Planning a Halloween party? Nicholas Rosaci invites us in for a tour of one of his spooktacular Halloween parties and shares his simple tips for ensuring your party is a monster hit!
So you wanna throw the best darn Halloween party? Well, in the words of Britney Spear’s latest hit – “You better work witch! Now get to work witch!” – because there is nothing scarier than a rushed and poorly planned Halloween party!
I like to start decorating the house the first week of October, doing a little bit everyday to “spookify and tweak” the house right up to the big day. This means that the week leading up to the party I can chill a little bit and I only really have to worry about food prep or making a scream worthy soundtrack.
First, you want to come up with a theme. Maybe it’s a Monsters Ball, to be attended by your most gorgeous ghoulfriends, or a murder mystery theme that gives every guest a unique character and role to become.
Having a theme is essential! Not only does it give your friends direction in terms of their costume selection, but themed parties help you stay focused when it comes to shopping for décor items and even makes choosing what food and drink to serve way easier!
Every party begins with an invitation and I prefer to keep this “old school” by leaning more towards the handmade & mailed out approach. You can also visit sites like www.tinyprints.com where you can create easy personalized invitations using your own personal photos coupled with dozens of devilish designs.
In my experience a formal invite says to your guests that you’ve taken that extra time & effort to send them something unique and personal, making them far more likely and excited to attend your event.
Whether you create an event online or opt to send something more traditional, invitations are a must and the earlier they go out the better! I usually send mine out 2-3 weeks prior to the event and follow-up with an email the week before.
Tip: Invite 20 percent more people than you would expect for a large cocktail party. Typically only 70 percent to 80 percent of invitees attend.
Now on to the really fun part – creating something that both delights and scares the senses!
Cheap Thrills
You don’t need to have a big budget to achieve a wow factor. Dollar and grocery stores have lots of cool inexpensive decorations that can be picked up on the cheap! Ice buckets can be creepy $1 cauldrons; Flappy Bats can be cut-out from inexpensive construction paper; and DOA toe tags that display your guests names can be easily tied to champagne flutes with affordable ribbon bows - it’s the little touches that truly make a party memorable and look expensive.
I sometimes will borrow decorations like severed limbs and creepy skeletons from other Halloween obsessed neighbours and friends – which works great if you live in a condo and don’t have a lot of extra storage space for miscellaneous body parts! Storing my Christmas decorations alone is killing me!
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