Hey there! I’m excited to share this Midnight Magic Halloween Dinner Party—and girls’ night in—with you!

Read on for full details and 11 helpful tips on how to recreate this look.

1. So Easy to Blend, It’s *Scary*

For this party, I mixed pops of turquoise blue into a glam black, white, & gold palette.

While turquoise isn’t a “standard” Halloween color, incorporating it made the theme blend in easily with my regular home decor. Of course, you can easily swap the turquoise out for whatever accent color works best for you!

2. Define Your Theme (Create Guidelines)

This is a step I take with every event I design or host. All the creative possibilities can get super overwhelming fast.

Creating general guidelines to follow and mapping out key ideas you DEFINITELY want to include makes the planning process much more manageable. Here’s what I came up with for THIS party.

My Guidelines:

Vibe: Classy, Spooky, Glam, Modern
Colors: Black, White, Gold, Turquoise
Main Elements: Midnight Magic Printables, Skeletons, Glass Bottles, Bats, Metallic Accents (sequins, glitter, gold paint)

Key Ideas to Include:

• Personalized coffin-shaped menus at each place setting
• Mix of glass bottles & skulls/skeletons as centerpieces
• Combo of traditional & monochromatic skeletons (painted bright white, gold)
• Colony of bats suspended from the ceiling
• Elegant signs & paper details – lots of black with high-contrast graphics
• 

3. Use Printables to Add Creative Detail

I designed a pretty extensive paper collection to match the vibe of the inspiration piece! My Midnight Magic theme features moody backgrounds, simple “sketch style” graphics, and accents of metallic gold.

The coffin-shaped menus are probably my favorite detail, and almost every piece in this theme can be customized! I really wanted this collection to be super versatile so it could also work for Halloween-themed birthdays, engagement parties, etc.

4. Spiked Shipwreck Punch (Signature Drink)

I couldn’t resist buying a few mermaid skeletons for our growing collection of skeleton decor (mammals, humans, reptiles, etc).

Somehow, I forgot to take full pictures of the mermaids, but they are basically just what you’d envision! I also spray-painted the mermaid tails turquoise and gold to make them stand out.

This inspired me to choose a “haunted shipwreck angle” for our signature drink. (Get the Spiked Shipwreck Punch RECIPE Here.)

Above is another one of the customizable signs. It says “Spooky & Spirited SIPS,” but you can change it to say anything! It could make a fun activity station sign or a way to display the birthday girl’s name, etc.

5. Front Door Magic

Speaking of names… I thought this would be a fun and unexpected way for guests to be greeted!

I always love a good door sign—it shows people they’re in the right place and sets the tone for fun times inside. But this is the first time I’ve actually put guest names on it!

The names can also be removed from this sign so it’s more “general”, but it was easy to personalize it for a small get-together like this one.

Here’s that Crematorium sign I mentioned above… isn’t it pretty?! (Never thought I’d say that about this kind of sign! LOL)

6. Display Spooky & Surprising Decor

This “haunted photo frame” is from Michaels and is one of a set of 4 I found there. It reminds me of the Disney Haunted Mansion, where all the pictures change as you move. These were a big hit with everyone!

Some of the skeletons were also arranged in creative ways. For example, the main skeleton was “petting” a dog skeleton with a spray-painted (human skeleton) bone in its mouth.

7. Hang Bats from the Ceiling

Overhead decor makes such a big impact, so I always hang lightweight elements from the ceiling when it’s fitting. And what could be more fitting for Halloween than a colony of bats?!

I found these sparkly bats on Amazon. I have to admit that the tediousness of knotting and tying 3 strands of fishing wire onto every single bat was frustrating to an impatient person like me.

At least the ROI of time was worth it in the end! They look awesome, and we’ve had them hanging over our dining table AND our kitchen island for a full month now. ✨

8. Set an (affordable) Spooky-Glam Table

There were 10 people at this dinner party, including myself. This was too many to fit comfortably at our regular dining table, so I added a small 48″ round and covered it with black sequin linen.

The black dinner plates are from Target. They’re sturdy plastic but reusable and only .79 cents each!

Marbled napkins, gold plastic utensils, and printable paper details (coffin menus, personalized place cards) completed the elegant yet inexpensive look.

9. Customize It! (Place Cards & Menus)

These tent cards can be used as food labels or place cards, as shown here.

The text on these is editable/movable on my website – so I moved the small line of text to the top and changed it to some playful wording to go with the theme. ;)

Same with the coffin-shaped menus… which are available in a white or black background. I recommend going with the color that best contrasts your plates (or whatever the menus are sitting on).

10. No Tricks, Just TREATS

This is Halloween, so we can’t forget the sweets! We had Death by Chocolate Cake with black icing and a few easy store-bought treats with creative names.

Both the sign (above) and the triangle labels (below) are customizable. And treat names are such a fun place to get creative!

For example: Donut Holes = “Shrunken Heads” and Kettle Corn sprinkled with black sesame seeds instantly becomes “Bewitched”.

11. Take-Home Treats

Last but not least, consider a sweet send-off! Well… sweet and slightly disturbing in this case. That single eyeball in the middle of the hand and the bug just adds the perfect amount of creep, right?

These customizable gift tags can be used for so many fun things, though… party favors, a Halloween hostess gift, BOO Baskets, and more. Both lines of text are customizable, so you can also say “Happy Halloween” or something else instead of “Cheers”.

HAPPY CELEBRATING!
Added: Check out my Modern Witch Party or visit the Halloween Archives for more creative Halloween inspiration.