• Choose a Saturday night as close to Halloween as possible;
• If Halloween falls on a Saturday - carefully consider whether to have the party that night or the week before - this will depend on your guests - whether any children will be attending and what time the party will be. Parents will want to accommodate their children's trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

• Even if you haven't decided on a theme yet -- sending out 'save the date' notices will get you on your guests' calendars so they won't have any conflicts and your party will come first;
• Send these out as early as July or August -- it's never too early to get on someone's calendar.
• If you know your theme already -- let your guests know ASAP so they can get costumes in plenty of time.
• I am designing a selection of 'save the date' notecards to save you some time - click here to see them.

• Whether it's simply a haunted house, or a special theme or era - the sooner you decide on this the sooner you can plan your decorations and food.
• Once you've chosen a theme - let your guests know so they can get appropriate costumes well in advance - saving them time and money.

• Haunted House
• Pirate
• Eqypt or Rome
• Wild Wild West

• Be sure to include date; time; place; theme; costume requirements; food to bring, if any; or that you're providing great food; R.S.V.P. deadline with telephone and/or email address details.
• Provide any rules, if necessary, i.e., if it is a party for grownups where alcohol may be consumed, be clear that there will be no drinking and driving under any circumstances - and offer guests a sober ride home or overnight accommodations if needed.
• If there will be games like play casino -- plan to provide play chips and play money to each guest on arrival and indicate this in the invite so they will know what to expect (see more ideas for this below);
• Make the invitation fun and irresistable!
• Keep track of your rsvp responses. Call folks if you don't hear from them by the deadline.
• I am designing a selection of Halloween invitations to save you some time -- click here to see them...

STEP 5: Organize and/or buy appropriate Decorations and Lights

• Resources for purchasing new decorations is provided in my LINKS section;
• Also Craft, Templates, and other ideas are provided in the LINKS section;
• REMEMBER -- You can never have too many decorations or spooky Hallowe'en lighting...Collect a bit each year to reduce the cost;
• See my 'Decorating Ideas' page for photos and ideas for decorating that you may not have thought of...

• James Bond/spy
• Casino *
• Favorite TV series
• Hollywood
• Fifties
• Asian
• Cavemen
• Renaissance
• Medieval
• Murder Mystery

*Casino Party theme
Supplies:

• Plan and make or order your costumes well in advance; after all you are the host/hostess!
• There are many online retailers with reasonably-priced costumes for just about any theme -- I have proviced links and resources here, to the right, and in the LINKS section.

• Do the decorating well in advance - you don't want to stress yourself out having to decorate the day before the party - get in done and perfected ahead of time so you can focus on the food preparation and small last-minute details.
• If you plan to carve pumpkins - purchase them in advance and carve them within days of the party so they'll look the best and won't rot or shrivel.
• Lights, lights and more lights! Orange and Purple colored lights are perhaps the easiest and least expensive way to decorate and set the mood. See my 'Decorating Ideas' page for photos and ideas on decorating with lights.
• More cool and reasonably priced lights and decor can be found here: (and in my LINKS section)