Your party doesn’t have to take place on Halloween night – the weekend before is fine. In fact, it may be better if you don’t have your party on Halloween, if you or any of your guests have children old enough to trick-or-treat; you may not have the turnout you’d hoped for. If you do decide that Halloween night is the only acceptable time to throw the bash, make sure it starts late enough that your guests can still celebrate with their kids earlier in the evening.
You’ll need to send out invitations several weeks in advance, especially if you want your guests to wear costumes. You can always buy pre-made invites that match your napkins and plates from any party supply store, but it’s fun – and eye-catching – to be creative and make your own. Design your own on your computer with ready-to-use Halloween graphics. Cut out letters and paste them onto blank cards, ransom-note style. Get some black construction paper, cut out the shapes of witches’ hats or black cats, and write the party information with a white gel pen. Or buy a can of granite-look spray paint and paint tombstone-shaped cutouts, then write the info on them once they’re dry. If you’re only planning on having a few guests, buy each a very small pumpkin and either write the information on them, or carve them into jack-o-lanterns and put the details inside written on a piece of paper (these, of course, will require hand-delivery). On the simpler side, you can just write everything on a piece of orange or black construction paper, tuck it into a regular envelope, and enclose a few pieces of Halloween confetti – available pretty much anywhere Halloween-themed items are sold.
If all of your guests have e-mail addresses, and are sure to check them regularly, you can skip the paper invitations altogether and go for the “e-invites.” There are several sites where you can get very inexpensive (or free!) online invitations and party announcements: Evites, Yahoo! Invites, and Sendomatic are among the most popular. This type of site almost always has helpful extra features, such as the option to include a map with directions to the party location, and mechanisms that track RSVPs for you. And their invitations are cute and catchy, with animations and music.
Whatever type of invite you choose to send, make it easier on yourself by requesting that guests RSVP by a specific date. That way you’ll have an accurate head count and won’t over- or underestimate your needed quantity of party supplies.