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Hosting a murder mystery party.
A couple of weeks ago, we hosted our 2nd Murder Mystery Party – our guests, once again, did not disappoint! Arriving in full character and amazing costumes, it was another successful event! In 2015, our theme was set in the Roaring 20s and this year it was set in the Old West at the Deadwood Saloon…..
I followed the same process I did for the last one, sending out an email to a large group of our friends to gauge interest. Once I knew who was ready to play, I started working on the character assignments. Once again, I purchased the party through Night of Mystery which gave me a large PDF file that had everything I needed.
Upon arrival, the guests entered our courtyard to find a hitchin’ post, a campfire, a saddle, bales of hay, and a jail. The Hubby did an AMAZING job decorating this area – my favorite part was the jail he constructed! We also purchased a Saloon Door Cover for the front door and rented whiskey barrels, wagon wheels, and lanterns from Lasting Impressions Party Planning that you’ll see throughout the décor.
Once inside, the guests could grab their “Envelope A” which included their 1st set of objectives, $500 in “funny money”, and their name tag. All of our guests were kind enough to bring an appetizer to share at the party – as usual, everyone delivered!
As everyone entered the family room, they walked into what we tried our best to make look like The Deadwood Saloon. We removed all of the furniture from our family room to help make this happen. We once again rented cocktail tables and linens from Y-Knot Party Rentals. We also used a barn siding backdrop to line the lower half of the main wall in the room and a red plastic table cover roll on the upper half.
To decorate the walls, we used the signs included in the kit from Night of Mystery and for the posters with characters; I Photoshopped my friends’ images over the page in the PDF file. On a few of them, I tried to make them a little more authentic by burning the edges a little – and sometimes a lot! My 9 year old son suggested burning more than the edges of the paper – great idea!
Once I knew we were ready for “the murder”, The Hubby arranged for the lights to go off and I had set up an app on my phone (along with a Bluetooth speaker) to make the gun sound. Our victim fell to the floor and phase 2 of the party began.
Each guest was handed “Envelope B” with information about what they knew, objectives they had to complete, and some were given evidence. Once the evidence was presented, everyone was given the opportunity to vote and then I tallied up the results. I then presented the award certificates to the various winners.
We also staged a “photo booth” area for our guests using the same barn siding backdrop that was in the main room. But this time, we doubled it up to be on the top and bottom of the wall. With some additional props, either borrowed from friends or rented from Lasting Impressions Party Planning this was the perfect space to capture images of everyone during the evening.
All of the characters took lots of great pictures – many of them getting a kick out of being behind bars for some of the photos! I hope you will visit my site at www.bubblyhostess.com to see all of the photos especially the images of the cast of characters (a.k.a. our amazing friends) in their fabulous costumes!
Please visit my site at www.bubblyhostess.com. You can also find The Bubbly Hostess on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter – I always love new followers!
Heather loves to cook, entertain, plan parties, and of course - drink champagne. She is excited to share her planning tips, party ideas, and favorite recipes. Growing up, she watched her mom cook, bake, and throw great parties, so she’s sure her interest in cooking and entertaining came from her mom. Being a wife and a mommy, her party style ranges from birthday parties for little ones to elegant cocktail parties for the grown ups. Her plans include a combination of her own ideas coupled with those from others. You'll find that her recipes leave some room for experimentation - she doesn’t usually make the same dish exactly the same way twice - She loves to try different things!
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