Manor Murder Myster Party

Once the party date was set, I began brainstorming ideas for what does a 'manor' look like.  I landed on the idea of a comically long dining table.  I was going to span it across part of our backyard. My mom found some set windows leftover from a production of Romeo and Juliet, which were going to make up the other side of the 'room.'  We also grabbed piles of the free rugs from the MSU surplus porch to cover the carport floor.

I found some hanging candelabras, but it was close to the party date when I found some tabletop ones!

I found an ice mold at a thrift store, and had time to create two for the food table!  (I also had room in the freezer thanks to a planned defrosting.)

The week before the party my mom found 12+ matching cloth napkins!

Alice and Emily created a one-of-a-kind manor painting to fill my frame!

Sadly, the closer the party got, the stronger the chance of rain, and the colder the weather prediction.  So, a couple of days before the party, we made plans to move it into the carport. = (  My mom found some huge plastic sheeting that we tacked up to block most of the wind and rain.

I was thankful for the sheeting for sure, and with 11 of us in the carport, it wasn't freezing, but it wasn't warm either.

The ice sculptures looked good for the entire party!

The area in which we were originally going to set up the table had the most beautiful wildflowers growing, so my mom and the twins cut some for us to bring into the party!  I was so pleased with how it all came together!

I was super annoyed by the red candles, so honestly, the fact that they are wonky in this picture is totally apropos.  I was delighted by all the other decorations!

And the crowning jewel, the water fountain that my mom was instrumental in creating!  The little guy cost more than I usually like to spent, but was 100% necessary to this success!  The kiddie pool and water toy were at the same garage sale, and I was walking away when the person running the sale stacked them, and it was a total lightbulb moment!!

My mom spraypainted 90% of it, and it was perfect! Would it be good long term, absolutely not, but it was a delightful addition to the party!  We only ran it at the start of the party, since it seemed silly to add more water to a rainy day.

One of Billy's co-workers significant other cancelled last minute, so Alice was volunteered to join us, but luckily for her, her character was not the murderer and she was released from service after round two.

The weather was a downer, but we didn't let it spoil our fun, and really enjoyed the afternoon!  Adding the murder next, so jump to the next paragraph if you don't want spoilers.  It turns out that Kyle was the murder this time!  He was one of my top two, because Billy was just not suspicious this time at all, but I guessed wrong.  Someone did get it right though!

After the party all the chairs, rugs, and fountain pieces went to the curb.  It took a full week before everything was gone (a stressful week for me, because our trash is currently full each week with shed insulation!) but it did all go eventually.  I only had to burn the 'pieces' that were used for support.

Billy hijacked the people back to his type of party by planning an Office Space party, but I've already started planning my next two murder mysteries, so that no one feels left out.  This was the biggest party I've thrown, though my 40th birthday was a bigger pool, Billy was in charge of that one. = )

Looking forward to the next one already, even if it is going to be a while.

later days

edit 6-15-26: backdated for continuity.

Murder Mystery Party: Chicago Caper

Back in the summertime, when we had Billy's coworkers over for a backyard party, we set up a murder mystery party for January. It was set in a speakeasy, so I decided to blackout our dining room!  In order to do that, I needed lots of black fabric.  

I found bits and pieces, but not enough to cover all five surfaces. So, in November I turned to the internet, where I ordered 18 black tablecloths from the Shein website.  They are not known for their quality, but I didn't mind uneven edges or thin panels.  I waited an entire month for my delivery, and when a month had passed, I finally contacted them to see if it were still on the way.  They immediately refunded my money. = (  I was glad to have my money back, but was left with the same problem as before: I needed black fabric!

So, I turned to yet another site known for their poor quality: Temu.  They shipped my tablecloths almost immediately, and they arrived the weekend before the party.  However, when I opened the box, I found out that they had sent me 18 white tablecloths.  Seriously.  I mean, how does that even happen? Even a colorblind person would be able to tell the difference between black and white!!!  I double checked my order, and it said "black" on my invoice.  so.annoying.  

With the same issue looming, and the party less than a week away, Billy drove me first to Fedex to return the wrong order, then to Walmart, where we walked around looking for possible solutions.  We finally encountered some contractor's plastic, which would be plenty large enough to cover the walls.  We bought four rolls!

At home we started covering the dining room with the fabric first, then added the plastic everywhere else.  Sunday evenings Billy plays an online game with his dad, so we ran out of time to set up the "hallway" in the basement, but did finish the dining room, and I was able to add some signs on the doors.

I had agreed to work 3 days in the week leading up to the party, which made for a very busy week, and I didn't get to go grocery shopping until Friday!  I did see these cool noodles, that I did buy, but ended up serving basic penne as the noodle side, since we were going for 1920s, long before Aldi finds! 

And, once I finished the food shopping, Kristy met me out in Charlotte where I found a pair of suspenders for my costume! (But still no stools)

Once I got home, I was assembling my costume, cleaning, adding finishing touches, pushing through the laundry, cooking, creating the basement hallway, and prepping the dinner for Saturday, so when I turned in at 9pm, I was exhausted!

