# Addams Family Reunion parrty 2014 - ideas and help thread



## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

We started throwing an annual party five years ago, and it has grown from 8 guests the first year to about 50 last year. This year we're scaling back a little bit, and only inviting our social-circles friends, NOT inviting our professional-circles friends (there were some personality clashes last year). I'm expecting maybe 30 adult guests. Party starts at 6, kids are welcome until 9 - after that I can't take responsibility for what your child sees and hears 

We haven't done a theme in the past, but this year we've decided on an Addams Family Reunion. The hosts, my wife and I, will be Gomez and Morticia (we're swapping genders for our costumes, which will be a surprise for most of the guests - but that's another thread). Dress code will be Halloween-Elegant costumes, with guests encouraged to come as a long-lost family member that nobody seems to remember. Most of our social-circle friends have at least a little bit of theater or costuming/cosplay background, so I don't expect anyone will have trouble coming up with something.

We're taking a lot of decorating and styling cues from the Haunted Hotel thread (THANKS dawnski), since most of those decor ideas will play nicely with the gothic-mansion style. In the past we haven't taken down our personal knick-knacks in favor of decor; they've all just gone up together, but this year I think we'll be temporarily removing the usual stuff in favor of decorations. Lots of work, but fun. We're brainstorming on wall coverings as well.

Party game ideas:
I'm coming up a little short here.
- For the past three years we've done the Money Game, which has been a big hit, but it's time for that to take a break in favor of something new - or heavily modify it to fit the theme. We like to give away prizes and trinkets, those usually go over well, so games where people can win something will be good.
- We did a movie-quote game in the past, but we have ONE GUY who is a (dead) ringer, he simply remembers entire movie and TV scripts. I might make him host that game this time; that'll teach him 
- I'd like to have some sort of game that uses the Addams-Family-esque personae or characters that people create for themselves; ideally it will be easier to win for the people that did some pre-planning to develop their own character. If I can start getting a game fleshed out, I'll start NOW to encourage guests to come up with their log-lost-cousin character. At a minimum, I'll prepare "Hello, my name is" stickers for guests to wear upon entry.

I'll keep this updated with our progress; any ideas will be welcomed, especially game ideas.


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## Jenn&MattFromPA (Sep 4, 2013)

Ohhh, fun! I would love to come to this kind of party! I went as Morticia Addams one year for Halloween - such a great character! 

Well, certainly take a lot of inspiration from the Uncle Fester-centered movie where they host the big gala/reunion and do the MAMUSHKA dance! Maybe you could have a MAMUSHKA dance off and give out trophies for Most Creative Dancer, Most Kicks in a Row, etc. Ha!

You could also play an Addams Family Trivia game where you have quotes from some of the movies and people/teams can either guess them out loud or you can give people print-outs and they can fill in the blanks. 

- Are they made from real Girl Scouts? (gotta love Wednesday!)
- You were so beautiful. Pale & mysterious. No one even looked at the corpse. (what a romantic you are, Gomez!)
- I'm just like any modern woman trying to have it all. Loving husband, a family. It's just, I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade. (Morticia, of course!)

Here's more great quotes - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106220/quotes

You could try to print out photos of all the Addams cousins that you know end up with names (from the movie party scenes), then frame them as a sort of family tree display as decorations. Then label the photos with numbers. Print out slips with the names of the characters, along with some made-up, slightly similar names (so if you have 10 photos, maybe have 15 names on the list). Then people can write which number/name goes together. Or you could do this game in teams, kind of like that Hollywood Game Night tv show. You could print the names on slips of posterboard and each team takes turns taping the name under the photo and then see who gets the most right. Of course, you'd either need to switch out the photos or hide the other team members so no one gets an advantage. 

Also, I'm sure you've seen it, but if you haven't, you've gotta have this:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/573294227539250332/


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## printersdevil (Sep 7, 2009)

Definitely need a Cousin It and Lyrch, too. THis sounds like a lot of fun.


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## OctoberDream (Aug 7, 2011)

How about an auction, guess can bring one oddity and place it in the auction. Stuff like a mummy hand or bat eye. Something fun. 
When they place it in the pile they get "X" amount of monopoly money. Then at the end of the night you auction off the stuff. Guess get to keep what they buy with the monopoly money.
It's just an idea no worries if you dont like it.
Anyway, it sounds like fun. Good luck.


