If anyone is getting VIP status these days, it's vampires. Look around—they're everywhere: in the bookstore, on television, on the big screen. Suddenly everyone is willing to overlook their party fouls (biting, blood-sucking, etc.) and embrace the craze. Here's how to slay your own vampire party in style.
Set a Vampy Vibe
This "bloody good" Evite will set the tone for a vampy night, as will starting the party after dark. Create a creepy entrance by placing a fog machine near the front stoop. Inside, dim the lights, break out the candelabras and cover all the furniture with white sheets. Keep everyone on their toes by hanging a few garlic wreaths or braids around the house or placing some garlic bulbs in inconspicuous places (near the bathroom sink, along the windowsills, etc.).
Curate Creepy Details
Make your vampire guests feel at home with some ghoulish touches. Glue plastic spiders to toothpicks for appetizers or freeze them in ice cubes. You can also purchase fang ice cube trays. Cobwebs and decorative bats and ravens can be purchased at any party store to help set the scene. For added ambiance, play vintage vampire movies on mute and set Pandora to vampire movie soundtracks.
Feed Them Red
A vampire menu is simple to set. Just stick to red foods: tomatoes, cranberries, roasted red peppers, beets, etc., then add a dark twist. For example: Set out tomato soup in plastic takeout containers labeled "true blood;" serve beef tenderloin in a blood-red Merlot sauce; use red gel icing to decorate red velvet cupcakes with bight marks.
Put the Blood on Ice
Blood-red beverages are essential to any vampire party. Red wine can easily stand in for hemoglobin. Soak the wine bottles in warm water to remove their labels, then affix your own labels with the various blood types: A, B, AB, and O. You could also offer spooky sangria in a punch bowl smoking with dry ice. During cocktail hour serve our Smokey Bacon Bloody Mary in test tube vials for a killer pre-dinner shooter.
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