Thread: 2009 Party Reflections- Post yours...

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Did you really build a pirate ship? Have any pics?

You guys keep giving me more ideas about what I did/did not do.

EARLY INVITATIONS are key. In our house, he who goes to the kitchen calendar with a sharpie, owns the date. We sent them out mid-Sept, I really was shooting for early Sept. I did the little refrigerator magnets (graphic is in my sig below). Really easy, cheap and people like them. Of course with our party on the 31st, it was kind of hard to forget the date.

My wife keeps an MSAccess data base of names and addresses and was able to send an e-mail out to all the RSVPs and "maybes" a couple days ahead, we wanted to give directions and instructions for parking. I think that is a great idea too, as a memory jog. Well send links out to those addresses soon with the Photobucket and video sites.

About starting out, and even the "business" end. My philosophy for not being disappointed is simple. Set your expectations very low at the start. Even have NO expectations. Of course you are not going to go all out with your house if you are expecting no one, but keep it minimal until you build that guest list.

I plan driving events for vintage car clubs sometimes and participation can be 40-50 or it can be 2. My approach? If I am the ONLY one on the roads on a nice day driving one of my old cars, its still good. My expectations have been met, and anything over and above that is gravy.

Well, yeah, you're kind of right. Although is was my 12th Hallowe'en party. And over the past 15 years I've been giving about 5 theme parties a year. Big ones. Now a company. I have the guest list, the groupies and all. But I don't know if it's the crisis or just the fact that now I do this for a living (haha..living..) , but less people show up every party. Maybe it's gotten boring, I don't know. Even the regulars didn't show up this year. Maybe they still have their heads fixed upon getting foods en drinks for free and are now upset that they have to help me cover the costs..I don'treally know.

I know for sure, that I've had a period like this once before, where they just didn't show up for a while. I knid of switched to another social group then, that was more into the party thing... I think this will need a lot of thinking, marketing planning etc.

But the company being bankrupt is a fact. I'll have to go to court for that. Not a very good thing. I'm already selling my car, I left my house (live with mom)...sold pretty much everthing I own...I'm afraid I've kind of hit rock bottom here. So next Hallowe'en will be private, I suppose, just friends at home (if I have a home by then).

Our party was a hit, we had 50 guests and all were in GREAT costumes, I was really impressed. Most dressed to the theme (Wicked Wonderland) and even though we had about 8 Alices, they were ALL different and so unique - one male Alice, one tarty Alice, one classic Disney Alice, one gothic Alice, one Alice with a homemade looking glass she was halfway through and one alice as a giant with her arms and legs sticking out of the rabbit's house - I was seriously blown away by the last two.

Great things:
-tons of compliments on the food and decor (starting to feature on my blog, more to come), everyone loved the adherance to a theme and that I coordinated the food & drink to it as well.
-only one couple no-showed that we were expecting, one more cancelled just a few days before and another got sick - but a few extras showed up, so we were about even with what we were expecting - and about double last year. This is about the max for my house, so now I get to start cutting back the guest list - so those people who no-showed are easy to banish!
-Chi Chi's pre-mix long island ice tea - we went through almost 5 liters and people loved it! Also the "peppered pigs in a blanket" were devoured, 4 batches and I never got one - recipe on my blog.
-My first experience with blacklights, hung two over the bar and I love them - they were a good addition to my collection and I can use them year after year.
-Lots of people declaring "this will be hard to beat!" and asking (mid party) what the theme for next year would be I love a challenge

Not so great
-I allow friends to bring friends, I want them to have fun and be social and it mostly worked, till a friend of a friend invited friends and that was just tacky - especially when they ended up spilling drinks, picking fights, and overall being douchebags. Since we're about at the limit of what my house can hold, I might have to be more direct and limiting next year.
-Lots of spilled drinks, my wood floors are completely sticky. Might have to give everyone sippy cups next time We're all around 30, so I wasn't expecting a frat-house disaster, but that's kinda what I got.
-hubby went down early - he claims the cups were too big. He's definitely getting a toddler glass next year
-spent way too much money - made more than twice as much food as we needed. I had subtly suggested people could bring liquor to help out, but only a few did next year it will be overt - I hate to do it, but my budget requires people to contribute in some way if this is to keep going.

For the first time I accepted someone's offer to help set up and I'm so glad I did, it gave me an hour to get my own costume, hair, and makeup done and I felt a lot better about myself all night. It went by too fast, but all the guests seemed to have really thankful and positive reactions, so I'm hoping to keep up the tradition.