While I was showering Saturday morning, I had an idea to put some signs up outside, since we notified the guests that they were to enter through the basement storm door.  Billy had sent out a secret knock and password for the guests to give earlier in the week.  On the day of the party, he sat down in the basement 'hallway' 

The drink counter was the only thing that I didn't completely finish setting up before our first guests arrived!

But everything else was ready to go!

It was quite dark, with all the black, so we did end up having to turn on the lights, in order to read our booklets.

Grace and Billy did a nice job setting up the tables!  I realized the morning of, that I hadn't gotten a second round of plates for hors d'oeuvres, so we broke out the antique china plates.  I was a little worried about breaking it, but really, and truly, why do we even have it if it's just going to live in a cabinet? Grace and Emily were so gentle with them, and Grace washed them several times throughout the night!

The main course was the recipe from the booklet: Scaloppine di Vitello al a Bathtub Gin, though, chicken was an easy substitute for the Veal.  Our other special dish was served in giant champagne goblets: lime sherbert with ginger ale.  I'm sad that I didn't take pictures of any of this, but I do enjoy living in the moment during the party!

There weren't really good angles for Emily to take a group shot, so she did a panorama, and then a length of the room shot.

At the end of the party, we celebrated Billy's birthday with a Dairy Queen ice cream cake!

Since the party started at noon, our guests were gone by six, leaving us so much time to clean up!  It felt like it had been night for the duration of the party, with the sunlight all blacked out.

It was a really fun night; we were the only murder mystery party veterans, so this was the first time all of our guests had attended a murder mystery party, and they all looked fabulous!

******

Spoilers to follow:  Billy was not the murderer!  It was actually 'Silky' played by Mel!

******

One last note: I had failed to find Capers at Aldi or Walmart, and while I thought I had some, I didn't realize that they were in a jar that needed refrigeration, so I found mine, two days after the party. = (  The dinner didn't taste off without them, so I guess it was fine.

Everyone enjoyed it enough that we are already coordinating another party, during warmer weather: Murder at the Manor!  I'm happy to have yet another group willing to participate in the fun of murder mysteries!

later days

edit 1-19-26: backdated for continuity.

Murder Mystery Party: Golden Age of Hollywood

In May, I reached out to my murder mystery peeps, to set up a September party!  The party could accommodate up to 13 players!!!  Before I go any further, I want to put in a disclaimer that some of the pictures came from Tabitha, so they are not all mine, but many of them are!

When I checked in with the guest couples, I had a few whose fall sports schedules would not allow for them to come to this party, so I had Emily and my mom narrow the suspect list using the spoiler rectangle in the book.  I still wanted to be able to play, so I had them make a random list of the critical suspects, and then toss in an appropriate number of 'other' suspects.  

For some reason, my excitement for this party didn't really happen until after I sent out the invitations.  But once I did that, the anticipation started to build!  And I knew that I wanted to recreate the Hollywood sign.  I did attempt to be lazy and buy a backdrop of the Hollywood Hills from Amazon, but luckily for my party budget, they didn't have one.

Using giant boxes, scissors, a knife, tape, and stapler, I created the nine Hollywood letters!  They were almost four feet tall!

When I went down to the basement to see what we had in the way of paint, I found some white primer, and decided that that would be fine!  It coated well, and dried fast, but was it ever so sticky!  I ended up using almost an entire can of Goof off just to get my hands clean, but didn't have enough to properly clean the paintbrush.

So, that night, while William and I were waiting for his robotics meeting, we ran some errands, including a trip to ace.  Turns out they now have a water-based primer by that brand, which would have been awesome, but wasn't what we had on hand.  I bought more goof off, and some paint thinner for oil-based products.  Thankfully, after letting it soak, the liquid broke down the primer, and now my brush is ready for the next project!

It was windy and chilly on party day, but Alice came out and helped me set up, since Emily, Grace, and Billy, my usual helpers, were all elsewhere!

I ended up using the chairs that my mom (mostly my mom) and I had collected to prop up the letters, and thought it came out really cute!

The red carpet was short, but great for showing off those who wanted to walk it!

INGRID MARX: Natalie - Filmstar

OMAR MARLON: Steve - Lead Understudy

HUMPHREY GARNER: Michael - Director

VALENTINO SALVATORI: Billy - Chef

GENE FAIRBANKS: David - Producer

MERYL MAYER: Tabitha - Casting Director

RITA FORD: Tami - Newby Actress

HEDY GARLAND: Kristy - Make-up Artist

*******SPOILERS*******

I was convinced it was Billy from the time I read his character description, but he really wanted to guess one of the non-critical characters.  Turns out, they had a massive typo and one of the characters that was not even part of our party was the murderer!!!!  So, Billy got one of the solutions and definitely deserved the best detective award!  The second ending that the game provided (so that you could play it again, with the same clues, but a different solution?) it was Billy!  Billy is always the murderer! 

