7 Tips For Planning a Perfect Halloween Party

It’s that time of year again. Ghost and goblins and ghouls will soon be roaming the streets, looking for something to do besides collect candy. If you’re thinking about throwing a Halloween party this year, you might want to keep a few tips in mind to ensure that it goes off smoothly!

Choose the date and time wisely

This is critical. Consider who the party is for. Is this an adult Halloween party? Don’t forget that adults with children may already have obligations for Halloween night itself. Will this be a children’s party? The time may be more important if you want children to attend either before or after traditional trick-or-treating begins. Maybe you want to have both. This year, Halloween is on a Friday night. Keep that in mind when considering your age groups and your parties specific plans.

Create your invitations

Not only can you create invitations and shoot them out to your desired party attendees well ahead of time, don’t forget too that many people schedule their daily lives in online formats these days. Make sure to create an event page on a popular event planning site and send those invites along as well. Want a more open party? Work up some banners and post them in the neighborhood where trick-or-treaters could see them and decide to make your party another of their night’s events.

Don’t forget the details

Whether on your paper invitations, or in your event planning program, remember to include the time, directions, costume requirements, dish suggestions and everything important to your party. Is it a BYOB? Make sure to include that as well. If the party will include children, a disclaimer for appropriate attire may be necessary if you are having a open house party.

Plan your menu

Will this be a themed party? Do you want everyone to bring zombie-fied dishes? Make this clear in your invitations and also include links to recipe ideas that they can utlize. Will you have a dish contest? Be sure to advertise that to your attendees in the invitation and event planning locations.

Costume Contests

What is a Halloween party without a costume contest? Your invitations, event planning program, social networks and email are great places to ensure that everyone knows well ahead of time, the rules for the costume contest. Make sure you open up a discussion on this issue. Some people take competitive contests very seriously, and that means they might be willing to spend a lot of money sprucing up for a Halloween costume! Cut down on frustration or wasted funds by making your rules very clear and very repetitive in all of the right places. Make sure to list your prizes up front or in the least, list that the prizes are surprises themselves.

Collect RSVP’s

Collect all the RSVP’s you can. This is another great reason to use online options for event planning. It can be somewhat difficult to collect RSVP’s in the form of a call-back these days. Using online event planning software allows your prospective attendees to accept with a click, so you can add them to your guest lists.

Be Prepared

Make sure you do all of your grocery shopping, decoration creation and Halloween Party organization days ahead of time. Being fully prepared will allow you to reserve all of your party day time for setup, greeting your guests and carrying off contests without a hitch.

Keeping all of these tips in mind and bringing others in to assist you with Halloween Party planning can ensure that everyone gets to enjoy a smoothly run function and will be looking forward to your next event in the future.