Looking to throw a Halloween party? Then you have come to the right spot.
Let's preface this conversation with the fact that my fiancé and I LOVE Halloween. Every year we head out for our annual "Halloween shopping trip" and pick up a ton of decorations to add to our forever growing stash (we do this for Christmas too).
We also LOVE planning and throwing parties— seriously we go all out. My birthday is October 23rd so we decided to throw our first Halloween party for my 29th, something I had always wanted to do since I saw the movie Casper.
Needless to say we decided to transform our home into a haunted house and let's just say it truly was "a night to dismember".
If you have ever wanted to throw a Halloween party then keep on reading because I am about to dish out all the goods on how we did it and where we got everything.
I will also be posting a full "haunted house tour" so be on the lookout for that— likely on my IG— SUGAREDSTILETTOS.
First things first, let's talk decorations. This is single handedly one of the most important aspects because DETAILS are everything. Here was our decoration list:
Cobwebs w/ spiders— we hung these over everything and anything we could in our house, door knobs, picture frames, tables, thermostat.
Command hooks (various sizes) — these are a MUST as you will be hanging and draping things all over your house and you need to be able to take them back down later without damaging your walls
Black mesh cloth— get a ton of this! We draped this from the ceiling to the floor in our living room to basically cloak our regular walls.
Halloween String Lights— we opted for purple halloween string lights that had a few different modes that you could set. We wrapped these around our deck and zigzagged them across the ceiling.
Flickering Flame Lights and Orange Bulbs— I cannot stress how important this next one is. We replaced EVERY single bulb in our house with either flickering flame lights or orange bulbs that pulsated like you were in a horror movie. At night the effects that this creates in combination with the purple string lights is INSANE. The ones we used are linked here!
Ghouls, Talking Mirrors, Mummys, Etc— We also replaced 90% of the wall decor in our home and replaced it with interactive halloween decorations that were triggered by sound or movement so when people were walking through our house things would jump out at them or start talking to them. For the wall decor we didn't swap out it was covered in the cobwebs mentioned above.
Bloody Curtains and Handprints— We draped the bloody curtains from the different doorways in our house so you had to walk through them to get to the next room. The mirrors and steps leading upstairs were covered in bloody handprints which were adhesive stickers.
Caution Tape/Zombie Tape/Do Not Enter Tape— Such a cheap buy that you can use to add a spooky effect to anything. I wrapped glass jars in this and I taped it to our fridge and doors.
"Get Help," "Run", "Get Out Now" Bloody Door/ Window Covers— We also covered every single window in our house with plastic sheets that had different sayings on them. You couldn't see inside or out of our house.
Fog Machine— Yes, we had a fog machine in our house (linked here). It legit enhanced every single decoration and light tenfold by engulfing our house in an eerie fog. Let me also just say that this fog in combination with all the string lights hanging from the ceiling truly made you feel like I was in a nightclub— hello Club Spooky.
Halloween Paper Straws and Dishes/Cups— We opted for a variety pack of paper straws that had a bunch of different colors and skull paper plates and cups.
Balloon Arch in Halloween Colors— My first balloon arch! It took a few hours to put together, but it was so worth it. Literally created the perfect photo op for everybody's costumes. I linked everything I used to create this bad boy here!
We also had a cocktail + shot special, because why not. I had a LOT of questions about both, so I figured I would give you all the recipes— courtesy of Shaun!
HALLOWEEN COCKTAIL— WITCHES BREW
If you want to really wow your guests then definitely make this, I guarantee they will love it. Not only was it insanely easy, but I mean come on who doesn't want to drink a bubbly concoction out of a cauldron on Halloween? #drinkupwitches
Witches Brew Recipe:
Ingredients:
1.75L Absolut citron
750ML Smirnoff orange
2 large cans of pineapple juice (I think 64 oz each)
1 gallon of cranberry juice
2 liters of 7up
1 can of frozen lemonade concentrate
10 lbs of dry ice (we bought this from a local ice shop, just call ahead and order it. Be sure to pick it up the day of because you cannot store it in a freezer)
Steps:
Stir ingredients 1-6 together in your "cauldron" or whatever giant bowl you are using if you don't have one.
Add dry ice for the bubbling smoking effect.
***PLEASE NOTE that you need to handle the dry ice with gloves as it will burn your skin if you touch it. Dry ice is totally safe to be added into drinks as it dissipates and is harmless. Shaun broke off the dry ice into a few bigger blocks and just re-added it throughout the night. Do not scoop out the dry ice into cups when serving, it should just be one solid block in the mixing bowl for the smoking/bubbling effect.
HALLOWEEN SHOT — BLOODY NEEDLES
Again, these are so easy to make and so worth it. All you need is 4 boxes of strawberry instant jello mix, 4 cups of orange vodka, and 50 plastic syringes.
PRO TIP— don't add the vodka until after you're done boiling the water and jello mix together, otherwise you will burn off some of the vodka.
Once everything is mixed together you just use the plastic needles to suck the liquid up into them + then refrigerate them! We made about 50 of these.
I grabbed a plain plastic bowl and wrapped it in the zombie caution tape mentioned above! Everything used is linked here!
DESSERT TIME. Obviously I have a HUGE sweet tooth, so dessert is always a must.
I decided to be crafty and decorate my own cookies. I bought some Pillsbury sugar cookie mix, black icing, and halloween sprinkles.
I attached a piping tool to the black icing to decorate the designs.
Cheap, easy, and delicious!
Shaun also went all out and surprised me with one of the most legit Halloween Birthday cakes I have ever seen in my entire life.
If you are local to CT and need a cake for a special event, this cake was from Hardcore Sweets in Watertown, CT. HIGHLY reccomend.
They are known in town for their creative designs and awesome flavors.
The first tier is made up of a vanilla cake with a vanilla pudding layer. The second top tier was a cookies and cream cake with cookies and cream filling— holy amazing. It was topped and surrounded with little frosting ghosts and macaroons, one of my favorites!
They seriously NAILED this cake from the flavor to the presentation. 10 out of 10 in my book!
& just like that you have yourself a Halloween party or as I kept calling it "Club Spooky".
Follow me on IG @SUGAREDSTILETTOS to follow along with me and to be on the lookout for the haunted house tour!
Love Always,
Sugared Stilettos