by 2coolbaby » October 21st, 2018, 1:59 am
The Grand Opening - What a Night!!
The message was:
I have wanted to hold a Murder Mystery party for a long time and after looking into a few different companies, Dinner and a Murder seemed the best choice. The Four Deuces Grand Opening was the game I choose and I was not disappointed!
I started planning two and a half months out as I have small children and didn't want to feel stressed, plus I wanted to make sure everyone could come. I sent out the initial RSVP about 2 months before the event which I'm so pleased I did. Even so, there were some people who couldn't make it. Once I had the final guest list, I found it quite fun assigning characters.I sent these out about 4 weeks before the party so everyone had heaps of time to prepare and I'm so glad I did as everyone really did their bit!
I set up a Facebook event so guests could see who was coming (although they didn't know who was who), and I used this a little bit like the email system. I sent out posts to start getting everyone excited.
The first post was regarding the award for best dressed and I offered suggestions for costume style and makeup.
The second post was regarding the award for wealthiest player and how it's recommended to use money to bride, blackmail and gamble!
The last post was regarding the award for best performance as well as super villain - how we all needed to leave our normal lives at the door!
On the night, I had a sign on the door - 'Welcome to the Opening of the Four Deuces Speakeasy, leave your inhibitions at the door and come in'. In the entranceway, there was a table setup with a folder for each person, with their booklet, name tag, a pen and their money inside. Alongside this, there was a silver tray set up with jelly shots with a sign above which read 'Liquid Courage - help yourself'. I had made a sign with 'A Little Party Never Killed Nobody' which hung by the official entrance, which was a gold foil curtain hanging over the door to the dining room. In this room, I had bar leaners which instantly gave the look of a bar, along with a table where we had food and desserts, with a homemade black and gold feature as a backdrop. The connecting kitchen was used as the bar, with martini, tall and champagne glasses on silver trays, and bottles and bottles of spirits lined up ready to pour. I put blue cellophane on the lights over the 'bar' which gave it a nightclub feel. In another connecting room, I put cut white foil curtain over the top of the fabric curtain to give a really effective backdrop for mugshots. I made a mugshot sign by glueing a an A4 printout onto a piece of cardboard - it worked a treat! I also used this room for the evidence, which I put on a couch on top of a white tablecloth. In the last connecting room, I had a poker table set up with a fantastic poker set and printouts of simple rules, which really set the scene. All rooms linked together which worked great, as no-one missed out on any action. Lastly, a room off the entrance was made into the brothel, with red cellophane on the lights to make it dark and sexy. There was a champagne glass on the bedside table with lipstick on the side and I had laid out sexy underwear on the bed along with an unused condom and a couple of other naughty things - everyone had a laugh when they entered and I noticed some people stayed well away!! On the door I put up a sign with 'Opening at' and a clock with the hands pointing to 11pm. For decorations, I choose a black and gold theme, and had helium balloons in bunches of 4 around the room. I had a wall of famous 1920's stars and had signed them with a little message. I had a poster of Carrie (used a photo programme to add the actual person's photo with One Night Only etc), and a WANTED poster of Al Capone. I also had little jars with a candle inside, and painted the top glittery gold which sat on the bar leaners and bar, along with pearls, gold feather-looking decorations and round white flower features. My cake was two layers, perfect looking with pearls and lace, with a knife stabbed in the top and fake blood flicked over it. We had finger food - homemade pizza, bacon and egg pie, salad skewers, tornado potatoes - all with fun names like Dark Lies Pies, and Pistol Potatoes. I had paid someone to do finger style desserts which were amazing!
When guests arrived, Al Capone was on the door and asked guests for the password (I had posted the slang dictionary on the Facebook page, and hinted that the password was the slang for Gunfire). On entry, all guests were sent to the evidence room to get their mugshot picture taken. Some guests really got into character from the start!
Through the night, even guests who weren't comfortable seemed to really get into it and enjoy themselves. I was blown away by how EVERYONE was dressed up, and had studied their character and take on their personality. I was Carrie, and decided to play quite dumb, getting into hilarious conversations about things I didn't understand (e.g. asking the Congressman how business is with the other famous actors in his industry). I even did a performance, lip syncing a song! Big Jim was a bit nervous to start with but he was heard telling people off and getting into arguments everywhere. The Inspector really got into his role and had written pages of notes but the end of the night! I'm glad I took on the role of Carrie as there was some bitchiness thrown my way!
A few things I would have done differently are:
Asked Big Jim to try and get through his list of things quicker as this dragged the first part of the evening a little bit.
Either have someone else host, or chose to be a smaller role as I felt a tad stressed a couple of times (but keeping Carrie as someone who was ok with being hated!).
Not worried so much about the little things, like the written menu. We had finger food which worked well, but found that people didn't eat much as they were so focused on the game. We also had tons of alcohol let over as people didn't drink as much as I thought.
I'm so glad I decided on a Murder Mystery - it sure is a party everyone will remember and talk about for a long time!!
Dee
Mary Lee
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Dinner and a Murder Mystery Games
For murder, intrigue, extortion & back stabbing with no scripts to read!
https://www.dinnerandamurder.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~