lanterns and windows glowing with warmth. Being a child of the Harry Potter generation, I grew up with the books being released at midnight parties at Barnes and Noble and the movies coming out every year for most of my childhood…And now, the journey into the world itself. Needless to say, my sister in law and myself completely nerded out. We were overwhelmed with sensory overload and it met every expectation Here I am above, pre-Hogsmeade at one of the shops on the main street of Universal Studios trying on The Sorting Hat on for size. The times I’ve taken the quiz on Pottermore, it has been Hufflepuff, but I took a quiz yesterday and it said Ravenclaw, and I can be sneaky like a Slytherin and brave like a Gryffindor, so I’m claiming them all. I digress lol.

They say the wand picks the wizard/witch, well, that may be the case but I only have eyes for the Elder Wand. Dumbledore is my fav.

This still life photo is the reason I decided to completely re-arrange everything in my office space to resemble a Harry Potter movie set lol. Stacks of old books—it’s so beautiful, sigh

Chocolate Frogs. They have an almost sacred feeling of magicalness about them. Meli and I held back tears just to look at them. They really did such an amazing job with all the products. Worth it!

Dumbledore Christmas ornament in the shape of the only Wizard Chocolate Frog card I really want lol. But $24 dollars? Two more chocolate frog boxes please <3

Have you seen this wizard?

If you know your house, let me know if you agree with it or not, I’m curious to know.

So many fluffy owls everywhere! And many different types of owls too! I want to adopt them all!

Childhood dreams coming true right here in this photo :D Magic upon magic. Hogsmeade is just like the movies and books!

Honeyduke’s store windows were perfect.

The Three Broomstick’s restaurant was so authentic. The food and drinks were on point and I never use that phrase because it needs to be reserved for the truly deserving lol! The Feast Platter was incredible in its presentation and taste. I ordered the Pumpkin Feast drink that is soda pumpkin spice—can I eat here everyday?

I did discover 2 reasons in particular that I would like to go to the Universal Studios Orlando Wizarding World of Harry Potter—-the 9 3/4 cart that you can push into the wall and Gringott’s Bank with the dragon.

Butterbeer! I have done my best to recreate this recipe from blogs and other Pinterest recipes and secret Starbuck’s menus and imagining it from the books and visually trying to mimic it from the movies and I can say that the Butterbeer here is better than all of that! Sooooo good! Of course I had to buy the keepsake mug <3

Seeing Hogwarts Castle the first time was completely surreal—the way they built it makes it so majestic. And the ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was a level of technology I’ve never before experienced at a theme park—my brain totally believed the screen experience—something you must experience if you love feeling exhilaration and almost out of body feeling.

A photo with the love of my life and me in front of Hogwart’s Castle— dreams come true!

Momentarily stepped out of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to get this photo lol and now we’re going back

Christmas at night at Hogsmeade. Even better than the daytime <3

And then the family had enough lol and so we went to the Paris section of Universal Studios Hollywood since everyone knows Paris is completely part of the magical community.

Thank you if you made it this far! I really appreciate you being here!

I hope to photograph here at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood very soon! I was delighted that the crowds aren’t too big and there is lots of space to take photos and the light is really good! So if you have been considering a portrait of yourself or an engagement session—I’m totally down! Let’s make some magic!

Let’s connect on Instagram! instagram.com/julietpeelphotography

or on Facebook if that’s more your thing facebook.com/julietpeelphotography

And you are here www. julietpeel.com

I’m located in Anaheim, California and will travel to take magical photos!

Happy Thanksgiving and take way too many photos of everything—-we know photography is magic so capture everything and everybody you love with a little magic!

-Juliet

PS All photos taken by Juliet Peel Photography and Freddy Talks except the one of Freddy and I taken by Melissa Fitzgerald and the family pic taken by that very kind lady, bless you! I made a custom Lightroom Preset specifically for Hogsmeade and Hogwarts Castle and all photos were shot on Canon.