Thread: The Grand Opening of my bar is at Hallowe'en!

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So sorry to start a thread for this, but : panic!

I've been working on buying a bar for three years ands finally bought it 2 months ago, but then the permitstook too long and I couldn't open.

So I've been tormented in my bar with no permission to open my doors and no internet, so no H'ween-forum!

Now today internet got fixed, but most important: the permits are fixed and they told me I can open this weekend!

At Hallowe'en!!!! But I didn't prepare much at all! I've got 5 days now to make this a Grand Opening and my 13th Hallowe'en party!

The theme is Tavern the Black Widow (my signature theme) , kind of a haunted tavern with something sexy due to the 'Black Widow'' -thing. Mostly spiderwebs and rats... but nothing else I can think of... And there will be a green fairy pouring absinth and a dark fairy pouring bloody mary...

It's my dream come true and I'm not prepared!!!

I'm instructing the crew, and doing the finances and cleaning the bathrooms...and there's simply no time for mew to paruse on this forum like last year.....

So I would beg anyone on tis forum to help me come up with anything simple I could do to spice this up, to please let me know!!! Through this forum or my mail (storm@kanslos.nl)... Please, please, please....

A proud and hyper Nikita whishes you all a lot of god luck with the last preperations

Ow, I'll post some pictures of the bar on my profile, so you can see what a cool joint I bought!

I hope you have a great opening. i don't know what you've got planned so far, but what about lots of spiders and spider webs. BIG spiders! little spiders! everyone has a small fear of spiders, even if they say they don't. Plus with the prices of everything dropping, it shouldn't cost a whole lot. Maybe throw a blucky spider victim in there too? Green lighting I think always looks the creepiest.

Lighting, lighting, lighting. Replace regular bulbs with colored lights (green is great for making things looks errie). Use flicker bulbs if you can.

When i worked at a bar in Washington DC we always threw a big halloween party and one of the first things I learned was that too much decor got in the way. We did a spider theme one year and I made HUGE spiderweb out of string over the dancefloor. Took a lot of work but the effect was awesome. We even tucked "dead" things in the web.

If you have large mirrors behind the bar, draw some cracks on them with a dry-erase marker, then dust them up with some baby powder.

I love the green fairy pouring absinthe idea.

Great! Thanx! Funny enough I was playing with the huge spiderweb over the dancefloor idea! It´s got amn extra balcony-ish half floor and it permits you to lok down on the dancefloor and crowd.. spiderweb in the middle would do great! I have an old plastic skeleton I could wrap into spiderwebs and hang it in the web!

Great! Ideas start rolling now. Lights I thought of yellow and orange, fire- like. I've got this lamp that throws moving flames over the wall/floor, wanted to go with that style. And loads of pumpkins! And straw perhaps, but it should be wet, or it could catch fire...

More ideas most welcom! And thanx for the compliment on the fairy!

OMFG! Your bar is gorgeous! I love the old world but still modern feel of it...I don't think you have to do too much to this place to spookify it!

I think that lots and lots of webs and spiders is totally the way to go (oh, and you must string up either a person or a dummy on that cool pulley that you are hanging from in that pic )

Really, I wouldn't add too much to this place...especially since it's a grand opening, you don't want to hide the beauty of the space too much...

LOTS OF CANDLE LIGHT IS A MUST!

good luck and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Ok...just went and looked at the pictures and I would have a BALL decorating that place. It screams for halloween decor. LOVE IT!!!

Here are more ideas. Cheap and easy.

Shreaded cheesecloth is very inexpensive and can do wonders to creep the place up. hang bits of cloth off that wonderful chandelier in the middle of the room. Maybe even a small skeleton hanging underneath if there is room. You can also put cheesecloth on the railing on the second floor. A great spider victim wrapped up in webbing would look great hung on one of those support posts.

In the back entrance, do those flourescent lights stay on or are there dimmer lights back there. that is a great place to hang some webs, glue some spiders on the walls up where people will leave them alone and every few feet, hang some fishing line down from teh ceiling so it brushes across patrons faces when they walk down the hall. That will really creep people out.

I can't wait to see what you come up with. Have fun with it.

Oh...LOVE the picture of you sitting on that stand. that looks like a place I would have a lot of fun in.

GOOD LUCK!!

How about some dry ice?

Congrats on your bar! What a cool looking place! I agree with someone else who posted - don't go too crazy with the H'ween decor for the Grand Opening - show off how gorgeous the place is. Of course you still need some spiders & webs - a large spider centerpiece (to become a mascot maybe?) over that dancefloor would be great.

Maybe one of these, if your local Big Lots has it:

Dracula sign @ Big Lots

If not I posted a printable copy of the sign. What I usually do when I want to backlight something like this is to print it on a transparency, then get a piece of frosted plastic and backlight it with LEDs or a blacklight (mist the back of it with blacklight reactive hairspray).

Congrats on your bar! It's absolutely gorgeous!

I definitely second the lighting and fog... That'll spook it up quite nice - and really go with the look of the place.

I wish we could go there for Halloween - what an amazing place!