Who: Cho Phillips
Where: Her House in Rocklin, CA
How many guests: 200+
What time of year: October 2010
Reason: CarnEvil 2010: A Halloween-Inspired Birthday Event

Fire dancers, search lights, contortionists, body paint artists…this was not just another day in Rocklin, California.

In celebration of Halloween and turning 40, Cho Phillips of The Wedding Planning Institute decided to throw a bash like no other.

Guests are still talking about this CarnEvil Party and would be hard pressed to stop any time soon. Check it out!

Cho says:

I decided to throw this event because my birthday falls in October and Halloween was coming up so it just made sense. The cake was really the only thing I wanted and the party circulated around that.

The party was called CarnEvil so I started planning out how I would transform my house to fit the theme. The first thing I did was buy a lot of fabric. I draped all of my furniture in red velvet and when I couldn’t find black and red striped curtains, I set about making them myself.

I also saturated the food and bar areas with red lighting to make the ceiling look as if they were on fire. Tents created a carnival feel and I had framed circus posters set up throughout the house.

The counters were draped in red and black fabrics with rope tassels hanging from the bottom of the counters.

I used two very tall clear vases to hold the floral arrangements with red Gerbera flowers because they had red and black colors. Hanging crystals were also used in the window treatments and floral arrangements to catch and deflect light.

Halloween decorations were also incorporated in the decor and floral arrangements adorned the food displays.

Also, while you don’t normally think of balloons for Halloween, they were everywhere. They are just so fun and a great decoration tool.

In terms of food, we tried to have carnival type food, which of course isn’t the best for you but is so good.

We had a raw bar with everything from hearty lentil chili to Thai curry soup as well.

I can’t leave out the great sweets including a chocolate fountain with strawberries, smores, cupcakes, dipping snacks, and red celvet cake.

The chocolate cake that was my initial inspiration was in fact vegan, believe it or not!

I wanted to make the party interactive so we hired a number of performers and artists to entertain guests.

We had Fire Dancers from ZenArtsLA.com, a contortionist named Viktoria Grimmy, and model/dancer/s, Kiki Hall.

We had a few stages set up where the dancers performed at various times throughout the night and where guests could dance as well. In addition, we had Mike Anderson DJ the event.

Although people came in costume, we had a body paint artist and air brush artist available to enhance their look and incorporate them into theme. Everyone looked fantastic and it made the festivities all the more exciting.

When guests arrived we had circus music playing along with haunted house music. We also included a photo booth so guests took a lot of fun candid photos at the party and took them home. When guests left they also received a CD of the music from the party.

Through working with Preston, I have learned a lot of things but one of them is the importance of design and just how much of an impact little things can make on an event.

With this party, I tried to incorporate every corner of the house from the walls to the tables and I think its fluidity made a huge difference. Using Preston’s advice from his design course I used the formulas and worksheets to walk through each area of my home and implemented a design for each area specific to the use of the room.

For example, the dance floor area which was in my dining room was our “Fun House” room filled with a candy bar, fun house mirrors, balloons, posters of circus scenes and stages for dancing.

I have found that when planning, you did it right when no one wants to leave at the end of the night. My CarnEvil Party was one that people have talked about and posted about for days after. People truly had fun and I am so glad I could be a part of something so memorable.