Thread: 1st party. Want to make it the BEST!

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Hello! I'm so glad there is an entire forum for "crazies" like me that start planning for Halloween early on...since like November 1st!?

So this year will be my first full-blown Halloween bash. I have a small space and most of my friend's are not into Halloween like me, so I'm having trouble deciding what kind of party to throw.

The theme I am toying with is definitely ghosts/haunted house. I am thinking of something along the lines of "true love never dies" So I somehow want to incorporate love and ghost into the them. This is where the struggle starts. What should be my theme be? I don't know if I should even have a theme/costumes guest should adhere to since they are not into it like I am.

As you can see, I'm very confused! Any suggestions for what route I should take and what themes I could use? I'm open to ANYTHING that's haunted house/ghost themed. Thanks!

Personally, from a guest perspective they would need to understand the story line...I was thinking at the doorway the guest will be greeted with the male and female corpse...as they enter they will see things like pictures or statements...all around the place...letting them put the story together...OR!!!!!...you could use charcters from movies like my favorite Nightmare before Christmas or...The Corpse Bride...making a banner true love never dies over them...it might be a cliche but it does incorporate love and ghost...if you want to use more traditional characters you can use The Addams Family...ot The Munsters....and decorate the party with these chaaracters in mind..I hope this will be helpful.

Originally Posted by HallowYves

Personally, from a guest perspective they would need to understand the story line...I was thinking at the doorway the guest will be greeted with the male and female corpse...as they enter they will see things like pictures or statements...all around the place...letting them put the story together...

I like this idea, you could have old love letters and dead roses lying around. If you feel your guests would have a problem doing full blown costumes, have them dress as the dead or ghosts...These are pretty easy to do with an old set of your regular cloths.

How about have several dead props (skele's and body's) and have clues around so your guest have to figure out and match the pairs.

As an Ice breaker (when I have a set of guests that don't all know each other) I like to play the "Who am I?" game. This is where you write down famous characters on 3X5 cards and pin one on the back of each guest so they can't see and then they ask Yes/No answer questions of the other guests to try and figure out who they are. It's an easy game and lossens everyone up. You could use famous love story couples as the characters or famous murderers.

Both great ideas, The only thing i might add is of course ghost props and decorations. The scene setters have some cool easy to use ghost and cemetary type decorations. A flying crank ghost prop comes to mind also. I would send out invitations with a story of the true love never dies theme and encourage people to dress up and join the fun but not make the costume mandatory. I think the corpse bride greeter idea is awesome. I would also have ghostly or mournful music playing throughout the house.

One thing I would disagree with is 'Want to make it the BEST!'

At your first attempt, I would do the best you can...let your friends in gently...don't try and make it too complicated...get them used to the idea of the Halloween party, then each year you can make it better. If you make it the best the first time, where do you go from there? Encourage them to join in with the 'spirit' of Halloween, help them with ideas for costumes, use examples from films, even non-traditional love stories maybe, such as between Igor and Dr Frankenstein!!

Decorate the house on the theme of true love, maybe the lovers owned your house in the past, and now haunt it and no-one has been able to live there for years, so it is old and run-down. Maybe the dead lovers are either trying to prevent modern lovers from experiencing the pain they suffered, or trying to bring them together.....

One source of costumes is local drama/theatre groups. Costumes from any period could be used, if the guests are made to look dead, for example, bright 60's or 70's clothes against white/pale skin. What about military uniforms? A love affair between a dead GI and his gal! In this way, people can dress in clothes that they are comfortable in, rather than clothes that are perceived as costumes.

I would suggest that you bridge the gap between a 'normal' party and a full-blown Halloween scare! Once people have been to one, they almost certainly will want to come back next year to see how you can top it! Then you are on the Halloween rollercaster!!!

HTH

Iffy

I would definately tie your theme with the invitations. To me, the invitation sets the mood (and the guest's level of participation).

I've found that you can't really dictate what the guest should wear, but you can decorate your home to give the feel of your theme once they arrive. People love Halloween parties, and those that are really into it, will spend the time/money on a good costume. (My invitations always manage to say that costumes are mandatory). Every year the costumes get better and better.

Don't forget to carry your theme into the guest bathroom....

I agree with a lot of posts here. I think that true love never dies is a great idea for a theme. Perhaps if you have an attic you could set a recorder up in it with chain sounds or something sounding like it's bumping around up there even if it's just a crawlspace in the ceiling. Have some photos of a couple who were supposed to have lived in the house before and now haunt it is a great idea. I think with your invitations pulling your theme in will be really important and help your guests know what to expect for your party. You could also insert a sheet in with famous movie love couples that are dead or undead.... Think.......... the crow (Eric and Shelly)...... beetlejuice(Adam and Barbara)...............Ghost (Sam and Molly)........Night of the living dead 3 (Curt and Julie) these are just a few examples, but I hope it helps.

Ok, this may not be a very popular opinion, but it is based on our 13 years of Halloween party experience.

Our first few parties were NOT themed and BARELY decorated. Looking back, I believe that was actually for the best, since we only had a handful of guests (6, then 10, then about 20). If we had put lots of time, money, and effort into building a theme, creating a back-story, decorating, etc, and only had 6 people show up, we would have not only felt like complete failures but might have decided not to have any more.

By our 4th party, we started doing more decorating, and we had almost 40 guests.

Now, some of you may say that we had more guests because we decorated more, but nobody knew how much we had decorated until they arrived.

The fact is, our efforts grew in response to our turn-outs. By our 5th year, we were averaging 50 - 60 guests, and maintained that number until 2007 when we suddenly shot up to 150. Coincidentally, that was also the year of The Pirate Ship - our greatest decorating effort to date.

So, to summarize, decorate, but don't worry about making it "the best". Just make it fun. Being "the best" will come in time.

Oh, and we always tell people that they do NOT have to follow the theme, just that they have to be in costume. The theme just helps those with little or no imagination decide what to be by narrowing down their options.

A themed party would be great with whatever you choose.
I am the love of halloween in my town ive never had a party cause I was always to busy doin my yard decor but i have gone to a few and some have been decorated great but most of the people dont care about halloween like most of us but seems when its halloween they get in the spirit .
good luck to ya

Themed parties are really fun. But they're also hard to put together. If you follow some of the advice here --which would result in a very cool party-- you'll be putting a TON of effort into just decorating. Which is fine, but might be a bit much for your first Halloween party.

My suggestion? If you want to combine love/Halloween, it might be fun to do a Wedding Massacre or Zombies Invaded My Wedding (you get the picture) theme. If you use elements that are very recognizable as wedding elements, and make them spooky, the theme will be crystal clear and really funny.

Think about: a black (or a white with bloody frosting) wedding-style cake with a plastic hand reaching out of the top or a bride standing over or munching on a dead groom, red tulle decorating the place, bouquets of plastic eyeballs, red foil Valentines hearts with severed heads hanging from them... you get the idea. Seems like it would be an easier version of the same thing without the need for so much real "story."

-Karen