Whew today is the day to decompress after a crazy weekend.

It was a huge amount of work to get the haunted graveyard set up - and battling the wind and rain all day. My witch set up in the garage even got trashed by the wind. So, with all the extra work on the outside it was exhausting to get set up for the party.

The wind died down, the moon was shining and turned out to be a pretty darned good Halloween night.

The guests arrived minutes after the last TOTer.

I was really impressed by the fabulous costumes by all the guests! Everyone dressed up. The pregnant nun won the costume contest. She is conviced she is going to hell as she wore her grandmother's rosary with the costume!! LOL

There were lots of couples costumes this year. Bacon & Eggs, pregger nun & priest, Harpo & Groucho, Ivana Humpalot & James Bond, Sonny & Cher and even the beatles! Lots more great costumes too. I was thrilled that everyone got into the spirit of things.

I am not sure if I made too much food. There were so many people here not everyone could get around to the buffet area. I made the witches brew with the lime jello & sherbet & 7up and vodka - disgusting.

I bought lots of wine & beer, but with hostess gifts we got more wine back as well as flowers, gift sets and even a $50 gift card to a local restaurant (we have generous friends & neighbours )

Everyone seemed to have a great time!

What we tried to do this year was set up several days earlier to lessen the work in the couple of days before halloween. The wind destroyed that plan.


The things I would do differently....

I would try to spread people out around the main level of our house a bit better, we have a fairly large home but everyone was crowded in the kitchen & family room.

We didn't do any games, maybe next year do a tempt your fate game.

I may set up two areas food. Maybe that will move people around a bit.

I will discourage people from bringing food, I make enough and there is only so much hummus people will eat! I never ask anyone to bring anything. It will be the trick to tell people politely that there is enough of everything. Even with my huge fridge (and two smaller ones) I have no room to store extra stuff.

I think I would like to decorate more inside, I have quite a bit of stuff, but a few more odds and ends would be fun.

Overall it was great, but very tiring the next day!!

My Halloween party reflections:
1) Decorated for ME, and it turned out great. Since we invited children too, I didn’t set anything out that would disturb anyone. I went with the graveyard and skeleton theme, just like I wanted. (Next year, learning how to corpse a Bucky.)
2) I needed to focus on one project at a time. I wanted fog and a cemetery fence, along with a cemetery arched gate. Too much work, too much money and not enough time. Lesson, pick 2-5 projects and stick to them.
3) Keep adult beverages simple. Beer, wine and punch were perfect. Anyone who wanted to drink anything else had to bring it. Kept costs reasonable and my liability as a host low.
4) Little things made the biggest impression. Labels on food that were fun were noticed and commented on. Spent two hours decorating the fireplace mantel, everyone took time to look it over and see all the things I put there. A bat placed in a window, a candle in a corner, those make every little corner an adventure.
5) Have a backup plan for music. My graveyard music was on a CD, and the CD player died an hour before people started showing up. Yes I was a little pissed, I worked hours gathering background sounds, music, setting the scene. Next year I’ll be sure to test things twice and have an alternative. To me, a graveyard needs spooky music/sounds.
6) We had temps in the 60s, clear with an almost full moon. Adult beverages were outside to allow those who wanted to not drink around the kids, the ability to get a buzz and not feel guilty.
7) Set aside a separate room for kids to play and do Halloween activities. Between the activities, the movies and Wii, they were entertained. I decorated that room with kid friendly pumpkins and paper witches.
8) To keep on budget, we asked everyone to bring a dish. We set aside ½ our food tables to allow for crock pots and food warmers.
9) Super strong winds and rain the prior night blew down my entire cemetery! The party started at 7:00pm, and after decorating and getting everything set, I was out there with less than an hour to go! Keeping the design simple, but I have to make my setup weatherproof as possible.
10) We used those flickering LED lights inside, bought dozens of them. Felt safe knowing they would not burn my home down, and many said they had to get close to see they were not real flames from behind the webs!
11) Everyone is right on the guest lists and invites. Count on close friends and family, invite the others and hope for the best. I also missed out on inviting my new neighbors, this was my first year throwing a Halloween party and now that I have that under my belt everyone will be invited. It helps to invite the neighbors, as we had some noisy people! Hard to be mad at a party host, if your part of the party too.
12) Thanks to everyone here in this forum, you have all inspired me. Your pictures and hints/tips have helped me feel like an expert. I can’t wait until next year!

