Vampire dinner party!

As you probably already know - heaven knows I've mentioned it enough! - Monday 19th was my 20th birthday. ^^ I spent the whole weekend doing wonderful things, perhaps most importantly my 'official' birthday party on Saturday 17th. I invited my nearest and dearest over for a vampire-themed dinner party and movie night (the movie being Vampires Suck) - here are the pics!

Firstly, here's what I wore. I spent so long obsessing about the decor and the menu for the party that I totally forgot that I would need some sort of clothing, so I threw together the following outfit at nearly the last possible moment.

Top: this is actually a size-24 batwing shirt that previously belonged to my friend Liz.
Corset: Primark, £7
Skirt: charity shop, £3
Socks: Poundland
Necklace: Claire's, £4
Hair extensions: Claire's, £10
Bracelet: gift
Shoes: Emandsprout on Etsy.com, £15

I had been intending to order all the party decor from assorted Halloween sotres online, but of course my computer has been - somewhat irritatingly - out of commission for the past month or so. Cue Mum and I scurrying around all the local homeware stores to grab cutlery, placemats, glasses, plates, bowls etc that would fit in with the red and black colour scheme.

Luckily I still had some stuff left over in the attic from my 17th birthday party, including the balloons, streamers, napkins and banner. The bat garlands around the curtains were a present from my friend Claire.

The centrepiece gets its own picture as it was my first attempt at flower arranging! Everything in the vase (including the vase itself) is from The Range. The black roses especially are gorgeous, they're made of velveteen. <3

Oh, and don't worry... that's just syrup of rose in that jug there...

My best girl Jo came over a little early to help me in the kitchen. I took my menu from The Vampyre Cookbook by Leah Barrows (available from Amazon, review coming soon), and added a few details such as the salad you can see here (strawberries, watercress and cucumber strips) and bloody cross cookies, which I made with a ready-mix cookie kit, added red food colouring and nutmeg (I love nutmeg) and cut with a cross-shaped cookie cutter.

I also made these vampire blood bank mugs with the wine bottle stickers that I designed, which you can buy from my dad on eBay. (OK, I didn't DESIGN them, but I had the IDEA. There's a whole box of them in his dining room so if you want them and they're not listed, just send him a message.)

Here's me with the birthday cake! I didn't have time to decorate my own cake this year.

Bronwyn advises on the cutting of the cake.

 Assorted dinner party weirdness:

That's Rowenna on the end...

Lucy and me. Not sure why I look so alarmed.

Jo looks ladylike...

After everyone else had gone home, Dan gave me a card with a riddle. The riddle led to a present, which had another riddle, and so on... I don't know when he managed to slip off and hide them around the house but it was the sweetest birthday surprise ever. <33333

What was IN that cake?!
Enjoying some after-dinner TruBlood

Kally joins the party...

Here we are watching the movie...

My adorable friends got me some lovely gifts: