I hope you all had a fabulous Halloween eve and your kiddos stuffed their faces with behavior corrupting candy treats! I'm still reveling in sheer splendor over the amount of candy my boy dragged home! This little mama is proud, to say the least! He is a boy after my own heart, and loves his candy. Thank goodness he still shares…
So much has happened in the last couple of weeks (months really, but I live in a time warp) and I have a backlog of posts to share with you guys about it all! But let's start with the most profound and shocking… The Bird turned 1! He is my late October birthday boy, so naturally I threw him (me) a huge Halloween themed bash to celebrate this special day (and that I didn't croak him during the first year of his life, high fives to me).
When you are expecting a rather high guest count, cost becomes a major factor, and food and drinks generally blow out most of your budget. But decorations are crucial for setting the mood, so let me set the mood for you, and let's chat about some of the easy and budget friendly decor I chose for the party's backdrop. This of course doesn't even begin to cover the food and drink displays, but it certainly set the overall tone for the evening and made things fun. Since the party was an early evening party, I shot these images around the same time of day, so you could see how the shadows play around the room. Just lovely… and not too scary for the kiddos. My little guys still get frightened fairly easily.
I made several simple spooky flower arrangements with cuttings from my yard. I used the post blossom stalks from my canna which have a large dried series of seed pods and dark leaves in shades of purple and burgundy. Perfect to add some color while maintaining a bit of that spooky ambiance and haunted house vibe. I cut each stalk in several pieces, at the point just above each leaf, and casually placed them in a vase. Then I wrapped each of the vases with gauze, giving them a bit of a cutesy mummy look.
Total Cost: $6 for the Gauze
Aside from my glow in the dark pumpkins on display, I draped the ceiling in black streamers. I used a sparse and varied pattern and left some hanging down every several feet and this alone completely set the tone for the party. It's amazing how something so seemingly small can have such a big impact on the feeling of your space. I used 3 rolls of crepe paper streamers at less than $2 each and it was the star of the show.
Total Cost: $6 for the Streamers
I also hung 4 sheets of Haunted Cloth (found at my grocery store, but amazon sells this as well) from my otherwise bare curtain rods to give the whole space that extra bit of old and decrepit that I wanted for the party backdrop.
Total Cost: $8 for Haunted Cloth
Grand Total: $20 for Party Decor
Not bad, eh?
