Welcome to part four of our Halloween Party Planning Challenge! We’ve had a little bit of a delay as I was down with the flu – ugh. It hit our whole house, one after the other. Get those flu shots early, friends!
If you’re just joining, here are the first parts of our series:
- Party Planning Challenge – part one
- Party Planning Challenge – part two
- Party Planning Challenge – part three
We’re following the steps outlined in my 4-Week Party Planner, but I’m consolidating the steps in our series. Grab your own copy of the party planner to use for planning any party.
Today, we’re talking about your Halloween party place settings.
Halloween Party Place Settings
A pretty place setting is always one of my favorite parts of party to design. I’ve done Halloween with traditional colors, Halloween with purple and black and Halloween with white and black. Regardless of your color schedule, the place setting is all about layering your colors. Any order of colors works — you can’t make a mistake.
I usually layer with tablecloth, maybe a placemat, charger, dinner plate, maybe a dessert plate, and mapper a topper. This post goes into more detail about building a place setting. Here are a few tips:
- Paper placemats can add a layer to your table. I often use 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper or scalloped paper placemats by Creative Converting.
- Melamine plates are an inexpensive investment. You don’t have to worry about breakage, but you still get more stability than with paper plates. Choose white and you’ll get years of use out of them, even if you change your other design elements from year to year. Hint: I’ve even found these at the dollar store and stocked up: check there first.
- One of my favorite ways to add some design to a table is by choosing a dessert plate from Create Ur Plate. You just choose a plate cling that matches your party theme, apply it either to their clear or plastic plates, and remove the cling after your party.
- Have fun with forks. If you’re only serving cake, you don’t need a real fork, but definitely chose a heavy duty plastic fork or a bamboo fork. Or, Cost Plus World Market sells open stock flatware, if you prefer the real thing.
- Skip plastic or paper cups. My beef with disposable cups is how easy they are to tip over. Otherwise, paper cups are dirt cheap and look cute with a printable party circle applied to one side. Instead, I usually pick water bottles and wrap them with duck tape or printable bottle wraps. Or, since I don’t usually let me girls have soda, we splurge on Izze for the party. The colors of the soda are fun to coordinate with your party.
- Use real (not plastic) tablecloths. They just look better, plain and simple. They don’t turn see-through when you unfold them. They don’t have creases that you can’t iron out. You can re-use fabric tablecloths and they wash up easily. No, you don’t just ball the up and toss them away at the end of the party, but washing them is so easy, why not elevate the look of your table with a fabric tablecloth? Find tablecloths and napkins inexpensively at Tablecloth Factory or Linen Tablecloth.
- Cloth napkins let you add fun patterns to your table setting. I love Etsy for hand-sewn napkins.
- But, if you want the attention on a cute napkin ring, then choose a solid cloth napkin.
- For fun, add a little something on top of your place setting. This is fun if you haven’t chosen a Create Ur Plate. If you did, let that cute pattern show through. But if your plate is solid, add a place card or little trinket on top. The “extra” doesn’t have to be a big DIY thing, but it can add impact.
Here’s what I’m thinking about for my Halloween table. I may use newspaper as a placemat since our theme is pumpkin carving.
1 – White table cloth – Linen Tablecloth
3 – Polka dot napkins – Me2 Designs
4 – Orange fork – Party City
5 – Black charger – Hobby Lobby
7 – Mini pumpkin pails – Century Novelty
Want more Halloween tablescape inspiration? Here are some of my favorites.
Pink Peppermint Prints and Parties
This party was assembled from thrift store finds – amazing. The Junalow
For even more ideas, check out my Halloween Party Ideas Pinterest board and my Free Printables – Halloween.
There’s more to come in our series! We’ve still got to talk party activities, day of the party schedule. In the meantime, be sure to grab your 4-week party planning guide.
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