Day of the Dead Halloween Party Week

Hey party peeps! I LOVE styling for Halloween! I just love it. I challenge myself every year to come up with a non-traditional spin on Halloween themes. Remember last year’s “Twilight Fairy’s Hollow” theme? Totally original and was just published in the Autumn 2014 edition of Mingle Magazine. (pinch me!) Click here to see the full Twilight Fairy party. This year, I’ve decided to celebrate ALL OCTOBER with all things Halloween…nothing horror based as that is NOT my thing!

This week I styled this Monster High Skelita Calaveras Day of the Dead Party just in time for your upcoming TWEEN Halloween parties. Day of the Dead parties are so popular right now and the perfect theme for tweens! Not too kiddie and not too grown up….those of you with tweens know how hard coming up with a “cool” theme for them can be! My girls are into Monster High and their doll Skelita Calaveras was the perfect inspiration for this party’s design. My tween daughter Faith fell in love with the Skelita Calaveras Halloween costume and from there, it was settled. I’ll be breaking up this party into several posts including a few DIY tutorials to give you all the tools you need to throw this party yourself.

Check out more of my Day of the Dead party designs:
– Day of the Dead Candy Bar
– Day of the Dead Party Activity
– Day of the Dead Sugar Skulls DIY
– Day of the Dead Photo Booth

HOW DID SHE DO THAT?

Check out how I styled this and be sure to read the “Girlfriend Tips” for lots of my tips and tricks.

Day of the Dead Dining Table – The Design Plan
I just love the look of Day of the Dead parties, but since it’s based on a Mexican tradition, I wanted to remain true to the cultural design as possible. So before I created the design plan I called up my girl Alejandra (yes, that one…the guru behind The Marshmallow Studio) and asked her what traditional Day of the Dead party decor consisted of. Glad I asked! I was gonna go all gothic and dark, but instead went traditional with bright bold colors, lots of flowers and of course sugar skulls! Thanks Ale!

Designing a dining table for tweens is one of my favorites. I really just design it as I would an adult dining table and then add in a few whimsical elements like the Monster High doll showcased in the table’s centerpiece. Following my design plan, I used bright bold rosette table linen and layered a rosette runner on top and clipped a few flower clips in bold colors to the runner. To contrast with all the colors, I decided to use all black candleholders and charger plates as my next layer finished off with another layer of bright colors like the sparkly sugar skulls from Michaels and colorful paper plates from Oriental Trading. To jazz up the chairs, I placed a paper sugar skull cutout from Michaels on the front of each chair.

GIRLFRIEND TIP: When setting a table for tweens, I love to use wine glasses. They love it and feel so grown up sipping non-alcoholic fruity sangria from them.

Decorate the Wall Behind Your Table
Use the area or wall behind your dining table as an extra opportunity to decorate. We have a large horizontal wall mirror behind our dining room table and found these vinyl wall sticker sugar skulls in Target that I knew would be perfect to add some decor behind the table.

GIRLFRIEND TIP: To add a bit of visual interest to a flat vinyl wall graphic, place rhinestone stickers to the skulls like I did here to add a sparkly 3-D touch to them.

Repurpose Items
Oriental Trading has a great collection of colorful Day of the Dead products that I repurposed to add a bit of high-end glam to the table design. I cut down the chains on these OT Day of the Dead necklaces and used them as wine glass charms. I also rolled these OT Day of the Dead bandanas to use as napkins and a flower hair clip as napkin rings to finish off the look.

GIRLFRIEND TIP: Inspired by the flower headband that Skelita Calaveras wears, have the tweens remove the flower clips from the napkins when they sit down and place them in their hair as a take home party favor. Super simple way to display a party favor.

Create Custom Decorations
Custom create a few sugar skulls with your tween a few days before the party as a fun Mom & Daughter craft activity and place them in the table’s centerpiece. Click here to see How to Make Custom Sugar Skull Decorations along with a full supply list.

Save On Crafts had the perfect candelabra and candleholders for this table design. Since I don’t use candles in tween party designs, I filled the glass tops instead with bright blue glass gems, clipped bright colorful flower clips (inspired by the colors in the Skelita Calavera’s outfit) around the rim of the glass and topped it with a bright green flower ball to create these gorgeous one-of-a-kind centerpieces.

GIRLFRIEND TIP: When shopping for a party’s design I look for the style and scale of a piece instead of the color. I wanted a few tall pieces down the center of the table. These candleholders and candelabra from Save On Crafts had that gothic look and scale I was going for but were the wrong color. No problem! A few coats of high-gloss black spray paint and they were PERFECT and customized to my design plan!

Use a Themed Centerpiece
Instead of overdoing a character in a table design, I prefer to display the doll simply in the centerpiece like I did here. Place the Monster High Skelita Calaveras doll in front of this gorgeous candelabra then finish it off with two custom designed ceramic sugar skulls flanking each side. For an adult party, just remove the doll and add candles to the candelabra.

I hope you found some inspiration in this Dining Table design for your upcoming Day of the Dead party. Check back all week for more of my Day of the Dead party designs including a Day of the Dead Candy Bar, Photo Booth and Party Activities!

WANT MORE HALLOWEEN PARTY IDEAS?

Click the links below to see lots more of my Halloween Party Ideas
– DIY Day of the Dead Glasses and Tray Set
– How to Make Ghost Pops!
– Boo Bunch Kid Friendly Halloween Party
– DIY Frankenstein Pedestals
– DIY Pumpkin Pedestals 3 Ways!
– Vintage Spider Halloween Dinner Party Table
– Black Widow Spider Halloween Dinner Party Table
– Bling Spider Halloween Dinner Party Table
– “WitchCRAFT” Halloween Kids Party
– Kid-Friendly Boo Bunch Monster Halloween Party
– “Twilight Fairy’s Hollow” Halloween Kids Party
– “Trick-or-Treat Street” Halloween Kids Party Candy Table
– “Haunted Farmhouse” Adult Halloween Party Dessert Table
– “Spooky Lab” Science Halloween Kids Party
– Day of the Dead Halloween Party
– DIY Day of the Dead Halloween Wreath
– DIY Day of the Dead Headband
– Day of the Dead Halloween Party Candy Table
– Day of the Dead Halloween Party Photo Booth
– DIY Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Party Decorations
– DIY Sparkly Spider Wreath
– Vampire Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes Recipe
– PEANUTS® Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown Halloween Kids Party
– Ghost Pop Recipe
– “Bitten” Snow White Witch’s Lair
– Gold & Plaid Halloween Glam Dinner Party
– Monster High Party “Ghouls RULE” Party
– Monster High Halloween Party “Ghoul Glam”

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SHOP THIS LOOK

CLICK HERE to check out my Day of the Dead Pinterest board  for a virtual shopping list of most of the items I used in this party’s design along with prices and links to purchase them.
Follow Soiree Event Design’s board Day of the dead party on Pinterest.

WHERE DID SHE GET THAT?

– Styling & photography: Soiree Event Design
– Ceramic skulls, Day Of The Dead paper plates, necklaces and bandanas: Oriental Trading
– Sparkly sugar skulls & silver sugar skull cutouts (on chairs): Michaels
– Candelabra and candleholders: Save On Crafts
– Monster High Skelita Calaveras Costume: Party City

Cheers!
Tonya

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