# 80s Themed Party and live music



## Atelier*Motives (Sep 28, 2009)

Last year my son and I went as 80s icons... I was Cyndi Lauper, and he was Marty McFly from Back to the Future. (my son was 2 last halloween) Managed to score most of the things needed from the thrift store or the closet.


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

I think in the invite video, I will do a montage of 80s characters to give people some ideas, maybe to a Cindy Lauper tune or something? There are SOOOO many possibilities.


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## ShannoninPa (Oct 19, 2009)

on the invite if you could find someone with a cassette tape and putting it a boombox and pushing the play button. Oh, the days of ff and rewinding!!

I think Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson and big hair rock bands.

You could hang up 80's movie posters for some decor. I remember girls wearing alot of fishnet and lace gloves.


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## Addicted2Boo (Jul 19, 2009)

This is my save the date from last year!

http://youtu.be/6iiYTa59OuU

Out of 45 guests, only 2 didnt come in 80s costumes. lOts of great costumes and everyone had such a great time because there was so many options to choose from. 
I had 80s music playing and an 80s horror film on the TV. I had posters up showing different popular movies/shows/music/trends etc. Everything was in neon colors and I even had some Garbage Pail Kids, swatch watch, cabbage patch kids, My Little Pony, etc mixed around in the decor.


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Great ideas and great video Addicted! The idea about the cassette tape is a good one, and I will cull Google images for all sorts of 80s characters/styles. Already have some ideas about some movie clips to snag (Stripes/Bill Murray: "I wanna party with you cowboy!"; and Jeff Spiccoli in Fast Times).


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Ok, Labor day week end, time to kick it up..... that and I haven't really done ANYTHING so far.

I need to get the eVite done first, so I am looking for some pictures, graphic elements, etc. So, when you think of the 80s, images, Characters, icons, etc. what comes to mind? 

Some good ideas already posted, but looking for others......


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

We're off and running!!










I am using AnyVite this year, I found EVite to be horrible to create a custom invite. I managed a bit last year, but this year couldn't even find the option to upload a custom pic. I like Anyvite so far.

I did get a cassette player from a local freecycle website. Will first edit and post the video from last year's party, then create a promo video for this year with lots of 80s movie clips from YouTube.

Also working with the band on set lists....!!


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## ShannoninPa (Oct 19, 2009)

Looks great! I'm sure the party will be great!!


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Well, tonight the band had practice and they sounded great. Everything it set up (music wise anyway). I have a few things yet to build and lots of music editing and light programming to do. But I did finish my "80s Promo Video" and thought I would post it here.

We have about 60-65 RSVP'ed accepts already, a REAL fun group and probably 10-15 "newbies" so I am psyched. The band's equipment has taken up a bit more of the family room than I had thought, but there is still lots of room for people...

Anyway, here's the video I did, it took WAY too long to make, but lots of cool stuff from YouTube...

http://www.viddler.com/explore/johnshenry/videos/6/


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## MissMandy (Apr 18, 2011)

LOL that was great! I had a smile on my face the whole time. It has all of the wonderful cheesiness that we love from the 80's. Now.....where's my Aquanet?!


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## yummum29 (Oct 22, 2008)

We have decided to do an 80's party next year, thanks for the great ideas! Have a great time


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

Well that was interesting.....

Wasn't like we had a little October snow the night of the party, we had a full on Nor'easter that started to really crank up oh, about an hour or two before the party started, and then raged all night. An hour or so before the party, I had no idea what to expect. A few people had called to see if we were still having it, and one or two contacted us and said they were going to make it.. So? What New Englanders are afraid of driving in a little snow? Well the real concern was that it was a wet snow and most of the trees still had their leaves, and it was going to get windy. And it did, and trees did fall down. Our power blinked on and off a few times.

Not counting us, and not counting the band, 14 brave souls out of about 65 expected showed up. The band kicked ass, my computer controlled lighting was really cool, and we all had a good time. The disappointment is it had all the ingredients to be a killer party if the house had been full of 50-60 people like it has been the last few years.

At one point when the band was playing the power went out. Everyone kept playing and singing the lyrics loudly, and after 5 seconds or so the power came back on. Lights came on, amps clicked on, the sound gradually came back from the speakers and amps. It was really kind of cool.

At about 11:30, the first couple left and then came right back, grabbed a microphone from teh band and announced that two trees had fallen across the end of the driveway and nobody was leaving until we went out in the storm with a chain saw. Me and a couple other grabbed my saw (which I HAD fueled up and sharpened that after noon) cleared off my plow truck and headed out. All night I had been looking at our back deck to see how much snow had fallen and saw only a couple inches and little coming down. Little did I know that the trees above were blocking it all and we had about 7" already. So we plowed our way to the end of the driveway and in about 15 mins had cut the trees apart and moved them aside.

Several guests had to re-route on the way home after encountering trees across the road, but all made it home safely. Our power went out sometime after 2:30 am Sunday and came back on around 11:30pm. We have a generator and were able to run the furnace and some lights. Still don't have TV phone or internet.

Anyway, I'll post some pics below.....


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## jakiedoodle (Sep 17, 2011)

almost sounds like my night! We had the same issue, but we DID lose power just as the party was about to start. Several people didn't show up because of the impending storm, and those that did stayed about 3 hours and left. Party was supposed to start around 6:00. Most people took a lot longer to get here than they normally would've, and power was out by 6:30, and just came back on yesterday around 2:00ish. Nobody got to really truly appreciate the hard work/decorations/blacklighting/etc. But everyone had a blast nevertheless. We only had 10 people (not including us), out of about 20-24 that we had hoped for. It's understandable with the weather, but disappointing anyway. We also had our canopy outside get crushed by that heavy wet snow, despite going out during the party to clear it off. That was where smokers went to be shielded from the snow while they smoked. We had just over a foot of snow - yea, in October! Who would've thought??!!!! Better luck next year!


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)




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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)

BTW, best male costume was Beetlejuice, female was Olivia Newton John and hosts award went to the "Walking Dead" couple...


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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)




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## johnshenry (Sep 24, 2006)




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## jakiedoodle (Sep 17, 2011)

love that first one of Richard Simmons and Beetlejuice!!!


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## MissMandy (Apr 18, 2011)

Wow you guys got a lot of snow. We hardly got anything here. Just a dusting and everything was melted the next day. Looks like it was a great party!


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## marigolddesigns (Sep 5, 2010)

Looks like your party rocked regardless of the snow! What I found this year with the same snow issue is even though we had less guests, the ones who were able to get here had a blast! We lost power at 10PM with 60 ppl in our house/garage. Within 20 minutes, generator running, we had music going, the heater in the garage running and 1 light...besides lots of candle power. We danced till after 1:30AM...It was so much fun! Plus there was a parking ban...no one on the street past 10pm, we had neighbors letting guests park on their lawns! Loved it!


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## yummum29 (Oct 22, 2008)

looks like you had fun, and what a story you will always have!! Great costumes!


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