Jolie
October 2008
RSVP: “Groan”-up Halloween Party
Why let the children have all of the fun this Halloween? Grown-ups should have a ghoulishly good time too! Throw a festive costume cocktail party for your friends that they won’t forget! All Hallow’s Eve is a great reason to celebrate.
Your party does not have to take place on Halloween night. In fact, it may be better to host your event the weekend before Halloween. This may help guests with children accommodate their schedule. Be sure to get your invitations out a few weeks in advance. This allows guests time to plan their costumes! You have lots of invitation options from premade to evite.com. Or you can get creative and hand deliver mini pumpkins with the party date, time, etc. painted on them.
Set the tone with a grand entryway. Hang paper lanterns from your trees. Line your front steps with bushels of hay and carved pumpkins. Colorful mums will bring your home lasting fall foliage. Line your walkway with tombstones made from foam and carved with your guests names. Create a frightening fog with dry ice. Use a CD of scary sounds to draw your guests into your devilish lair. For a “creepy-chic” atmosphere inside, transform your home into an abandoned haunted house by draping your furniture with white sheets. Use thin boards of plywood to “board” up your windows. Hang faux spider webs across doorways. Replace your light bulbs with red, green, or black bulbs for an eerie glow. Set up a self serve bar so that guests can help themselves. Decorate the bar and buffet with a cooper urns filled with fall branches. Drop non-toxic plastic glow sticks into the punch “cauldron”. Fill a latex glove with water, freeze, and then remove glove for a creepy ice cube. Scatter jack o’lanterns, gourds, and votives around the food. Large glass hurricanes filled with candy corn, orange m&ms, or coffee beans make the perfect base for black and orange candles.
What is a cocktail party without fun drinks?! Continue the spooky theme by serving Spiked Apple Cider, Bloody Marys with Eyeball Olives, and seasonal beers such as Hobgoblin and Sam Adam’s Oktoberfest. Get your guests groovin’ to the Monster Mash when you serve up some signature cocktails.
The Jack O’Tini, serves one
Courtesy of Drinkoftheweek.com
2 oz. Vodka - chilled
1/4 oz. Bols Pumpkin Smash Liqueur
1 candy corn
Place a single candy corn at the bottom of a chilled cocktail glass. Combine vodka and liqueur in a shaker with ice, shake well, and strain into the glass.
The Spider Kiss, serves one
1 oz. MIDORI
1 oz. SKYY Vodka
Dash of fresh lemon juice
Shake and strain ingredients into a martini glass.
For an extra scare, drizzle grenadine down the side of the glass, creating a blood-like effect. For garnish, add a chocolate-dipped orange slice.
Orange Satin Cosmo, serves 20ppl
Courtesy of InStyle Parties
In a large ice-filled pitcher stir together 8 cups vodka, 2 ½ cups mango juice, 2 ½ cups Cointreau or triple sec, 1 ¼ cup fresh lime juice and 7 tbsp. superfine sugar. Mix well and strain into cocktail glasses. Garnish with black licorice sticks.
Since the cocktails will be flowing, be sure to offer guests some “finger” foods. Your guests may be in elaborate costumes so keep the foods bite size and easy to eat. You can continue the theme on your buffet . For example, offer up a heaping tray of chicken wings and label them “Bat Wings.” Gourmet food shops have many premade dips, pretzel mixes, etc. to help make your food preparation much easier. A sophisticated choice would be black and orange caviar toasts. Offer up some traditional childhood favs, such as popcorn balls and caramel apples.
The highlight of the evening is the costume contest. Create a stage like area for the guests to show off their creative and unique costumes. You could even go as far as have someone DJ the event. Have guests judge for best couple, scariest, most-risqué, and silliest. Another interactive game is Make-A-Mummy. Separate your group into teams. With rolls of toilet-paper see which team takes one of their own and turns them into a TP mummy. Offer prizes for quickest and best-looking.
A great idea for a “photo room” came from Monnie Murray, “We decorated over-the-top in that room and put the digital camera in the room. It was like the photo booth at the fair! It was great fun to get all the pics and go through them the next day! If you really want to go all out (or have a friend that's a photog) have a professional take the pics.” Kate Cassone Castellaw took her photos one step further and turned them into party favors. Kate said, “We had a Halloween party last year and took a picture of everyone in their costume when they arrived. Then we printed them with a little portable photo printer, put them in a clear frame, and handed them out as party favors at the end of the party.”
May your Halloween party be a spook-tacular success. And as always, remember to RSVP. Happy haunting!