We had our 4th annual Halloween party on the 31st this year (about 27 guest). We also had a big family Weenie Roast on the 30th (about 47 guest). I'm still trying to recover after such an exhausting weekend.

I discovered this forum earlier this year, so I got a little too carried away after reading about all of everyone's great ideas. We ended up pretty much doubling our decor & work load for this year's party. Overall, both parties went really well.

Pros:

-Everyone was really impressed with this year's decor
-The costumes of our guests were better than ever
-The weather held up well for the Weenie Roast, which was all outdoors
-We had a good turn out, only a couple of people who were supposed to come didn't show up
-Tempt Your Fate was a big hit with our guests
-I've gotten nothing but good compliments about this year's party & several of my friends have said that I always throw the best parties

Cons:

-I had a major emotional breakdown about 2 hours before our party because I couldn't get my wicked witch makeup to look right. I had to scrap the makeup & latex & go as a pretty witch instead--very disappointing after planning my costume for several months (lesson learned-always make time to do a trial run of your costume).
-It rained Saturday night so we had to boil the hotdogs for the party instead of letting guests roast them at the fire pit & this also meant no outdoor games
-My husband made a scene towards the end of the party when he & his buddy got into a small drunken tiff--he missed the costume contest & pumpkin carving contest results & I feel like his actions took away from the party a little bit
-The clean up yesterday & Sunday was the WORST ever (I might have to scale down a little next year)
-I didn't get as many good pictures of the decor as I would have liked to & my pictures never look as good as the house does in person

Overall, I'm left feeling good about everything. At the same time though, for the first time ever I'm starting to feel a little guilty about my Halloween buying obsession. I feel like I may need to slow down & stick to a tighter budget from here on out....maybe sell some of my older stuff if I'm going to buy some new stuff for next year.

Originally Posted by Nikita

But the company being bankrupt is a fact. I'll have to go to court for that. Not a very good thing. I'm already selling my car, I left my house (live with mom)...sold pretty much everthing I own...I'm afraid I've kind of hit rock bottom here. So next Hallowe'en will be private, I suppose, just friends at home (if I have a home by then).

You're always welcome in Groningen for Halloween

My party was two weeks before Halloween due to my husband having to work the weekend before and we have (and a lot of our friends have) tots for Halloween night. So, overall the party was a huge success. This is our 7th annual party and the one thing I've realized is this. You can invite lots and lots of people but there is a handful that really make or break it. We have lots of acquaintances that I invited but only the people who really want to have a good time and truly appreciate all the work we put into it are the ones who are most fun. Luckily our handful showed up. Also, for really the first time, I accepted help from friends. I always try to put it on w/o any help and now I know how stupid that is. My stress level was waaaay down compared to last year.

The one thing I have debated is whether to play games or not. We never have before & I wonder how well our guests would receive it. A lot get intoxicated pretty quick which could make the games funner or cause our guests not to want to participate in them at all. Not sure whether I should pursue this next year or not. We are definitely a dancing crowd and they may be enough entertainment.

Our party almost didn't happen because of H1N1 and we lost a few guests because of it but we couldn't really control that. Really looking forward to preparing for next year but I have a problem. Right now we fix our unfinished basement up like a dungeon for the dancing, etc. So, of course, we had lots of spills (people trying to dance & drink at the same time). We are planning on finishing this part of the basement in the next few months. I would really like carpet down there but I'm scared to death I'll be too worried bout stains. Not sure how I will end up doing it but there is one thing I am sure of ----we ARE having it next year-bigger & better hopefully!!

Buzzard - I've been in that exact place 2 hours before the party, and this year I finally took a friend up on her offer to come over early and help - and I used that time to do my own makeup and hair, and finally felt like I didn't phone that in. Another option would be to get your makeup professionally done (or have a friend do it) so you don't have to worry about it when you're already on edge - I started doing that for weddings and special events where I know I'll be in pictures, and it reall turns the whole day around! No stress, and you feel better about how you look too

Buzzard & W Hazel - I'm with you on the spilled drinks & mess, we're all in our 30's so I wasn't expecting people to treat my place like a frat house, but man, everything is sticky. I did have to chase down a lot of drinks on our wood mantle and spills on our wood floors, more than I expected for sure. I'm disappointed with my friends & family, but so it goes...like I said, sippy cups!

We had our party on Halloween this year. This was our second party. We had fun, but last years seemed to be better. One reason being the weather was more cooperative last year. Another reason was (as I mentioned in another thread) the Phillies were playing that night and since I live right outside of Philly, we had quite a few fans.