The sign of a great Halloween party? When you wake up the next morning and realize...you took 10 photos total.
All October posts are part of the Countdown to Halloween!
And that’s exactly what I did this year. I have to admit, it was kind of nice to spend this year’s party NOT focused on photos, like last year.
But realizing this also induced a mini panic attack the next morning.
Thankfully, my friends came to my rescue, so here is Halloweenie Roast 2018 through their eyes.
Halloweenie Roast 2018: Monster Mash

It’s Halloween party time!

Halloweenie Roast got its name when four friends and I gathered around the fire pit in my parent’s backyard to roast hot dogs, so naturally, every year since then has included a bonfire.
This year the weather was absolutely perfect for enjoying the fire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows for trick or treat s’mores! (Thank you to my dad for always being the fire master and getting this going.)

I like doing different decor each year, and when I landed on Monster Mash…there were a LOT of directions to go. I ended up deciding to go with a laboratory vibe. There was a LOT more I could have done, but I’m happy with how everything turned out.

It’s amazing what black lights, beakers and flasks, highlighters and water can create!



I also knew I wanted to incorporate X-rays into my party. I actually had several sets from the many MRIs I’ve had to undergo because of my headaches – and some of them look REALLY cool. We’re talking cross-sections of my eyeballs and full frontals of my swirling sinuses.
Unfortunately, I didn’t come up with a great way to display those huge sheets without good backlighting, so instead, we used a few scrapbook paper books of X-rays I found at Michaels. Sam and Katie made a banner and hung a few from the kitchen table light. I love how it turned out!


I also draped a bit of cheesecloth, found at cheesecloth.com, from the ceiling to give a cobweb-slash-spooky laboratory feel to the kitchen.

I draped a ton around the lights in the kitchen, which we swapped out for black light bulbs. The lighting effect was lacking to the naked eye but the coloring showed up well in photos.
I had a seemingly genius idea to cover the lights with colored gels…but they quickly started melting because I underestimated how hot the regular lights were. And we’re talking melting-probably-10-minutes-from-setting-the-house-on-fire underestimation. WHOOPS!

Here’s the morning view. I really liked how this turned out, but since I took next to no photos…this was one of the projects that suffered proper documentation. I plan to do a full tutorial soon on how I put this all together, though, because it was super simple!

This fall harvest iced tea was a HUGE hit!


For my cocktails, I served up three fall margaritas…because margaritas are always popular with my friends. I made cranberry, apple cider and yes, even pumpkin spice. Recipes for all three will also be on the blog in November.

Yup. Even my ice is Halloweenified. HUGE thank yous to my mom who always takes on this task the week leading up to the party. It’s easily her least favorite thing in the world I’ve ever asked her to do…and she does it anyway.


Is that a ghoulish spirit reaching for a pumpkin spice margarita?

It is! And she’s pictured with someone else you don’t see often in photos – Waldo! ;) (More on costumes from the party in the next few days!)

I decided to have a little fun with my vegan friends and made them a “monster parts” charcuterie-style board full of veggies, nuts, hummus and olives.

And for my carnivorous and dairy-fiend friends, we also created meat and cheese platters. (Huge thank yous to my mom who put all of these together while I painted myself green.)



I was particularly excited to try the Transylvanian Romanian Cave Cheese. Shout out to Tiffany, who I dubbed the Halloween Whisperer this season, for sharing these were available at Aldi.

My digital photo booth was a HUGE hit this year – and a perfect solution for me not having to take photos of every single costume. And it was SO easy to put together. A tutorial will be on the blog for this soon as well. Thank you to Dinah for suggesting it as we drove the streets of Los Angeles back in July, hunting for Halloween.

I have a thing for making my own printables for parties, and when I saw this line from “Frankenstein”, I couldn’t resist using it.

Goodie bags for Halloweenie Roast guests! I loved the eyeballs to fit with my laboratory vibe. Each one included a handful of my favorite Halloween candies, plus a thank you note. (And I signed every single one!)
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What do you think of my Monster Mash?
There are SO many things I wanted to do that I didn’t get to, but looking back at the photos…I’m really happy with how this theme turned out. I can’t wait to share more tips and tricks for how I put it all together too.
Happy haunting,





Took
How do you do the highlighter trick for the flasks?
Miranda | Spooky Little Halloween
I’ll be sharing that on the blog soon! Watch for the post. :)
Rain San Martin
It’s impressive how much you can change the look of a Halloween event by your different themes. I really do enjoy the dramatic effect the black light. The assortment of horderve signs you had and the Margarita Bar Menu are classy ideas. The food layout looks abundant and festive. Great work on your party as always!
Miranda | Spooky Little Halloween
Thanks Rain! It’s a fun little challenge to change things up every year…without having to buy a TON of decor.
Candace
I’m blown away! How beautiful!
Penny
I love it!! It’s been way too long since I threw a Halloween party…it always seems to sneak up on me. Maybe next year!