1.  Prep your food ahead of time.  I’m already laughing and watery-eyed again just typing this.  We decided to serve all sorts of hot dips and fondues and “bat wings.”  It was a delicious idea, but oh. my. goodness. Chris was in the kitchen making bat wings during the entire party!!  And our poor kitchen was a mess the whole time.  We must have started prepping the food 2 hours before the party because if there was any more time, I would have had time to do the dishes, right!?  Our sink was full, our countertops were cluttered and filled with food and dirty dishes and mini crockpots that we used to keep the dips warm–what an impressive spread.

Like I said, our sweet guests never said a word.  From the looks of it, the kitchen was even a hot hang out spot.  How embarrassing.  Save yourselves.  Prep ahead of time.  Think of a menu that allows you to be able to enjoy your guests.

2. Photobooths or photo ops are fun, but they don’t belong in the center of the party or in the middle of the living room!!! We loved snapping photos of all of our guests, but the bright light was a mood killer. At the time we couldn’t think of anywhere else to set up.  In retrospect, we should have just nixed it and just snapped photos using our camera’s flash, because this light was sooo bright and clearly taking up the entire room.  Which meant the majority of our guests were exiled to the messy kitchen/dining area or the family room, which got cramped fast. *face. palm.*

3.  Last tip, and this is an important one.  Talk with your signifiant other and be clear who is in charge of the music.  I thought Chris had it covered and he assumed I did.  You can guess what happened. In the end, there was no music when our guests started arriving.  Which can make things really, really awkward fast, especially when those first few trickle in dressed up in full garb and there’s no beat to make them feel more comfortable wearing only their underwear (okay, there was a nude bodysuit, too).  I wish this was the end of the embarrassment and we quickly put a playlist together and redeemed ourselves.  But no, we are not that smooth.  Instead, we opted to play the Thriller music video via YouTube on repeat through our Apple TV for the duration of the party.  That happened.

So, while you are laughing with us at ourselves, we’re here to say, we’re giving it another try because even after all of that embarrassment, we really did have a great time and hope our friends did, too. Plus! We need to seriously redeem ourselves and save face. Time will tell, because the invitations have already started going out. EEeee!  Here they are (with our address changed):

For this year’s party invitation, I used my chalkboard drawing from last October and downloaded a few free creepy-feeling fonts (Jellyka Castle’s Queen, Parseltongue, and BatFont) to pair with it.  We have been brainstorming and planning (and pinning!) like crazy while also getting tips from our amazing party planning friends to make sure the party happens without a hitch.  Although, knowing us, there will always be at least one embarrassing story to share.

Over the next few weeks, in the spirit of planning ahead, we’ll be sharing a few of our party details, like decorations, food, photo backdrop, games, party favors, etc) as we tackle them.  So, if you don’t see or hear about any details for a while, you should be worried and we should be stressed.  Hahaha.  Anyone else throw a party with a few disasters to laugh about?  Or are you throwing a party this year?  If you’re in the area, we’d love to see you at ours!

P.S.  Our 40% off Etsy sale ends today.  So head over there and grab what’s left using code MAKEWAY.