Host a Twilight Theme Party at Home

This past Friday I invited my local Twilight-loving friends over to watch the new DVD that just came out… and I’ve gotta say it was a fun excuse for a party! Although my husband wasn’t really surprised that I was decorating for this get-together, he still asked, “Why all the fuss to watch a DVD?“.

The answer is simple of course: for fun! The way I see it is this: I can sit on my couch in my regular living room and watch a movie any ol’ Friday night, so when the movie lends itself to a fantasy-type theme that’s the perfect excuse for breaking out the twinkle lights and red martini’s, why the heck not? Life is too short not to mix things up when you can… and there’s no reason why we should save all the fun for just birthdays and holidays!

The main elements of this particular Twilight party were:

• mood lighting created with white twinkle lights & candles
• red (blood-themed) cocktails, favors, & drinks
• apples & Italian food
• framed quotes from the book & movie (pictured at top & below), which I dressed up a bit in photoshop, then printed out & framed. (The framed quote above is a line from the movie that Edward says when he catches an apple in a manner that mimics the book cover.)

Want to use these movie quote designs for your party? Download all of them right here: 8×10 quotes (3.1 M pdf) / 5×7 quotes (6.3 M pdf). *If you have trouble opening the files once downloaded, please see the “Download Tips” note at the bottom of this post.

I designed these downloadable blood-themed drink labels a couple weeks ago and mocked them up digitally in an earlier post, but they look way better in person when wrapped around bottles of red sodas,  juices, and cocktail mixers! (Remove the original labels from the bottles first. Soaking them in hot water for 10-15 minutes first will make this task easier.)

Download these drink labels here (high res pdf format).
Label designs include: i’m thirsty, drink up, type A negative, type B positive, and type O negative

More easy party decor ideas: Fill glass vases with apples, pillar candles, floating candles, and dark red acrylic sea glass. Decorate the vases with satin ribbon, black tulle, sparkly stickers, and movie quotes.

Rhinestone appliques would be appropriate decor for the vases too… anything sparkly is actually a great reference to the “diamond” effect that sunlight creates on the vampires.

Since the changing color of Edward’s eyes are a big part of the story, I thought that would be a good thing to call out with a quote as well. (For those of you that haven’t read the story, black eyes = thirsty/hungry.)

If you’re planning to serve dinner at the party, Italian is a great choice for a couple key reasons:
• Bella orders Mushroom Ravioli in the Port Angeles restaurant with Edward. (as seen in the picture in the background above, which is from the book Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion – only $9.68 at Amazon.com)
• In the movie, the Cullens attempt to make Italian food for Bella when she visits their home for the first time. I framed Esme’s line: “We’re making Italiano for you.” to display on the buffet table by the food.

On the drinks table, framed signs read: “thirsty?” and “drink up.” (Both signs are included in the ” 5×7 quotes” pdf.)

Also served, but not pictured here: red wine & red Pomegranate-Cran Martinis served in martini glasses rimmed with a “hard candy blood drip“.

Last but not least are the party favors…red candy in cellophane bags make for fun, super-easy “blood bag” party favors.  These bags are filled with Red Vines (which Bella is also seen eating in the movie) and aptly named Twizzler “Bites“. Both the candy and the cellophane bags are from Target, but there’s also a huge variety of red candies available online.

Another fun favor idea: sparkly red lip gloss! These red-shimmer NYC Liquid Lip Shine glosses were only $1.72 each at Target! Display them with a little sign that reads “Vampire Kisses“.

*Check out more pictures of the party details over at the Twilight Screening Party facebook album.

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MORE Twilight party ideas:

In my dreamworld – if I had the time/resources/excuse to do even more with this theme – here are some ideas that would top the list (in no particular order):

• Use a fog machine and hang umbrellas to give the effect of Forks – rainy and misty.

• Include a chocolate fountain in the dessert buffet – featuring white chocolate that’s been dyed red to look like blood, of course!

• Serve Red Velvet Cupcakes that look like they’ve been splattered with blood… just like these fabulous creations from Retro Bakery in Las Vegas:

• Create napkin rings from glow in the dark plastic fangs… and have more sets of fangs available for photo opps!

• Drizzle bowls of popcorn with butter that’s been colored red.

• Set up a creative, themed black & red candy buffet…mixed in with “bloody” candy accents and clever details from the movie.

• Have the Twilight Movie Soundtrack playing as background music before the movie.

• Play some sort of movie trivia or themed game – and give a golden onion as the prize. (This is the same thing that Bella & Edward “won” in Biology; to create: literally spray paint a store-bought onion gold!)

• Make “blood drip candles” by drizzling melted was from a red candle on top of a white taper candle, then displaying them in cool candelabras – like this fabulous & elegant Red Acrylic Candelabra from Social Couture.

• If this was the theme for a big-budget event, I’d love to recreate the look of the meadow by bringing in lots of foliage and covering some of the tabletops with dewy grass & purple flowers. How fun would THAT be?! And then, of course – there’s that fantastic twinkle light canopy from the prom scene at the end of the movie…sigh…like I said: dream!

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Hope you found some good inspiration here for a Twilight party of your own!

Have more party ideas to add? Please share them in the comments section!

Looking for New Moon Party Ideas? Check out our Free New Moon Printables too!

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IMPORTANT NOTE: You are free to download and print these movie quote & drink label designs for your personal use only. They may be printed from your PC or at any commercial print shop such as FedEx Office/Kinkos.

Please do not attempt to resell or redistribute these designs. If you’d like blog about these templates, please make sure to link to the full post at HWTM and not directly to the downloadable files. Thank you!

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Download Tips: When files are downloaded to a PC, you might need to “extract” them before they’ll open properly, especially if it looks like the files size looks very small, which means it is probably still compressed. Select the file that won’t open and look for a button at the top of your downloads folder that says “Extract”, then click it.  For some reason this only happens to some and not others – not sure why!