What a fine Halloween weekend this is shaping up to be! Spooky Soirée 2017 was a success! A lot of hard work, planning, and effort went into this party and boy did it pay off. I’ll walk you through some of the highlights and some lessons learned as well.

Trick or Treats!

A few years ago, some friends of mine hosted a fantastic Halloween party that was black light themed. It was such a fun atmosphere, I wanted to designate a small area of the party for the black light vibe. I ordered a $20 LED black light from Amazon and mounted it on the wall with a command hook and directed the light at my dining room table which I knew would be covered with treats and goodies that guests brought (like these ADORABLE spider cupcakes courtesy of my friend Rebecca). Also, please note the empty casserole dish in the middle of the table… that had my famous buffalo chicken dip in it. I swear I put it out on the table and returned 15 minutes later to have some and it was gone!

Say Cheese and Die

Some of my favorite parties I have attended have had photo booths. It is a great way to ensure that you get some priceless memories of the evening. I had a blast putting this photo booth together. I started by justifying the purchase of curtain fairy lights. Always wanted some, they look like magic. I liked the look of just the lights, but I felt it could be spookier, so I grabbed some black tulle that I had laying around and draped that over the lights. It looked a bit unfinished with the tulle laying kind of wildly on top, so I crafted up a long strip of orange satin (also had laying around) and draped it over the command hooks I used to hang the lights. I used a couple of straight pins to secure the corners, added a banner form the dollar section of target, added some hand-me-down photo booth props in a vase and voila! Only lessons learned here are to make sure you wait the suggested 1 hour before putting weight on the command hooks and try to find a corner of your house with less foot traffic to put your photo booth. We had a bit of an issue with photo ops blocking traffic.

Décor to Die for

I gave a few of my recent pins a try! Check out my last post here. For the henna-inspired pumpkin, I used a sharpie paint pen and doodled to my heart’s content on a craft foam pumpkin. The chalkboard design I ended up copying almost verbatim. But hey, sometimes you don’t mess with a good thing.

I added a few spooky touches to the rest of the house like these cobwebs and window cling bloody hand prints. My favorite decorations (and from the compliments I received, most party guest’s favorite too), were the Hogwarts inspired floating candle hallway. These were surprisingly fun to make. I saw this on Pinterest and knew I needed to give it a try. I love Harry Potter, and I think the illusion adds a fun magical quality to Halloween party decorations. The assembly is straightforward. Collect toilet paper rolls, drip hot glue on them and paint them white. Add a ledge of hot glue inside the roll so that (once dry) the battery tea light can rest inside. String them up with some fishing line or clear thread. I used tiny, clear command hooks to adhere them to the ceiling. A lesson learned here was the height to hang them… I am no shorty; however, many party guests had heels or hats that required they duck as they walked down the hall.

The Scary Awards 2017

The costume contest was a hit! Give people a chance to win a trophy and they will bring their A game. The categories were Cutest Costume, Scariest Costume, Best Couple Costume, Most Creative Costume, and Funniest Costume. I always liked making outfits for my dolls to wear, so I couldn’t resist dressing up my “Scaries” in outfits fitting their category.

And the award goes too…

Cutest Costume: Taco the dog, dressed up as a taco

Scariest Costume: Walking Dead/Woodie and Jessie mashup

Best Couple Costume: Starlord and Gamora (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Most Creative Costume: Bob Ross and his painting

Funniest Costume: My boyfriend dressed as a mermaid

Happy Haunting my friends!

~Sarah

Photo Credit: C. Bentler