THE GRAPE VINE EVENTS DOES HALLOWEEN, 29th October 2011

Happy Halloween everyone! We had an amazing time setting up for the Halloween party. Though one thing I can safely say is that you cannot start shopping early enough! We started about 2 and a half weeks ago, when the shelves were full, and you could take your pick, and there was hardly anyone interested in Halloween at that time as like most people, they thought it was too early. But if you want a fab looking event, being organized is key to a successful party. So my tip for your future events, it get your decorations early! That way, down the track, as the day gets nearer, if you may need extra spiders, or pumpkins, you won’t be caught short when all the shelves are bare, or just left with the tacky, cheap looking decorations, that you don’t want!

So to set up, we arrived at the house around 11am in the morning armed with bags of pumpkin lanterns, lots of fake spiders, insects, cobwebs, candles, skeletons, skull heads, you name it we had it!

The first thing we had to do was to clear out all of the ornaments and picture frames from the fireplace, shelve and window displays so we had a blank canvas to work with. The family were kind enough to go out and do their food shopping whist we setting up, and left us too it.

Over the door frame we hung up a large sign with the words, ‘KEEP OUT’ across the top. Hanging from the sign were long black streamers to cover the door way. On the floor we lay, what were supposed to be plastic table cloths, but they were so enormous that we decided to lay them on the floor, as they had blood splatters all over them which every effective.

Though after we thought we had finished setting up, we looked across the room, and realized that we didn’t have enough decorations. So we had to make a mad dash out to the shops and get as much as we could. The shops very were busy with everyone buying the last of their Halloween décor and costume accessories, but luckily Halloween was still a few days off, so not everything was completely sold out!

So back at the house, the family came home from shopping and absolutely loved what we had done, but we but we still had more to do and so we got to work adding to the rest of our decorations. About an hour later their toddler woke up from his afternoon nap, so we had to decorate around him, which was a bit of an unplanned challenge, however he seemed to really enjoy the living and dining room being turned into a haunted house.

On one of the main walls we had paint and wallpaper friendly stickers of a witch on a broom and a haunted house with bats flying around it. (When you peel them off, they leave absolutely no marks!) On the shelf underneath we hung cobwebs to make it look more eerie. On top of the cobwebs we placed lots of old looking bones and skulls. Also clustered together we had lots of candles that were used to light up the room, complete with pumpkin lanterns which made all the decorations look especially spooky. One of the doors had a large sticker on it that had ‘keep out’ written in blood. Yeah we were really going for an unwelcoming look!

Around where the bay windows held one of the food displays stations. Here we did actually use one of the blood splattered table cloths for its actual purpose! We had food trays in the shape a haunted house, Halloween colours. In the compartments we placed eye ball and pumpkin shaped chocolates with mini Halloween character shaped chocolates all foil wrapped. They looked great! Cake HQ also helped us set up, and she made plenty of amazing Halloween cake pops, cupcakes, and cookies, which all tasted divine. We placed candelabra’s either side of the food, so give it all a spooky feel.

On the wall opposite in the middle of the wall housed the fireplace, which we used as a focal point. Draped over the top we had lots of hanging cobwebs, with spiders, and bugs attached, and either side stood two tombstones with glowing red eyes in the dark, which looked great. Inside the fireplace we placed pumpkin shaped lights amongst the candles. And lay around the bottom were objects such as bats and fake body parts, which all looked very disgusting.

As the family had been avoiding the living room, for the past few hours, when we invited them to come in and see what we had done to their living space, they were over the moon. The kids especially loved the cobwebs and glowing tombstones and everyone adored the Halloween shaped cakes!

All the guests at the party loved the set up, and we can’t wait to do it again next year!

If you have a party coming up, why not get in touch today at:

thegrapevineevents@gmail.com

And see what we can do for you.