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This was Matt’s and my first Halloween party, and I have to say we nailed it.
Theme
Choosing a theme can be difficult, especially with so many amazing Halloween themes: zombies, mad scientists, gothic revival, Tim Burton… but we decided on a seance themed cocktail party. Raise your spirits with spirits. Spooky and delightful. This also cut down on food costs, as we would not be serving a formal dinner, just snacks.
Invitation
I’m a firm believer that an invitation can set the tone for your event. Your guests will be emerged into the theme and know exactly what to expect. You can see the invites in more detail, here.
90% of our guest list responded that they were coming. I like to think that the large turn out was due to the fabulous invitations.
Menu
As I mentioned, we wanted to keep the menu fairly light. We are firm believers in no leftovers – no food waste, so we focused on the numbers. We also wanted to play into the taste of our guests. As they’re all really good friends, we knew what would work and what wouldn’t.
Here’s our menu:
- Homemade pizza rolls
- Hoison meatballs
- Vege tray
- Everything bagel cheese ball
- Panko shrimp
- Chex-mix
- Chicago style popcorn
- Candy charcuterie board
We had no leftovers and everyone raved about how great the food was.
Cocktails
Now you can’t have a cocktail party without some custom cocktails. Every guest was greeted by a glass of champagne. There’s something about champagne that really sets the tone. The glass that starts the celebration. Of course we had beer – but Matt made custom cocktails from the Old Forester drink menu.
- Iced Coffee
- The Ruby
In addition, I provided apple cider and caramel vodka – a perfect drink for autumn.
Decor
Our decor was fairly simple, fortunately it doesn’t take a lot to make your house look haunted and seance ready. We used old family photographs, mirrors, spider webs, led candles, twinkle lights, a candelabra, faux bugs, and skeletons to add to the ambiance.
My DIY ghosts were hovering over the food table to add that extra creep.
We also used a fog machine to make things extra. With the light dimmed it added so much to the party atmosphere.
To add more fun – this shower curtain terrorized the bathroom. There were a lot of photos taken in the bathroom that night. Best part – it was only $5 on Amazon.
Games
We wanted to make games an option for our guests to partake. We created two drinking games, the full post available here.
Soundtrack
Music is a tough one. Our playlist ranged from The Eagles to the Misfits – with classic Halloween songs mixed within. It may not fit every flavor, but it was guest pleasing. Check out the playlist on Spotify.
Photo Booth
I’m a huge supporter of photo booths. I recently purchased a green screen, which allowed our guests to have a lot of fun. I use Camtasia to edit my photos, but I’m sure there are easier methods.
If you’re not sure you want to commit – I recommend hanging up a solid-color backdrop, and let your imagination take over. Amazon sells props, or you can make your own! Christmas lights also add a fun lighting effect.
Favors
At the end of the night – guests could take a favor home to remember the spooky seance. Our guests went crazy over them! See instructions here.
This was a great party and easy to execute.
Happy haunting!
xo love kim
