We had the best Halloween party last year. Considering it's only 98 days until this Halloween, I'm pretty sure it's not too early to start planning!

One day in early (read: early) September I noticed the leaves were looking like this. Obviously, it was time to begin planning immediately.

First step: Pumpkin picking! Somehow we went home with $42 worth of pumpkins. In hindsight, we may have gone overboard. But they were absolutely beautiful!

Then, it was time to decorate, with the help of Andromeda, the resident black cat. We found these amazing candy corn string lights on sale at Michael's, the "blood" is actually watery strawberry Jell-O with extra red coloring, and the zombie cookie jar Drew for some reason had when we got together (?)

 

We also incorporated an entire Halloween village (also Michael's, with coupons). It turned out sort of like my Grandma's Christmas village but much, much darker.

The next step was picking the music. I pulled inspiration from these suggestions, and ended up compiling a 3 hour playlist. Who knew there were so many Halloween-ish songs out there!

Ahh, costumes. One of the most exciting parts of Halloween. Of course, if you're female, the pre-made costume options include such thrilling selections as: Sexy nurse, sexy police officer, sexy sanitation worker, etc etc ad nauesum.

We left in disgust and decided to create our own costumes.

 

"What are you going as?" "A female version of The Joker!" "Oh so Harly Quinn?" "No."

 

Drew decided to be a sexy handy man. He made this costume literally 30 minutes before the guests arrived.

As with any party, the food was the most important thing.

 

We put out quite a spread. Every morsel of this would be consumed by the end of the night (even the cauliflower) 

 

This veggie tray turned out super cute.

 

The "spiders" in the seven-layer dip are actually plastic rings made for children. Purchased from Michael's with, of course, a coupon! 

 

These took forever to make, but were a HUGE hit! In retrospect, I would've used red food gel rather than liquid color. Balancing tint to liquid ratio was at least 84% of the battle.Recipe here: http://dizzymaiden.tumblr.com/post/62067027068/halloween-cupcakegrossly-awesome-broken-glass

 

While the food table was adorable, this table was much more popular. Bet you can't guess where the table cloth is from! (Michael's). 

The pumpkins had to be regulated to the back to make room for the drinks!

 

My sister and her then-boyfriend-now-husband brought Jell-O shots. The candle is from Bath & Body Works.

 

These vampire drinks were amazing, and I think I had 7 of them. I found the syringes on Amazon. Recipe here: http://selfproclaimedfoodie.com/vampire-cocktail/

 

For those who were driving, we served Monster Punch.

This recipe fell short and the punch was by far the least popular beverage. 

 

You know it's been a fun night when someone parties their eyelashes off. I found these in my couch a couple of days after the party. I tried not to question it.

 

If this post has you in the Halloween spirit allow me to recommend this book. I love reading horror novels this time of year. Another good but scary read is Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics. Highly recommend!

Only one more October until we are married! I already can't wait to spend another Halloween with this man!