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## frogkid11 (Aug 6, 2012)

this theme sounds like so much fun. There is a website which has a bunch of assembled Addams Family television show based trivia. You could turn those questions (the online versions have it as multiple choice but it could be simply # of correct answers total) into a game to see who answers the most correctly. 

http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/television/television_a-c/the_addams_family.html


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## Jenn&MattFromPA (Sep 4, 2013)

Oh gosh, I've been thinking about this kind of theme most of the evening now! You've got me rethinking what costumes I'm gonna put my kiddos in this year! LOL!
I doubt you're made of money, but if you happen to be - this next link is AWESOME!

It's a miniature paper replica of the Addams Family living room - https://www.etsy.com/listing/186002252/addams-family-tv-series-scale-model-0001?ref=related-4

Definitely take a look at it to help influence your decor & props! 

Also found this game called "Find Uncle Fester" - https://www.etsy.com/listing/198378...amily&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

Even if you don't play the game at the party, you could photocopy the playing cards & use them as decorations or as toppers to cupcakes or something.


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## printersdevil (Sep 7, 2009)

That game Find Uncle Fester is great!


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## diajoh (Sep 25, 2010)

I watched the movie about two weeks ago. I tried to figure out all the names in the cemetery, but couldn't quite. Couldn't find them on the net either. Perhaps if someone has the original cartoons? Or maybe the series has some hints. There's some obscure trivia!


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

Thanks for all the input!
I love the MAMUSHKA competition, I'm certain that many of our guests will go for that.
The other game ideas sound fun too. Some of the crowd gets too rowdy for trivia (we banish them to the back yard), but some of the quieter guests will have fun with trivia.


We've started collecting decorations, gonna go yard-sale and thrift-store hunting on Saturday to see what we can find. I've got a little bit of experience weathering and aging props, this'll put me to the test in how fast and efficient I can be at weathering a lot of stuff at a time. Base coat of black spray-paint, dry-brushed silver paint to give some highlights - then figure out where to go from there.

We have a big framed print in the dining room that has a lot of potential. I think we're going to do a costume/makeup test for our Gomez and Morticia costumes, take a "family photo" of the two of us, have it printed big, and put it in that frame in the dining room - a classic gothic theme, having one's own portrait large in the dining room or over the fireplace. I've used shortrunposters in the past for one-off large prints, and been pretty happy with them. The only downside is the kinda long turnaround time, so we've gotta get crackin' on it.
http://www.shortrunposters.com

I'll see if I can find some other public-domain or royalty-free images and portraits that we can print big.


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

We spent a little time hitting yard-sales and thrift stores and antique stores over the weekend, and scored some good finds.

We found that Home Goods also has a pretty good collection this year, of things that are fitting our aesthetic - lots of beautiful mercury-glass style props. We bought a light-up mercury-glass pumpkin (about 12"), a huge poison bottle that's about 18" tall, and a cast-metal deer skull on a plaque with giant antlers, maybe 24" tall altogether. 
Target was a little disappointing, with the exception of a good selection of string lights. I agree with the posts in the "Target 2014" threads; their selection and styling from three or four years ago was MUCH better. We picked up some string lights, not much else. They had a cast-resin (not foam) griffin-gargoyle statue that was pretty nice, didn't get it though.

Here are some of our yard-sale finds. I'll continue to post photos as I find things and work on them.
From a yard sale in a sketchy trailer park, for $20 we got FOUR framed prints in very eye-catching frames and a gross old desk radio. This is one of my favorite finds of the day - it's about 16x35":

I've already discarded the print (it was moldy and gross), cleaned the glass, repaired and rebuilt parts of the frame that were coming off, gave the frame a coat of flat black paint and a wash of dark purple. Needs another wash of dark purple then I'll do some highlighting in light purple and pearly white. The purple and white will be to complement the print that we're putting in it, which is Marchesa Luisa Casati with Greyhound (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luisa_Casati)

Some flicker candles for $1 each at a yard sale. I've taken the candles out and have begin distressing the base:


We went to an estate sale at a doctor's house and he had this sample. It's plastic and rubber but I've disassembled it to begin the aging process. I gave the stand a coat of flat bone-white paint but it still looks plastic, so I think I will modpodge some tea-stained paper over the whole stand, then decoupage some labels. Need to figure out what the labels should say.


Found a handful of other mirrors, candlesticks, copper and metal and glass trinkets. No big centerpieces yet, though the big Marchesa Luisa frame and print will hopefully be a nice centerpiece for one of the rooms.

