I have always loved Halloween, and this year was no different!
Justin and I hosted a Halloween party Thursday night and it was so much fun!
I had high hopes of creating some type of “family” costume theme for us, but when we saw a cute bumblebee costume for dogs at a thrift store ($2!!), we just had to get it. So Macie was a bee, I was Little Bo Peep, and Justin was my “lost” sheep. I have to give Justin credit; while I was working on the food preparation, he was slaving away gluing all those cotton balls on his t-shirt. That’s commitment to a costume!
For the party decorations, I wanted to keep it fun and festive without causing too much work. I tend to like more classic, simple decorations and don’t often go for the loud, somewhat cheesy decor. I made a few simple pennant banners to hang around the house.
I just cut out black and orange triangles and created patterns on each orange pennant with an orange marker. I then taped them to a black ribbon and hung them around the house. I also had some scrapbook supplies so I used perforated letters to add a festive “boo” to this banner. The banners were f-r-e-e- since I already had all the supplies.
I also made a “photo booth” using a black tablecloth and a super-stretchy spider web. I already had the tablecloth and the spider web cost $1.97 at Wal-Mart. Simple, easy, and budget-friendly! And it was a huge hit for photos!
How cool are my friends who dressed up as people from Edward Scissorhands!? Their costumes were so awesome!
For the table, I bought a cheap plastic tablecloth ($.97 at Wal-Mart). The “table runner” is actually four black placemats found at the dollar store for $1 each. The paper lanterns and skeleton were also $1 each. The black paper plates were $.97 at Wal-Mart and orange-and-black polka-dot napkins were $.97 a pack. I got two packs of each. Total spent on four placemats, decorations, plates, and napkins = $13. Not bad!
Food was SUPER simple. I made mummy and ghost cookies the night before, and my friend Lindsay brought adorable mummy dogs.
I found an EASY recipe for a “pumpkin” cheeseball here. It was delicious and everyone commented on how cute it looked! It was covered in Doritos and I loved the extra crunch!
I put the left-over Doritos from the cheeseball coating in a tiered serving bowl with orange-and-black drizzled yogurt-covered pretzels and candy corn.
Since many of our guests were in med school, I figured I should also have a healthy snack so I threw together a quick and easy veggie jack-o-lantern. I wish the picture turned out a little better but several people told me how cute it was and it was super easy so I count it as a win.
Overall, the party cost me around $50 and was SO much fun!! My biggest tips on throwing a successful Halloween party would be:
1-Use white plates/serveware to display food. It makes the presentation so much nicer and matching is SO easy so it all looks put together.
2-Keep decorations simple. A nicely presented table and a few key decorated locations are all you really need to make the atmosphere fun and festive!
3-Try to do as much ahead of time as possible so you can be in a calm, relaxed mood for the actual party! I loved that once people showed up, I could just enjoy hanging out and not rush around trying to finish things.
4- When it comes to food, find easy, budget-friendly recipes. Don’t feel like you need to have super extravagant dishes or decorate like a Cake Boss.
5-HAVE FUN! That’s what the Holidays are all about!!
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Friday was a Jeans day at school and I was pretty tired from the Halloween party so I kept it casual and easy!
Sweater: Takeout
Cami: Maurices
Jeans: American Eagle
Flats: Fergalicious by Fergie
Necklace: Lia Sophia
simplify the chaos 