My Murder Mystery Party!!!! + How To Throw Your Own!

Saturday, August 8, 2015


That's right- I had a murder mystery party!

And oh my goodness, it was so much fun! It was a night filled with bribery, blackmail, and murder- but also good friends, crazy costumes, and a ton of laughter! I would throw another murder mystery party in a heartbeat, and I definitely recommend it for any of you!! It worked really well for my group of friends, because we're all theatre kids and we love dressing up, getting in character, things like that. Even if you're not into theatre though, it's honestly just a fun thing to do in general. Go! Go, throw a murder mystery party! Well, read this post first. Maybe comment. But then go and throw that party!!!

Basically, the idea originated from my older cousin, who mentioned something about a murder mystery party that his friend had thrown. My mom and I were immediately hooked on the idea, and started looking online to figure out how to throw the party. We ended up purchasing the Happily Never After package on nightofmystery.com. (This isn't a sponsored post, fyi- I just loved the party!) On the website, you can choose what kind of party you want, with different categories such as "Teen", "Clean", etc. You also get to choose the party size. We chose the all-girls Happily Never After party in Teen, Clean, for 8-12 people. One thing that I would recommend is trying to have as many people at your party as is possible for your package. Originally, we thought that only eight people would be able to attend, but it works so much better with all twelve people. 

Once you purchase the package, it's immediately downloaded to your computer, and you have all of the information you need! The package gives you a list of characters to assign, information on each of the characters, and tells you exactly how to do everything. 

The first things that you want to do is to cast your party. This can get a little tricky if you want to participate in the mystery, because you don't want to know who the murderer is! Basically what we did is my mom had all of the information regarding the victim/murderer, and all of the character details. She then gave me a character list with a couple sentences of description about each character, and I cast from that. I had no idea what I was doing, I just cast it based on personality, appearance, etc. That was fun, but pretty stressful- I was kind of terrified that I was going to cast myself as the murderer/victim. I decided to play Goldilocks, and as for whether I did anything- you'll have to pick up a package yourself to decide! I don't want to spoil it for anyone who decides to throw their own party.

The next day, we went thrift store shopping to find costumes. I really wanted to find a yellow and white gingham dress, but that was impossible. I ended up finding this blue and white gingham at a Goodwill, and I'm so happy that I found it. It's so cute, and I felt like it really fit the character.


Isn't it great?

Next up was planning the food and decorations. I have several friends who are gluten free, so we tried to plan food that everyone would be able to enjoy. We decided on a taco salad bar, which was delicious- Mexican food is my weakness! (Along with Italian. And chocolate. And ice cream. And basically anything involving sugar or salt or fat. I'm so glad that dance keeps me skinny) Then for desserts, we did marshmallows dipped in chocolate and had some assorted candies. 


They're beautifullllllllllllllllll!

Up nest on our to-do list was decorating. Of course, I immediately headed to Pinterest! Pinterest is seriously the best whenever you need to plan something! The only issue is actually staying on task, and not drifting off and getting distracted by that perfect hairstyle or adorable cat. Not that I did that or anything.  Since the party was fairy-tale themed, I decided to make the decorations really pretty and magical-looking. Lots of sparkles and silver and pink. I'm such a girly girl- I loved it! I also threw in lots of little Disney and fairy-tale themed things for fun. I'm such a Disney nerd......Anyways, here's some of the decorations!!


This was our table setting- I LOVE THIS CENTERPIECE SO MUCH. OH MY GOSH. 


I was just running around with my camera taking tons of pictures of the centerpiece because I love it so much. Of course, I got the idea for it on Pinterest. But it just looks so pretty. I was like, crawling underneath a rose bush in the backyard trying to get these rose petals. It had better look good after that. 


This was how we decorated the mantlepiece. Simple, but pretty. Oh my gosh, the sign. That. Sign. I spent ages trying to get that thing right. I am not an artist, that's for sure...

My sister made this sign- she's the artist in the family. I love the tiny apples in the corners!! Also, don't you love the little Rapunzel and Flynn in the corner? That was the touch of my other sister. 

Frog kissing station!!!! I think that several of my friends really wished that it would work.....

This was the sign I made for the front door! A bit of foreshadowing of what is to come..

We also had a magic mirror, and a Wanted poster wall, but I really don't have good pictures of those. 

Once everyone arrived, we took a bunch of pictures and then began! Everyone was handed an envelope containing a name tag, a list of objectives to complete, and some fake money. The victim also learned at that time that they would be the one to die. Once everyone had read their objective list, it was time to mingle and swap information! The plotting and bribing began as alliances were quickly made, as well as enemies. The fake money was used to bribe and blackmail, as everyone tried to learn as much information as possible. It was hilarious to threaten each other in character, to have the opportunity to "insult" each other. I may have possibly gotten into a slap-fight with one of my friends, which was pretty funny. 

After the initial objectives were completed, it was time for dinner! We did the taco salad bar, and everyone kind of forgot to stay in character as we all began to talk and laugh. Almost everyone at the party already knew each other, so it was easy to get a bit crazy!

Once everyone was through eating, the lights went out. When they were turned back on, one of our friends was lying on the floor- the murder had occurred! It was time for the second set of objectives. 

We each received another envelope with more objectives, and this time the murderer learned her own identity. It was time for more plotting, alliance-building, and information-gaining. Everyone was doing as much as possible to try to solve the murder. A friend and I teamed up and blackmailed my little sister for $4,000- that was really fun!!!! There's nothing like blackmailing your younger siblings;)

When all of the objectives had then been completed, evidence was laid out on the table to give us some more clues as to the murderer's identity. The evidence was scrutinized, people took each other aside and talked a bit more, and then it was time for the moment of truth. 

Each girl was given a piece of paper on which to write the identity of the murderer, as well as to vote for who they thought was the best dressed and who they thought was the best actress. Then, the solution was read out loud. We learned the identity of the murderer, as well as why they did it. It was really funny!!! Especially once we learned who it was, that kind of made it even funnier. 

It was a fabulous night, and I can't wait to have another murder mystery party!!!! I'm already trying to figure out a good excuse to have another one! Halloween, perhaps? ;)

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Would you be interested in having a murder mystery party?

2 comments:

  1. Wheeew this looks like SO much fun! Definitely would want to try doing it sometime (;

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