We're going to try the _DIY Mercury Glass_ technique on some of our finds, and see how it goes.


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

Also, our event invitation/banner, courtesy of my wife:


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

We've got a ton more decorations and props and stuff, I'll post some photos when we start putting them up.
We also had a friend who runs a print shop make up a huge (8x13) vinyl banner that looks like a bookcase, so we have a ready-made wall covering to hide the TV area. (though, this is going to cover a lot of the shelving for my props and stuff).

Best of all, we have almost finished our own costumes with three weeks to spare. Most of our guests know we'll be Morticia and Gomez; most of them DON'T know we're swapping genders. We had a pro makeup-artist friend come over and do a makeup test, and do a photo to blow up into a big portrait to hang on the wall.


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## Jenn&MattFromPA (Sep 4, 2013)

Ha ha ha! That photo is great! Love the idea of printing a bookcase image on a banner to hide some of the regular room decor! Looking forward to seeing more!


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## PMTT (Oct 13, 2013)

Ha ha!!! So cool! Would love to be a fly on that wall when they start coming in and realize that!


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

Finished my overhaul to the "skelaxin" medical sample. Grimed it up nice and good with acrylic paints and cheap instant coffee, made some labels to cover much of the plastic and coffee-stained those as well.. 
On the pull-out informational panels, I printed up some 16th-century medical drawings by Juan Valverde de Amusco, coffee-stained them, and spray-glued them to the inserts. The inserts don't slide as cleanly as they used to, but I don't care, they look great and creepy.

For the paper, I did it in a couple of steps. First, print up your piece on regular paper and cut it out. Next, in a little tray (I used a half-sheet pan) make a bath of cheap instant coffee, Dredge your paper through the coffee then lay it out to dry on a paper towel. Dab it dry in certain places if you like, maybe drip some bleach on it. Scuff it with your fingers or fingernails while the paper is still damp. After it dries, use regular water to get it damp in certain areas, then sprinkle some fine coffee-powder granules on it. Let them just dissolve then dry, or maybe pat and smear them with your fingers, whatever you like. Dab them up with another paper towel if you used too much. Drip on a little more water if you want it to run and smear.


I have a lot more Valverde drawings that I'll probably print up for other frames. Also found a lot of spectacular sketches by Jacques Gamelin that I'll be printing up to go around the house.


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## Eviejenn (Aug 10, 2014)

Okay, I'm going to be the one to say it (because I know more than a few of us girls are thinking it) - I'm kinda hating you right now because you are totally ROCKING that Morticia outfit! Seriously, on my best day, I wouldn't look half that hot in that dress. Both of your costumes are amazing. I think you are going to have total shock & awe when you open that door for your guests!


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

Ha ha, thanks for the compliments! It's way out of my comfort zone, but that just makes it more fun and exciting. The dress is spandex-PVC so it's really, uh, snug. The shoulders have big points on them but that pose doesn't show them off well.

I still need to build up my hip pads (I got the foam already) and figure out the undergarments (probably a layer of Spanx then black compression tights), and figure out what to do with my nails. I got press-ons, hope they work. "Gomez" is still wearing her long pointy nails from her Maleficent costume, they're acrylic and gelcoat so they're not going anywhere unless she wears gloves.

And, I need to start working on my body language and "glide" walk.

Full disclaimer, in that photo I did touch up my adam's apple. Or should I say, Addams apple *rimshot*. Maybe a little felt choker will cover it up and help with the illusion, even though it wouldn't be canon.


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## Greyhawke (Sep 10, 2010)

We're doing something similar this year. The family is perfect for the Addams - my daughter is the eldest and jazzed to be Wednesday. Picked up a dress for her off alibaba. The rest of the costumes are pretty easy. Grandpa is playing Lurch.

For the house, I bought some of the original Addams books off of ebay, plus an 8x10 "family photo" of the original cast to throw in a frame. I <obtained> the B&W series and the movies and will be running them during the party. 

I love the idea of a long lost relative contest. I may well steal that and toss in a prize or two for the best costume. I've already got the cemetery in the yard, so that fits right in.


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## Jenn&MattFromPA (Sep 4, 2013)

That anatomy piece turned out great!


