How to throw the Ultimate Witch’s Brew

Annual Witch’s Brew

It’s been 4 years since Krystal and I hosted our first annual Witch’s brew. We invite up to 45 ladies and usually have about 25 that end up attending. We want to make sure that every guest #1 knows they are invited #2 Dresses up and #3 goes home with a lot of prizes and last but not least #4 has an amazing time at the party!

Preparation is the key to a successful party. We pick our theme about 3 months before the actual event. BUT.. We start scoping out killer deals the day after Halloween the year before. Purchasing any necessities at 75% off for the Halloween party. It is worth it to store items for a year if you have paid next to nothing for these items. Napkins, bags, gifts etc. We Start our handmade projects around August and craft non stop until the night of the big event. This year we started out with our Witch invitation that was delivered approximately 2 weeks before the event.

The invitation I created for this year. One guest got a “sweet treat” to bring while the another guest got an invitation requesting a “salty treat to share” Having guests bring a dish cuts on the cost to the hostesses. It also allows us to free up our money and time to focus on prizes! We also request that our guests dress up .. and if they don’t of course there is a witchy poo hat created by myself and Krystal to have the party poopers wear. All of our guests work really hard to make sure they win a prize so they make sure they dress up the best that they can! I am sad but for some reason I cannot get my invitation to convert to a jpeg. I’ll have to keep working on that one!

Here is a photo of all the lovely treats that our guests brought to share with us! Some sweet & some salty!

Having the guests bring food takes such a large stress off of the hostess. But of course since it is a Witch’s brew We had a lot of beverages to choose from! Krystal found some goblets for .25 cents a piece at K-mart and we cut cute sayings out of Vinyl and added them to the goblets, along with some polka dots. Once each guest RSVP’d to our party we took the cheap plastic spider rings and turned them into drink tags with everyone’s name on them. We cut the back of the ring to slide around the stem of each glass. We then hot glued some bakers twine around the ring portion of the spider ring and added a small tag with each person’s name on it. We then told our guests that there was a glass for each lady with their name on it. This way if they set their glasses down they would remember who’s was who’s. We did an assortment of 7 types of drinks. Most were all recipes we had found on Pinterest. We did include two cocoa machines one had caramel cocoa and the other had caramel apple cider. The other drinks were soda or juice type drinks.

Of course I had to decorate in between each drink container with glittered pumpkins that lit up and fall leaves! Each guest got to go home with their own drink glass! Hopefully they can kick up their feet and enjoy another drink at home using that glass!

I have found that over the years the more games and prizes we have the better the turn out. We try really hard to make sure each guest goes home with an arm full of loot! Here is a picture of our party prize display: Yes, each one is handmade and guess what??? close up photo’s and tutorials are to come really SOON on a lot of these Halloween crafts.

Here are some more shots of all the prizes we had. We used scrap wood from garbage bins from construction sites.. (yes I admit I will dumpster dive for wood) We found frames at garage sales for .25 cents, paint at garage sales, and all vinyl has been purchased from a vinyl store that sells remnants for really cheap prices.

Overall we had approximately 80 prizes to give away that evening. Prizes were used for all sorts of things!
Here is a list of how we gave away prizes:
First person to arrive
First person to RSVP
The guests vote for the top 3 witches
Cutest painted toes
Ugliest painted / chipped nail polish on toes
Who can unwrap a starburst in their mouth without using hands the fastest! – My son’s girlfriend won this contest.. wonder how she learned to do that?
Who can put the most marshmallows in their mouth.
We put stars on each guests backs and whomever could collect the most off of someone else’s back won a prize.
Scariest food dish
Most creative food dish
First treat to disappear
Wandering witch – The witch who wandered the room the most and talked to as many people as she could
The witch with the best joke
We also did some team games – One we took and cut up tons of string and placed them all over my main level whichever team could collect the most string and tie the longest string (with all their small pieces) won a prize.
We filled a bucket full of red apples and green apples – If you pulled out a green apple you won a prize.
Of course we also had teams wrap one of their team mates up in toilet paper to create a mummy. Whichever team did this the fastest won a prize.

We also filled 4 jars with candy and had the guests guess how many pieces of Candy was in each jar.
Here is a top ten list of things I have learned about hosting a Halloween party.
#1 the more prizes you have the more likely your guests will be to dress up and participate in the games.
#2 If you invite 50 people normally only 1/2 attend.
#3 If you invite the same person more than one year and they don’t come or don’t RSVP Remove them from your list.
#4 You cannot invite EVERYONE and someone in your neighborhood may feel offended but it’s okay to recognize you cannot please everyone.
#5 Invite a diverse group of ladies, some from church, some from work, some from the neighborhood, some old, some young, some who may need a friend or to feel part of something.
#6 Never gossip at a party. It can kill a mood and you don’t want to be “that person” Keep a positive upbeat mood at the party. Keep conversations light hearted and fun! Your party will have a better atmosphere and your guests will remember it as a fun evening of food, games and laughter.
#7 It’s never too early to start planning (even if it is a year in advance) you can never be too prepared.
#8 If you expect your guests to dress up — Find a Halloween costume and ROCK IT! (stay away from high heels, painted faces and masks) You won’t end up wearing them the entire time
#9 Make a point to talk to EVERY guest that comes. Make that guest feel like they are important!
#10 Decorate!! Decorations can certainly create a mood.

As the guests were leaving — arms filled with all sorts of goodies we made sure they also left with the Witch’s hat party favor that I posted about in a previous post.