October 2008
RSVP: “Groan”-up Halloween Party
Why let the children have all of the fun this Halloween? Grown-ups should have a ghoulishly good time too! Throw a festive costume cocktail party for your friends that they won’t forget! All Hallow’s Eve is a great reason to celebrate.
Your party does not have to take place on Halloween night. In fact, it may be better to host your event the weekend before Halloween. This may help guests with children accommodate their schedule. Be sure to get your invitations out a few weeks in advance. This allows guests time to plan their costumes! You have lots of invitation options from premade to evite.com. Or you can get creative and hand deliver mini pumpkins with the party date, time, etc. painted on them.
Set the tone with a grand entryway. Hang paper lanterns from your trees. Line your front steps with bushels of hay and carved pumpkins. Colorful mums will bring your home lasting fall foliage. Line your walkway with tombstones made from foam and carved with your guests names. Create a frightening fog with dry ice. Use a CD of scary sounds to draw your guests into your devilish lair. For a “creepy-chic” atmosphere inside, transform your home into an abandoned haunted house by draping your furniture with white sheets. Use thin boards of plywood to “board” up your windows. Hang faux spider webs across doorways. Replace your light bulbs with red, green, or black bulbs for an eerie glow. Set up a self serve bar so that guests can help themselves. Decorate the bar and buffet with a cooper urns filled with fall branches. Drop non-toxic plastic glow sticks into the punch “cauldron”. Fill a latex glove with water, freeze, and then remove glove for a creepy ice cube. Scatter jack o’lanterns, gourds, and votives around the food. Large glass hurricanes filled with candy corn, orange m&ms, or coffee beans make the perfect base for black and orange candles.
What is a cocktail party without fun drinks?! Continue the spooky theme by serving Spiked Apple Cider, Bloody Marys with Eyeball Olives, and seasonal beers such as Hobgoblin and Sam Adam’s Oktoberfest. Get your guests groovin’ to the Monster Mash when you serve up some signature cocktails.
The Jack O’Tini, serves one
Courtesy of Drinkoftheweek.com
2 oz. Vodka - chilled
1/4 oz. Bols Pumpkin Smash Liqueur
1 candy corn
Place a single candy corn at the bottom of a chilled cocktail glass. Combine vodka and liqueur in a shaker with ice, shake well, and strain into the glass.
The Spider Kiss, serves one
1 oz. MIDORI
1 oz. SKYY Vodka
Dash of fresh lemon juice
Shake and strain ingredients into a martini glass.
For an extra scare, drizzle grenadine down the side of the glass, creating a blood-like effect. For garnish, add a chocolate-dipped orange slice.
Orange Satin Cosmo, serves 20ppl
Courtesy of InStyle Parties
In a large ice-filled pitcher stir together 8 cups vodka, 2 ½ cups mango juice, 2 ½ cups Cointreau or triple sec, 1 ¼ cup fresh lime juice and 7 tbsp. superfine sugar. Mix well and strain into cocktail glasses. Garnish with black licorice sticks.
Since the cocktails will be flowing, be sure to offer guests some “finger” foods. Your guests may be in elaborate costumes so keep the foods bite size and easy to eat. You can continue the theme on your buffet . For example, offer up a heaping tray of chicken wings and label them “Bat Wings.” Gourmet food shops have many premade dips, pretzel mixes, etc. to help make your food preparation much easier. A sophisticated choice would be black and orange caviar toasts. Offer up some traditional childhood favs, such as popcorn balls and caramel apples.
The highlight of the evening is the costume contest. Create a stage like area for the guests to show off their creative and unique costumes. You could even go as far as have someone DJ the event. Have guests judge for best couple, scariest, most-risqué, and silliest. Another interactive game is Make-A-Mummy. Separate your group into teams. With rolls of toilet-paper see which team takes one of their own and turns them into a TP mummy. Offer prizes for quickest and best-looking.
A great idea for a “photo room” came from Monnie Murray, “We decorated over-the-top in that room and put the digital camera in the room. It was like the photo booth at the fair! It was great fun to get all the pics and go through them the next day! If you really want to go all out (or have a friend that's a photog) have a professional take the pics.” Kate Cassone Castellaw took her photos one step further and turned them into party favors. Kate said, “We had a Halloween party last year and took a picture of everyone in their costume when they arrived. Then we printed them with a little portable photo printer, put them in a clear frame, and handed them out as party favors at the end of the party.”
May your Halloween party be a spook-tacular success. And as always, remember to RSVP. Happy haunting!
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