I have been throwing Claudia birthday parties for most of her life… minus 4 or 5 years in her 20’s that I didn’t host a soirée for her! She is someone who loves a party… and loves to be the life (*cough* centre) of the party, and I love to host, especially with a really fun theme, so this arrangement works well!! The difference between 6 year-old Claudia and 30-something-year-old Claudia is that now she gets to (has to lol!) help me with the execution of said party! It’s a good thing that party planning falls under “things we both love”. I also enjoy creating parties with her, it is so fun to make a plan and shop for party supplies together. I’ll humbly appoint myself CEO of the affair, directing the vision, usually hosting it at my haus, and I almost always do all the cooking. Claudia assists with the random things like blowing up balloons, setting up decor, placing menus, and is my IT/Canva gal, which has become a more elaborate element of our events as the years have gone on.
For Claudia’s 30th birthday she knew she wanted a murder mystery theme so that’s where we started, and we always start any party plan using our How to Host: the 3 Ws!
We started by buying a murder mystery party game: “Lights, Camera, Murder” that came with characters, a host guide, game materials (clues, evidence, everything needed to solve the case) and printable invites, decor elements and awards! There were two ways to read through the party scrip: if you’re playing, and if you’re NOT playing, which is great if you’re hosting and playing! It’s no fun if you already know the murderer at your own murder mystery party!! Claudia was obviously playing, and since I was hosting I read through the script, learned the back story and character blurbs and then gave Claudia a brief description of each character so she could help me “cast” all 10 guests coming to the party! With the murder theme being “old Hollywood/Oscar’s After Party”, we decided to lean into that fancy, luxe, tinseltown vibe. We pulled inspiration from the glamorous red-carpet/old Hollywood feel, incorporating it into our food menu, decor, and music elements!
Haus Tip: send out a soft invite about a month in advance!
Since 30 feels like a milestone bday, Claudia wanted to make sure as many of her friends could attend, so she sent a text to her guest list about a month before (in mid-August, her birthday being in September). Some of her friends work night shifts and weekends, so she gave a few different date options to everyone and only 2 of her friends couldn’t make it for the date we landed on! Food + Menu:
Nothing says fancy/glam like a 3-course, sit down, white glove dinner, so that is what we went with for the food! This 3-course menu included a cocktail & appetizer hour, a seated main course, murder & then of course, cake & dessert! I always like to incorporate my guest of honour’s favourite foods, so when I asked, Claudia said: caesar salad, shrimp, steak with bernaise sauce and mashed potatoes… perfect foods for a fancy dinner menu! A steak dinner with all the classic sides, especially in Alberta, really can’t be beat. With the “white glove” service element, Mark (my hubby!) “acted” as maître d’/waiter for the evening, asking all our guests how they would like their steak done, and while everyone was busy chatting and clue hunting during cocktail hour, Mark went out to the BBQ and worked his grilling magic- my late mother always said that he was the best barbecuer she knew!!
Cake:
The only element of the menu I didn’t make was Claudia’s bloody birthday cake! She had a very specific vision (how Virgo of her!) for what she wanted, and that was a fancy white and gold cake, splattered with red, because, well, the murder! She placed an order at Sugared & Spiced Bakeshop here in Edmonton, and boy did they bring her vision to life! A delicious cookies and cream flavour (C’s fave) with a white buttercream base, topped with moody black macarons, glam white and gold meringues and then that pop of red dripping down the sides!! However I added these star picks and these 30 number picks before I lit the candles! Sadly, Sugared & Spiced has closed their doors as of August 2025… what a shame, we had ordered cakes from them multiple times since they opened and frequently stopped in for the most delish chocolate chip cookies in the city and their delectable oversized meringues. They are so missed by us, and we wish the former owners Amy & Jeff well!
Decor:
Okay I won’t lie, we went all in on this theme and the decor elements. We like to do the most here at Hallo Haus Studio, so these were the elements we included:
1. Claudia has become obsessed with setting up a “pinterst party wall” in our front entrance as a place for people to take pics, so she said a balloon display was a must. She was the one who blew up all the balloons, tied them together and hung the up whole thing, so who was I to stop her?! For this set up we bought various-sized single balloons from Party City in our party colours, oversized gold and black glitter stars, and a sparkly gold sequin backdrop that was covering a “police line up wall” backdrop. The plan was to take the glitter backdrop down after the murder had happened so people could take “criminal” style photos with the props we had: hand cuffs, a letter board and (water) guns, but the night got away from us and the gold backdrop never came down! Ah well. No one even noticed the numbers peaking out, so the only people who knew this element “failed”, are me and C!
2. A red carpet covering a “body tape outline” on the floor! This is pretty self explanatory, this was a red carpet event after all! We bought this one at Party City. Claudia laid down and I went around her with masking tape to make our “body tape outline” that we covered (not amazingly as you can see but alas) with the red carpet. Our murdered starlet (Claudia’s SIL, who knew she was the one being murdered!) laid down on the carpet and I played a gunshot sound from YouTube over our house speakers when she was “murdered”! I informed her of my plan when she arrived since we both knew she was the murdered guest, and she dramatically died perfectly, right on queue, on her “mark”! We then removed the red carpet and it was a cheeky decor element for the rest of the party!
3. A white glitter HOLLYWOOD sign we hung on the mantel surrounded by more glitter stars, balloons and this “award” sign.
4. Mini “Oscar” statues we handed out during the awards at the end of the night, things like “drama queen”, “best dressed” etc, and our guests got to take them home! I also used some of the statues on various tables around the party space. We bought these faux statues in both the 6″ size and 10″ size for variety!
5. We printed out the movie posters that were included with the game and hung them around the party… they were an important/required element for the story line and added to the decor!
6. 2 of these Movie Reel table decorations that I styled on both the cocktail and dining tables.
7. A mix of black, gold and silver star confetti, again I sprinkled this on all our party tables!
8. Swag bags filled with a mini bottles of champagne for the girls, mickeys of bourbon for the guys, a bag of un-popped microwave popcorn, and a bag of their fave candy, Claudia asked everyone to tell her their favourite candy!
9. We rented the gold chairs from Special Event Rentals both to match our glam aesthetic, but also so we could get 10 people around my dining room table! With my usual chairs the max is 8!
Things I already had and used: gold candle sticks, candles, gold chargers, silver napkin rings, cutlery & drink wear, white cloth napkins, art easels we used to display the game movie posters, assorted glass jars for candy and I bought fresh flowers the day before!
Canva elements Claudia made to match our theme aesthetic were: dinner menus and food info cards, star name cards, swag bag star name stickers and table info card, VIP entrance sign, and “game name” stickers everyone wore to remember who was who!Music:
I went with mainly 60’s crooners and easy listening at a low, background volume so that people could talk as everyone was trying to figure out the murderer! I “played” that gunshot sound I found on YouTube over the house speakers when it was time for the murder! Then back to our easy listening playlist so the sleuthing could continue!
Overall this party was so much fun to host, Claudia’s friends are so wonderful, and the murderer was caught before the night’s end! Lights, Party, Murder- success!
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