Murder Mystery Party

I don't know what got into me, but I decided I wanted to throw a Halloween Party! As I was compiling the guest list and getting a little overwhelmed with the number of people to invite, I had an idea... why not throw a Murder Mystery Dinner Party?! It would give me a good reason to narrow down the guest list and even better, it would assign me a character! No need to think up a couples costume this year! Plus, it would provide the entertainment for the evening. I wouldn't have to think up games or activities and try to coerce anyone into playing. ANDDDD, I've always wanted to participate in one of these. Score. Score. Score.  

 

And it was great for all those reasons. But, I didn't really take into account how much work I would need to put into this. Like, a lotta work. It was a little stressful designating all the roles. I wanted everyone to have fun, but I didn't know exactly what each role entailed. So I stewed and contemplated and finally made decisions. Then I made an invitation, got them printed and mailed them out with the roles included. (I had asked ahead of time to make sure I knew who could attend fo sure.) OK, so after you buy the game (about $35), you have to print everything! 100+ pages! And cut all the clues up and put them in envelopes. And assemble the name tags and victim paraphernalia and games, etc. And if you want to do the pre-game activities, you end up delivering those instructions to all the guests homes the week before (Oops, I did it the day before. But glad I did... it was funny texting everyone and acting out our parts ahead of time!) And then since I was doing a dinner, I had all the dinner stuff to get ready. Plus the decorating and cleaning and grocery shopping and normal parental responsibilities, etc. Oh, and making the caramel apples as take home gifts. (That, in and of itself was a NIGHTMARE!! Apparently I stink at making homemade caramel. I literally had to crack the stuff off the apples and do it all over again. Ugh on a stick!!)  If it weren't for Megan and Brinn the day of the party, taking my kids, I would have been a basket case! Yay for amazing friends!!

 

The party was at 8pm on a Friday night. Travis put all the kids to bed and grilled the steaks the hour before everyone came over. Sooo helpful.

 

 I had asked the guests to bring either an appetizer or dessert. I also had all the stuff out for Italian sodas... in blood dipped goblets. ;)

Slowly, our guests started making their appearances. And it was a HOOT. I mean a serious crack up to watch everyone come in, not only dressed to perfection, but acting like their characters too.

Here we have the town's police officer, Officer Nelson, and Margo- the gothic chick in the neighborhood. (Most of the characters weren't married in the story.)



Here is Addison Shade, and interior designer and the narcissistic, one upper, Mr. Dawson, a pharmacist. (Technically, Mr. Dawson was supposed to be my husband, but I didn't realize that until I about mailed out the roles and Travis was already excited about his character.)  

 

Travis was Quentin Maddox, the creepy convenience store clerk that whistles and gives everyone uncomfortable stares. Can we just say he nailed it??

I was Isabella Dawson, a gossipy housewife that no one likes and the party host. 

Michael was JR Sage, a snooty and rich businessman. I don't think he had to act much. Kidding!! ;) And Brinn was HYSTERICAL as Kendall Kennedy, the germ a phob, animal loving and cranky librarian.

Clayton was the muscly, Gaven Phoenix and Eva was the ill tempered chef, Dakota Drumly.

Lash killed it as a pipe smoking restaurateur, Basil Cross, (his bald head took over an hour to put on!) and Tania was a very fancy world traveler, Pepper Crenshaw. 

Wes was a retired chocolatier, Robby Charles, and Mikelle was a news reporter. Her mom brought her that blazer that very weekend! They looked great.

The game is divided into 3 rounds. The first round/hour is drinks and appetizers and everyone gets their first set of clues and information. It basically tells you certain things that you should blab to everyone and other details to keep to yourself to help you solve the mystery. I had a hard time keeping a straight face gloating to everyone that I was in the best shape of my life and LOVED doing Yoga and Pilates. And also confiding that my husband just lost his job and is on all sorts of crazy pills! Ha! Everyone else had various stories and played it up really good. No one could say anything without Bron one upping them in the most ridiculous ways possible. Megan had printed business cards ahead of time (like 100!) and kept giving them out to everyone constantly. It was all so funny.

 

(Also, I'd like to draw your attention to Officer Nelson's "stick" hanging off his belt loop. That would be a Vitamix attachment. Hysterical.)

The second round/hour is dinner. We had steaks, baked potatoes, rolls and salad. Everyone gets their second set of clues and this is when the murder happens. The person who becomes the victim is told in their second set of clues. That happened to be Megan. (She was a really good sport about it. Especially since she was required to talk like a ghost the rest of the night!) So she went to the bathroom where I had set out the victim sign and white face paint and yellow crime scene tape and got herself all ready to be murdered. The person who was designated to find her, was told so in his set of clues. So that all happened and the rest of the hour was spent in "heated" debate, trying to figure out who killed her. Everyone had a paper to write down details and their hypothesis and then when enough time had past I made everyone take a turn to make their accusation. Only one person sort of got it right! (I had seen who it was on accident when I was assembling the clues. I was so bugged because I wanted to play along, but it ended being OK, since I felt too busy and stressed in the moment, making sure everything went the way it was supposed to.)

The third round/hour is supposed to be dessert and when everyone gets their last set of clues. We all went in the order it told us, reading our cards out loud, which exonerated us as the killer. Until the last person read, who was the murderer! It happened to be Eva, the chef! What I didn't realize, was their was a twist at the end, and Wes's character confronts the murderer and had us all laughing our heads off! Who knew we had such animated actors for friends?! I loved it and was so glad everyone went all out with the game!

We were stuffed into oblivion, but still managed to squeeze in some of the yummy desserts and talk for a bit before everyone had to head home. Being on the planning end of it, there was plenty of things I wished I had done differently, but I was reassured that it went well and everyone had a good time. It would be fun to make it tradition but I don't know if I have it in me!! I will definitely need a year to recover before thinking about making Murder and Mayhem on Boggio Drive an annual event. I'll need at least that long to get Quentin Maddox's teeth licking leer to leave my nightmares!! ;)