I didn't care much for this style of game.  They tried to use too many party game elements, and I definitely prefer the script and question style of game.

The best costume award was given to Michael, he nailed his character!

We finished early enough in the night, that we wanted to play a second round! Sadly, Natalie and Steve had morning plans, and couldn't stay for another game, but we awarded Steve best Accent!

The second game was set in a Chicago dive bar.  Billy ended up using AI to find us audio of the game cassette, because the tape was old and not playing loudly enough.

Phil Muggs - David, bartender at Dex's Place. 

Marlena -Tabitha, 'mystery lady.' 

Willy Krash - Michael, senior pilot for a large commercial airline.

Dolores Delgatto - Kristy, waitress at Dex's Place.

Marshall Hartz - Billy, own a karate school for kids a few blocks from Dex's Place.

Ginny Tonick - Tami, an attractive 'barfly' writer.

It was super fun to play another game, while being fed a script and questions to ask in our booklets!

********Spoilers*********

This time I didn't even suspect Billy!  I really thought it was going to be me, based on my first page 'keep it a secret' info, but Michael also looked pretty suspicious, being in the drug trade!  Luckily for me, I got to be the murderer again!!  Contrary to what you might think, we both slept well that night! = )

I wish the weather had cooperated at little bit better, but it was a fun party and any excuse to dress up is a good one!  As always, I feel so thankful for finding a group of people who will put time and energy into their characters, and make the night so fun!

later days

edit 9-21-25: backdated for continuity.

Murder Mystery Party: At the Vineyard

February is such a good month for an indoor murder mystery party!  I was able to find a time for the Sandbergs & Olmsteds to come over and party!

The setting was a Napa Valley Vineyard, with Italian ties!  So, for our main course, I made up baked Ziti (one of Billy's favorites.)  I ended up making a second casserole, because I definitely overbought!

I don't make this super often, because it is not my favorite, and because Billy likes the sticky noodles lain out in neat little rows, which is very time consuming.  I've tried the dump method, and he didn't care for it as much, so rows it is!

My mom scored 3 dozen or so wine glasses from the free bins at MSU. I only needed 12 for the party, so when it was time to decorate, I pulled out some 'vineyard' looking decor, and used the extra glasses as accent pieces!  Taking inspiration from the audio cookbook that I listened to a year or so ago, I went outside to see what I could pull from nature to add in.  The dry, decorative grass in our flowerbed was perfect!

I painted some cardboard to make signs, and finally got to display my wine bottle basket!!!  The flowers were an impulse buy.  They were dead looking and sad in the Kroger clearance bucket, but with a little love and water, they were beautiful for the party!

Grace helped me cut some blooms to add to our nametags.

Wine corks are few and far between these days, most of the wines we buy have the screw top, but we still had a small stash from years past that I was able to pull out to add to the effect.

Winking Owl no longer uses corks, so this will totally be vintage in 25 years! 

I made a glass storage box to keep these in my sister's basement for future parties.  I am super impressed that my mom was able to snag all of these for free!

I'm starting to think that Grace loves to party as much as I do!  She wanted to help with decorations, so she made some favors for our guests to take home!  She worked hard to make the notes look 'old.' = )

Next time I will split the cheese/crackers, olive, and grapes onto two boards, because it was tough to get the tasty treats at the other end of the table!

Aldi let me down on the Napa wines front, so I ended up with a generic "California" blend.

I borrowed William's Christmas gift to play the cassette.  Grace tried to help set it up, but this antiquated technology is difficult!

I boiled water and used our fancy flower mold to make ice cubes, but they still had white in the middle. = (  They were an improvement over our regular ice cubes though!

Our party crowd!  David was the new owner of the vineyard, Ralph Rottingrape, Kristy owned the vineyard next door, Hedy Shablee, Kim was the wife of Ralph, Tiny Bubbles, Mark was a German wine merchant, Otto von Schnapps, Billy was an old vineyard hand, Papa Vito, and I was the local successful movie star come home, Marilyn Merlot!

We had a great time, and since I didn't give this game to anyone I know, the murder was Billy!  I got it right, but I feel like I always think it's Billy.  I need to tally up how many times he's been the murder, because I'm pretty sure it's a handful at this point!

We finished in record time, and decided to play a second game!  Billy bought me the Hunt A Killer: A Wealth of Murder for Valentine's day.  It was labeled "hard" and they didn't lie!!!  We solved all the mini puzzles, but were worn out by the end, and ended up just guessing at the murderer with minimal evidence, getting it totally wrong.  Oh well.  It was still fun!

Looking at every piece of evidence, using technology!  This was the bottom of a pill bottle, but was not a clue, just part of the manufacturing process, I guess.

It was a really great night, and I'm always so thankful for the time and energy people put into their costumes, and solving all of these murders, that Billy loves to commit! ; )

later days 

edit 4-2-25: backdated for continuity