How to host your own Slaughterhouse Ball.

I know the day before Halloween might be a little late for this post but heck, at least you can prepare well in advance for next year.

Invitations

See my post here for the invitations I made for this years Halloween, alternatively Martha Stewart has some cute downloadable templates for you to use.

The walls

Firstly, any good slaughter house requires tiles, ya'know to keep the blood and gunk from staining your otherwise wholesome walls.  I bought a 'room setter' from eBay for this purpose which we put up with DIY double sided sellotape (not craft stuff but the type made for redecorating as it is made to peel off painted walls without damaging them).  EBay holds plenty of other, less gruesome room setters - I think this one is my favourite, a haunted forest party would be so much fun but the slaughterhouse demanded gruesome.

Lighting

Next you need fairy lights.  Meters and meters of fairy lights.  We had 60 meters in all, which we hung up with wire tacks - the ones you use for keeping all your cables flush with the wall.  They left barely any marks when we had to take them all down the next day.  We picked the white glow lights as it gave the room an eerie clinical feel and they were the perfect brightness for the evening.

The Floor

Cover the floor with thick painters plastic from any hardware shop, duct taped down, both to stop the floor being ruined by party visitors and to create the suspicion that you might actually be highly adept at wrapping up bodies without ruining your carpet.  Tasteful additions to this can include: covering your feet in fake blood then traipsing through the room or simply splattering it with red acrylic paint first.

Food

No party is complete without a few nibbles; I think the flayed meat face is a good starting point, then might I suggest some newt eyeballs or perhaps some severed fingers?  Then perhaps to finish with something slightly less disgusting, these webbed cupcakes look just gorgeous.

Drinks

All bottles should be re-labelled, I used these from Martha Stewart last year which went down well.  Otherwise, just ensure that tinned lychees are placed in every drink - clearly eyeball like!

Music

As the soundtrack is very important for any Slaughterhouse ball, there will be a post to come on this subject later.

Finally dig out your best frock, paint your face, enjoy and dance. 

I hope this helps!