Planning a Halloween Party

A couple of years ago we had an epic Halloween party.  Tons of people dressed to the nines, great music, great food, games, drinks, etc.  All of those things combined would make for a great party but what pushed it over the edge into epic territory were the decorations.  We were fortunate enough to personally know the prop master for the hit show Dexter, yeah that one!  The floors were completely covered in clear plastic with random pools of blood and strategically placed limbs, including a gruesomely realistic severed head on the counter.  All of these items were actual props that were used on Dexter. 

While you may not have that kind of hookup for your decorations, here are some suggestions for your own epic Halloween bash.

Get ready early!  Start gathering decorations beforehand so you're not still decorating when your guests arrive.  You can turn this into a pre-party event by having friends and family help you decorate.  You can also set up a pumpkin carving station where everyone can carve pumpkins that you can light up the night of your party.  If you're on a budget, second-hand stores are a great place to find decorations or knick knacks to make your own.

One of the best parts of a Halloween party are the costumes your guests arrive in.  To encourage everyone to be creative, set-up a costume contest and make sure you mention it on the invitation.  You can have different categories like most creative, best couple, etc.

To keep every ones energy up make sure to have plenty of "finger foods".  You can actually find molds in the shape of skeleton finger bones, severed fingers, etc.  These make great candy molds.  There are also Halloween themed recipes all over the Internet.  

Finally, music.  No Halloween party would be complete without the creepy soundtrack of creaky doors and screeches.  If you really want to set the tone I suggest you get a couple of portable speakers and set them to play whatever the horrifying sounds are in their location.  Example, we had one speaker hidden by the front door that was the creaky door and screeches to set the tone for the pools of blood and severed head that greeted our guests upon entering the house.  We had another speaker playing ghostly groans and rattling chains in the fake graveyard on the side of the house and lastly we had speakers inside and out playing actual music.