Tuesday Top 5: Halloween-Themed Décor for Ghoulishly Glam Celebrations

For this week’s Tuesday Top 5 — where we pause to marvel and share a specific element, image, or detail from events we love — we’re focused on ghoulishly good Halloween-themed décor.

We’re all familiar with the typical Halloween party adornments — jack-o-lanterns, ice hands floating in the punch bowl, and spiderwebs galore. Those tired tropes have no place in these celebrations that avoid the expected and instead offer beautifully-wicked spaces filled with gloriously-sinister elements. Here are our favorite Halloween-ready details: creepily creative place cards, an icy graveyard bar, a Day of the Dead-inspired tablescape, devilishly delectable treats, and an eery event entrance. Read on — if you dare.

1. Masked Mitzvah Party Place Card Display 

BCR Events beautifully walked the line between the macabre and the marvelous at this spooky Halloween-themed Bat Mitzvah celebration. Décor from Platinum Events made for a spirited evening, with eerie red uplighting, gauzy draping, scratchy winter-bare branches dripping with moss, and smoking cauldrons in Chicago’s suburban Ravinia Festival space. Tell Draper Photography captured spiderweb linens on tables filled with collections of creepy cool ornamentation like silver skulls and blood-red roses. Xpress Video Productions captured all of the fun on the themed dance floor, which was kept full by the interactive dancers, emcee, and DJ from Flow Entertainment. Our favorite element, though, has to be the creative place card wall: a display of gold, silver, and black masks tagged with guest names and table numbers with a sea of mood-setting fog filling the floor.

2. Chillingly Chic Gala Champagne Bar 

This Halloween-themed fundraising gala for Two x Two for AIDS and Art steered clear of the traditional black, orange, and red décor that typifies the holiday’s events. Instead, the design, décor, and floral team at Todd Events curated a stylish ivory event that wasn’t afraid of ghostly details. Bleached branches dripping moss and perched with midnight-black crows coordinated with “flying” crows strung from the ceiling and others perched in towering bare trees in Dallas’ Rachofsky House. Alabaster couches and chairs lit by candlelight formed lounge areas perfect for gathering and sipping themed cocktails aptly named “goblin juice” and “eye of newt potion.” The elegantly scary scene continued with our favorite moment — a champagne bar featuring a cemetery constructed entirely from ice with cold hands reaching from the grave and several gravestones, one emblazoned “R.I.P. C. Moet,” referring to the “death” of the sparkling wine being served.

3. Ghoulishly Gold Dinner Tablescape 

We are wowed by Gilded Group Décor’s luxe take on Halloween at this exclusive dinner, hosted for Miami event planners at the Penthouse at Riverside Wharf. Gold accents elevated the event: gleaming dining chairs coordinated with gold-dipped tableware and gilt French vintage-style balloon chairs, which drew attention to elegant lounge areas. Though it’s hard to choose, our favorite element has to be the table settings. Graphic black-and-white striped linens formed a base for a Mexican Day of the Dead-style tableau. Alan Phillip Photography beautifully captured the pink, yellow, and orange flowers sprouting stark black candelabras. Guests were seated in front of colorful, floral chargers, which Gilded Group Décor outfitted with deep purple skulls lit from within and ringed by fresh blooms. The effect was chic, colorful, and creepy — all at once.

4. Boo-tifully Wicked Wedding

It’s not easy to design a Halloween wedding that incorporates the scariest holiday, yet is still luxe — but that’s exactly what the floral and décor pros at Life in Bloom accomplished at this celebration. They employed white pumpkins as floral vases and curated blooms in a beautiful light peach and cream palette. Custom carved pumpkins greeted guests at the entrance, while a giant gourd glowing with the couple’s initials — as one might romantically engrave into a tree — centered the place card table at the reception planned by La Belle Fleur Events. We love how the graceful theming continued right onto the dessert table; Blue Plate Catering conjured ghostly tarts, white chocolate eyeballs, chocolate-dipped bat cookies and more. Photographer Aneta Wisniewska captured the muted pumpkin hues and the brightly-colored fall leaves, as well as the happy bride and groom huddled beneath an umbrella to brave a rainy autumn Chicago day.

5. Scary “GOOD” Gala Spine-Chilling Spider

This Halloween bash, which was planned and produced by Geffen Events, was a great event that also did a lot of good — specifically for the GOOD+ Foundation which endeavors to give families the tools they need to rise out of poverty. The stage was immediately set for a ghoulishly-good time thanks to a statement-making entrance into Santa Monica’s Culver Studios. We love how a giant black spider – crafted entirely from balloons by the pros at Balloon Celebrations – loomed over guests, staring with its beady red eyes and daring them to enter. Julie May Photography captured the yummy-looking Dunkin’ Donuts wall (which encouraged guests to decorate their own treats) and the In & Out food truck serving up California’s favorite burgers. We love the variety of activities offered at the family event: drawing and painting art stations, herb planting, a Ferris Wheel from LA Party Works, a petting zoo, custom-painted Levi’s jean jackets, and more.

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