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

The vinyl bookcase banner came in, so we did a test fit - it works pretty nicely. There's a bit of a glare - it's satin-glossy vinyl - but we'll deal with it. When the mood lights are on and the smoke machine is hazing up the house, it will be just great. I may paint it with a matte paint, though I honestly don't know if that'll help,

It wrinkled a bit in transport but it seems that the wrinkles are falling out as it hangs.

It photographs pretty nicely, as long as you angle the lights and camera to avoid reflections & glare.

We used it as a backdrop for the wife's Maleficent costume, I did a quick little photoshoot of her to enter into a contest that Disney is having (fingers crossed!). She cleans up pretty darn nice from Gomez to Maleficent, eh?










Maleficent_20141007_30718.jpg by nathancarter, on Flickr


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## printersdevil (Sep 7, 2009)

I love the banner and the wife looks great!


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## bettyboop (Jul 24, 2010)

Love the theme. Sounds like a lot of fun for the guests. Please post pictures after your party of all fun!!!
Might be a future theme for one of my parties.


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

Decorating is going well, but none of the areas are really complete yet - we still gotta live in it for a week before we completely rearrange for party. We've been swapping out some of the lights already, though, and putting up lots of props. This is one of my favorites so far, it's the centerpiece of the high-traffic kitchen area. Most of the house lighting is dim, but this one has a nice spotlight on it.

As found for $5 in a scary yard sale:



Repaired and repainted the frame, cleaned the glass, threw away the old print and homemade "mat," and put in a print of Luisa Casati:


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

Another piece of decor finished and installed. It's a cast-metal skull from Home Goods with a little repaint - originally the whole thing was metallic-brown, I repainted the skull part with a coat of flat ivory, then a subtle wash of brown, then a very thin coat of pearlescent metallic white (since the horns were still metallic). The plaque is from Jo-Ann with dark brown stain. The copper cups and hangers are from a yard sale, and the candles are remote-controlled LED candles.

It's a bit heavy, because the skull and antlers are cast metal. I put relatively sturdy hangers in the wall; as long as people don't mess with it too much it should be fine.

I want to put a little label on it, haven't decided what yet.

Our giant poster-sized portrait print is in, too - it's in the dining room but that's our staging area so it's still a huge wreck. I'll get photos when it's cleaned up.


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## dawnski (Jun 16, 2012)

I love everything you've done. Great work!


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## Jenn&MattFromPA (Sep 4, 2013)

Looking forward to seeing how your party turns out!


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

Thanks! We had it last weekend. It was a blast.
I didn't get a lot of "ambient" pictures during the party, but the photo booth was really busy all night, so plenty of silly photos of the guests.

Most guests came dressed in Addams-Family-appropriate attire - not "costumes" but black-and-white with appropriate spooky makeup. Though, we did have one Darth Vader and one Beetlejuice-style Alec Baldwin, with the pointy stretched face and eyeballs on his fingertips.

I got some photos of the decor ....after the party while we were taking it down. I wish I had gotten some of the food and cheese plate. Some guests are sending me photos here and there, though.

We didn't do the Mamushka dance. We did play the Money game again this year, using gold coins as "Your share of the Addams Family Inheritance." That got pretty crazy as the night wore on, as usual.

Last year I took two days off from my day job to prepare, and I swore that this year I would take three. But I only took two days off this year, and it wasn't quite enough. I really needed that third day 

Successes:
- Guests coming dressed for the theme!
- Snacks, food, most drinks*, cupcakes, the fantaaastic themed cheese-and-olive plate
- Photo booth was a huge hit. Didn't even try getting it to print - digital ones only - so that frustration was eliminated
- Most of the decorations got finished and put up! We only had a few things that didn't get done.
- Our Mr. Chicken's Sybil the Clairvoyant was gorgeous and very well-received. Instead of putting her in a crystal ball, we put the face on top of a mannequin dressed in a long robed hood. I didn't get any good photos or video of her in action, aside from a friend's cell snapshot (below). We couldn't get the video to play on repeat for a long time, it was playing from the iPad so we had to keep restarting it - but she was still great. And she took a LONG LONG time to fine-tune the setup so it looked good.
- Lighting and ambiance - we had three low-wattage Edison bulbs in the kitchen can lights, everything else inside was LED candles, so the ambiance was swell.
- Money game, auction, and prizes (I'm still finding gold plastic coins about the house)
- Hosts' costumes*
- Enough crash space for guests who wanted to p[arty and drink and not have to drive home

