It’s that time of year! Spooky season is upon us! Halloween is such a fun time of year and it’s a great excuse for a celebration. Throwing a Halloween party is an excellent way to bring together your friends and embrace creativity. Have a costume contest, decorate a Halloween venue to the nines, and you’re in for a great night filled with lots of treats (and maybe a few tricks too).
Choose a Theme
If you’re going to host a Halloween party, why not pick a theme to go with it? Party planning will be a lot easier if you choose a fun theme. Then you can buy decorations, create some invites, and put together a fun menu that sticks to it. Here are a few of our favourite Halloween party themes.
Classic Halloween
We’re talking ghosts, witches, and vampires. Keep things classic for Halloween this year. Have your guests dress like the most popular Halloween characters and serve cocktails cleverly named witches brew and munch on some ghoulish chicken goujons.
Movie Night
There are so many incredible horror movie franchises out there (and we’re not just walking about Halloween). Plan the ultimate fright night and play movies like Carrie, Nightmare on Elm Street, House of Wax, Halloween, Scream, and more. If you’d prefer to keep things fun instead of frightful, why not play Hocus Pocus or The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Have everyone dress up as their favourite characters. Just make sure your Halloween venue has a screen or projector you can set up!
Haunted Mansion
If you love to be creative, building a haunted mansion is a great way to show off your skills. Find a great Halloween venue that has several rooms so each one can have a different theme. When you’re sorting out your party planning make sure you get enough decorations for each room. Your Halloween party will be so much fun and look incredible too!
Kid Friendly
Focus on fun rather than fright if you know kids will be in attendance. Set up an area where kids can bob for apples, have a costume contest, carve pumpkins, and play some games. Make sure to go all out when you’re buying candy (we’re talking full-size candy bars) and set up a fun little trick-or-treat station.
Venue Selection
If you’re looking for a great Halloween venue, we can help! VenueScanner has a tonne of amazing venues across the UK to suit all of your event needs, including an epic Halloween party. Fill out our Venue Finder form with your budget, location, and number of guests, and we’ll send you some recommendations. You’re also welcome to browse venues yourself. Once you’re ready to send enquiries out, make sure you let the venue know you’re planning a Halloween party. It’s the best time to find out if they’ll already have their venue decorated or if you’ll need to bring your own decorations. You can also find out if they have any fog machines or special lighting you can use on the day to make your Halloween party even more epic. (If you’re a venue, find out how to gear up your venue for Halloween this year).
Send Out Invitations
Once you’ve settled on a venue and day, it’s time to send out invitations! If your party is coming up soon, you’ll want to opt for a digital invite. You can use websites like Paperless Post or Canva to design and send them. Make sure the design matches the theme and provide necessary details like date, time, place, costume requirements, and where and when to RSVP! Tell people to inform you of any dietary restrictions so you can make sure you’re serving food that everyone can enjoy.
Décor and Ambience
When it comes to decor, make party planning easy by having everything ready to go before you arrive at the venue on the day of your bash. If you’re going DIY you can make some fun decorations like spider webs or tombstones to place around the venue. If you’d prefer to find some more professional decorations, you can either buy them online or at a party store. Or you can find a service that will come and decorate the venue for you. Keep in mind that this will probably eat up alot of your venue!
Don’t forget to create the perfect ambiance with coloured light bulbs, candles (check to make sure you can light them), and fairy lights. Add the perfect spooky soundtrack to really set the mood.
Costume Planning
It’s Halloween so you’re obviously going to want all of your guests to dress up! Decide ahead of time if you want costumes to be on theme and make sure to let guests know if you do. People should ideally be able to DIY something or rent a costume. You want people to be able to get into the theme and create a great costume, no matter their budget. Lastly, consider having a costume contest and hand out prizes to the best ones.
Food and Drink
When it comes to food and drink it’s a great idea to check if your Halloween venue has internal catering options. If they do, see if you can come up with some fun Halloween themed names for their dishes. Create some cool cocktails with quirky names.
Entertainment
Your Halloween party will be a real success if you add some entertainment. Consider pumpkin carving contests, bobbing for apples, or even hire some magicians or dancers to entertain your guests.
Safety First
Keep things safe by checking with your Halloween venue to make sure you can use open flames in their space. If you’re going to add your own decorations, ensure they’re not placed where people can trip over them. Make sure they’re secure so your decor isn’t falling on guests heads throughout the evening. Remind guests to plan their rides home ahead of time, whether that’s mapping out a route ahead of time or deciding if they’ll take a taxi.
No matter what you decide to do for your Halloween party, you’re in for a treat. Bringing your friends together for a celebration is so much fun and Halloween is the perfect time to do it. VenueScanner is here to help you find the perfect Halloween venue!
