Halloween DInner Party

Party Planning
Written By Heather Smith

For over a decade, we’ve been hosting themed parties (you can find some of them in the photo archive). We choose the theme a year in advance to have plenty of time in the off season to brainstorm and work on larger format projects. We then build a spreadsheet with tabs for décor, music, food, drinks, and entertainment to catalog ideas and make plans. In 2021, the ability to plan anything in advance was still uncertain because of the pandemic. Ultimately, we decided it was not yet time to bring back the large parties we normally host, but that gave us a chance to host an intimate vegetarian dinner party to mark the farmhouse turning 100 years old. Here’s a look at how we built the Halloween Centennial Dinner Party.

The Invitation

Image reads: A celebration of Sassafras Farmhouse turning 100 years old. Smith Halloween Centennial. Sign up required using the links beflow. 10/16 7pm Monster Movie Night on the Lawn. 10/29 7pm Haunted Dinner Party.

Despite my love of handmade invitations, we went digital for 2021. With the farmhouse turning 100, we wanted to go big so we hosted not one but two parties- an easy outdoor movie night and a formal dinner. This format allowed us to invite more people while also tracking attendance for safety. Each party had a website with more specific details and a place for guests to sign up.

THE DECOR

Black and gold phone frames with black and white and sepia toned photos on a brown wallpaper.

Art

We used public domain Victorian era photographs, edited ghosts into our own graveyard photo, and included a sepia picture of ourselves to ground the set with some realism.

A lace bat printed curtain on a window with a skeleton seated in a chair beside it below a defunct clock.

Wallpaper

To change the room from its normal cheery blue to a dilapidated haunted house, we hung wrinkled brown packing paper to create a peeling wallpaper effect. Behind any rips, we placed a wood-grain vinyl to look like exposed studs.

A vase of orange and purple flowers, candlestick, and small gourd.

Flowers

Orange and purple hued flowers in skull shaped vases and recycled glass bottles adorned the main table and side tables.

A long table with a black tablecloth, flower vases, candlesticks, and place settings. A skeleton sits below a single lightbulb at the head of the table.

Tablescape

Two folding tables were covered with a black tablecloth and an inexpensive rust orange fabric was draped to create the runner. Down the middle, we placed thrifted candlesticks and vases of flowers (low enough for guests to see over). Folding chairs were also covered in black with 13 place settings total to include Ricky the skeleton at the head of the table.

A fake crow in a cage hangs above a gold table with a fern and gold skull. A skeleton holding a Ouija board sits out of focus in the background.

Props

A caged crow on a shepherds hook, thrifted clock set permanently to midnight, and a side table with a plant and skull made the room feel like an authentic haunted house and not just a temporary Halloween scene.

A table set for 13 in a dimly lit room with candles lining the middle.

Lighting

A single Edison bulb on a swag and a candelabra-lined table set a macabre mood with dim lighting.

Napkin folded in the shape of a bat on a charger

Place settings

Each place setting had a tarnished silver-look charger, black dishes, a black napkin folded into a bat, and mismatched thrifted silverware.

THE MUSIC

A Jazzy Halloween music playlist on a black background with orange text.

The evening started with some classic Halloween tunes over cocktail hour and moved to a jazz playlist over dinner. We set up a Bluetooth speaker inside a Victrola to give the sense that it was playing without a record spinning.

THE MENU

Deviled egg and cheese on a black plate

Hors D'oeuvres

During cocktail hour, we offered a separate seating room outside the main dining room with punch, locally made robiola cheese, and deviled eggs garnished with black sesame seeds. This gave us time to hang out with our guests before the dinner rush.

Slices of butter with a black poopy seed coating

Course 1: Bread & Butter

A compound butter made with black garlic and encrusted in poppy seeds, black lava salt, and homegrown nasturtiums

Orange colored soup up in a black bowl with a white web pattern and grey spider

Course 2: Spider soup

Honeynut squash soup with a cream web and blue cornbread spider

Grilled radicchio splattered with red dressing on a silver platter

Course 3: Grilled brain salad

Grilled radicchio with a tangy berry vinaigrette

Light purple bats on an orange crescent moon on a black plate

Course 4: Bats Over the Moon

A bat pierogi filled with purple potatoes and served over a foraged persimmon applesauce with a side of maple-balsamic glazed brussel sprouts

Black teardrop shaped spoon with pink sorbet

Course 5: Brain palette cleanser

A brain-like dollop of raspberry sorbet on a tasting spoon to reset between two heavy courses

Black ramekin on a silver platter with spikes or orange sweet potato

Course 6: Grim Reaper’s Pie

A shepherd’s pie made with a black caviar lentil base and savory sweet potato topping served in a cauldron-like ramekin

Overhead view of a coffin filled with red jam on a black plate

Course 7: Death by Chocolate

A coffin-shaped brownie filled with strawberry jam

Heather Smith
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