To do better next time:
- We just ran out of time getting ready. I wanted to be 100% done by 5:00pm so that I had two hours to rest and shower and get dressed - but that didn't happen. Hosts didn't start getting dressed until party time, and it took an hour to do shave and do my makeup and get dressed. On the upside, we were able to make a fashionably-late grand entrance after a lot of the guests were already there.
- A few friends promised to arrive a few hours early to help with last-minute prep, but they had to back out at the last minute. This led to us running late, because I really needed an extra body to help with some outside prep. Oh well, no big deal.
- Didn't have time for an ice run, so some of the beer didn't get iced down in time. However, many guests brought their own cold beer, and we had plenty of liquor and other non-alcoholic drinks.
- I didn't get to eat much of the cheese plate. There wasn't much left except for a little brie and a little bleu, but we forgot to put it back in the fridge so it didn't keep to the next morning.
- Wanted to set up the Go-pro camera to do a long timelapse video of the whole evening, but ran out of time and energy.
- Didn't take many photos of the ambiance and decor.
- The smoke machine inside the house *WILL* set off the smoke alarm, and it will keep alarming for a long long time. 


I'll post photos as I find them and get them organized.


Photo booth area. The first one is halfway done setting up - the light is in place but not the camera or laptop yet. The camera got clamped to the light stand. The big rectangular light is one of my photo studio lights, so it has a constant-on "modeling light" that gave adequate light for guests' cell-phone shots, then the flash fires when someone activates the photo booth. Second shot is later in the evening, you can see the laptop there in place. I'll post a handful of the "real" photos from the photobooth camera later.






The printed vinyl bookcase backdrop, our "Lurch", and one of the other party guests. With her hat on, and sunglasses on the back side of her head, she made a hilarious Cousin It.



Guest's snapshot of the dining room with Sybil in the back corner. She looked so, so much better in person, I assure you.




Cupcakes at the bar area:


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## dawnski (Jun 16, 2012)

Looked like a wild night! What are those two pictures on top of your hutch or bookcase in your dining area? They look pretty cool, but I can't make them out. Kind of carnival looking.


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## offmymeds (May 26, 2010)

Sounds & looks like a great time was had by all  that bookshelf background is awesome. Hopefully you get some more pics sent to you, would love to see more.


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

dawnski said:


> Looked like a wild night! What are those two pictures on top of your hutch or bookcase in your dining area? They look pretty cool, but I can't make them out. Kind of carnival looking.


Thanks for noticing!

My wife and I are in a dance/stage/variety show, those are promo posters that we made for a Circus-themed show from two years ago. It was my first really big photo/design project; we took photographs and made vintage-style circus posters for all the cast members. That's me on stilts on the left (I can really walk on stilts) and my wife swallowing a sword (she can't really swallow a sword, it was a fake collapsible sword but it looked great in photos and on stage).

The posters were a fun project - for each poster, we did a black-and-white process on the photo, then added a cartoony outline and a new layer of hand-drawn color, so they had the "feel" of an old hand-tinted print. I'll show the high-res ones when I can get to them. 

They weren't part of the Halloween decor; they stay up year-round


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## bettyboop (Jul 24, 2010)

Fabulous!! Would love to do this theme for a future party.
I have felt that rush at the end for previous parties. And there is always so much more I would like to do if I had more time.
Now, I begin decorating the house first of October. Especially where we can live around the décor. Friends and family know we are preparing for Halloween party so it is never an issue. Now I'm so much more relaxed and ready for the big evening.

Also, your iPad issue. Download Loopy from iTunes, run your video through that app and it will play all night, over and over. I did that this year with putting my iPad in a shadow box and hanging is on the wall. Looked like a wall hanging that moved.... Really cool.

Just two thoughts that I had while reading your critique of the evening.


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## Jenn&MattFromPA (Sep 4, 2013)

Nice! Everything so far sounds great, and I love that so many of your guests got into it too! How did everyone react at seeing you and your wife's costumes? 

There's never enough time for prep with a party - I always find that my own appearance/costume/hair/etc ends up getting put lower on the to-do list because I run out of time. One thing I find helpful - take your list of what worked/what didn't, and make a "Lessons Learned" page that you review a couple of weeks before hosting your next party. We always do this with our Halloween lists so we can remember what we want to do or do differently each year. I also put reminders on there that I want to remember. This was the first year I got outside pics during daylight hours, and that was mostly because my Mom helped out a lot with the kids while my husband & I set up - I made it a big priority this year knowing that last year it didn't really happen. 

After initially reading your party post here on the forum a while back, I got really inspired by your Addams Family theme & rewatched some of the movies. Although I already had a costume for my son, I decided that since it was his first Halloween and I'd really only get one time to dress him as a baby, I changed my mind & dressed my kids up as Wednesday & Baby Pubert Addams. Since it was your post that inspired me, I hope you don't mind that I'm sharing a picture of them here, but I thought you might like seeing it -


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## bettyboop (Jul 24, 2010)

Great job and I enjoyed reading the whole thread. I would love to do this theme in the future. You have made it fun!!


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

An assortment of photos of decor, I took these as we were sorting out after the party. About half of it's taken down, the rest we're leaving in place until it's time to reset for Christmas.

Bar area - sans tablecloth and drinks. Looked much better when it was loaded up with bottles and cupcakes. I wanted to make up some creepy prints to go over the red doors & drawers, but that got bumped down the list. I have an absurdly cluttered workbench that's hidden by that cloth curtain & lights.



Radio from a yard sale. Looks good, doesn't work - I might try to fix it up, or at least light it from the inside and put a Bluetooth speaker inside.


Lamp from a yard sale.


A little better shot of our Luisa Casati:


Medical instruments display in the corner of the dining room:



Dining room with random decor on the table... it looked much better with all the food and such put out, and the ambiance lighting. 


The main attraction of the dining room:


Display case of all sorts of trinkets and things.
Top row: Haunted Mansion Mickey Ears, Derek Yaniger acrylic art (2013), Derek Yaniger acrylic art (2014), old camera.
Middle row: Scented oil and urn containing kitty ashes, Kraken tentcle and mug, decorative box, metal art thing from a yard sale
Bottom row: Stand clock, lamp-style iron tea kettle, decorative candlestick, old defunct biOrb reef. 




This is one of my wife's favorite pieces - we found this knife in a yard sale, and she painted up a wooden hand model to hold it - it's under a glass dome in the previous two pictures:


Top of the bookcase next to the window looking out at the back porch. The last little fish had died in the fishtank, so we put in some bones and a piranha.


A glowing gazing sphere, and the family motto embroidered:


This is one of my favorite pieces of decor: At the Disney World Magic Kingdom, they just opened a new shop right outside the Haunted Mansion. In the shop, you can have your picture taken and they make it into a lenticular image that changes into a grim grinning ghost. We hung them by the mirror in the front half-bathroom so you can see both sides at once.


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

Assortment of our party guests in the photo booth.

I can't say enough how fun this was. If you have the capacity to run an automated photobooth - all you need is a laptop, any recent DSLR, and the DSLRBooth software (or some equivalent), it'll keep your guests amused all night. There were maybe 400 photos taken in the photo op over the course of the night, plus it was nice to have a backdrop for guests to take their own photos with cell phones.

1.


2.


3. The ladies of the evening.


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6.


7.


8.


9. The hosts, with Thing and our little Sphynx kitty, Venus.


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## nathancarter (Aug 7, 2012)

And, unrelated to the party, here are the posters discussed a few posts ago:
Aston Martini Circus Poster by nathancarter, on Flickr

Victor Voyeur Circus Poster by nathancarter, on Flickr

And here's the rest of that shoot, including bunch more posters of the other troupe members.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nathancarter/sets/72157630215192422/


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## bettyboop (Jul 24, 2010)

You have inspired me!!
Decided that this will be my theme October, 2017. Skipping this year.
I thought that my family will be the "Family's" characters and send a name tag with the invitation for guests to name their character. I am hoping this will encourage everyone to create a character out of their imagination. All of our guests come in costume so it should be fun to see what they come up with. 
We have 65-70 people attend. We are always outside with dancing and a DJ. So I really don't decorate all of the house. I will see what bizarre things I can find or make before the party.
Ideas are needed and greatly appreciated from the clever people on this website and post.
Invitation ideas
House decorations, etc.
Thank you


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## bettyboop (Jul 24, 2010)

Love the portrait idea for Morticia and Gomez!!


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## Ghouliet (Nov 5, 2010)

printersdevil said:


> Definitely need a Cousin It and Lyrch, too. THis sounds like a lot of fun.


A cousin it is easy to make. Put a tan grass skirt on an upside down tomato cage and add a pair of sunglasses.


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