Host a Vintage Apothecary Inspired Halloween Dinner Party!
I love thinking up new and different themes for parties and entertaining throughout the year. And one of my summer bucket list goals was to host more dinner parties! Well the summer was busy and it came and went and that didn’t actually happen, so I’m just pushing it onto the fall bucket list!
I had so much fun last autumn throwing a Fall Harvest Celebration with some girl friends. But this year I knew I wanted to take a more magical turn… was it all the fantasy books I’ve been reading lately? Maybe! But I decided to host a Halloween dinner party and if you know anything about me, you will know I cannot do anything half way. So I picked a theme and I went ALL OUT. So think witches, think oddities, mix in a little dark academia…and I bring you today, my vintage apothecary inspired Halloween dinner party! I’m sharing a whole bunch of details below and be sure to follow me on instagram or TikTok @entertainidea for more video content of the party.
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HOST A VINTAGE APOTHECARY INSPIRED HALLOWEEN DINNER PARTY WITH ME!
DECORATIONS
Decorations are my favorite part of bringing a party theme to life! And I definitely went all out on my witchy apothecary ambience. Here is a list of some of the details that I included:
For place settings, I covered my dining tables with black tablecloths and I rented a bunch of beautiful moody tabletop rentals from Premiere Party Rents — I used antique silver flatware, a french grey ceramic plate, cream bowls for soup, basic black napkins, and these beautiful smoke crystal cut water goblets.
For the main centerpiece of the table, I used an old clear wine bottle and I filled it with moss. Then I dripped melted candle wax around the bottle neck and stuck a white taper candle in the top.
I covered the center of the table with a bunch of loose moss and spanish moss, along with a bunch of other areas of the apartment, to give a spooky gothic Halloween vibe.
Since our living room wall was the main focal point in the space where we hosted the party, I knew I wanted to update the gallery wall to match the theme. Find out all the details on how I created this epic Halloween gallery wall on my latest post My Updated Halloween Gallery Wall 2023.
There were also a few DIY projects that I’m going to be sharing tutorials in an upcoming post (coming soon!), like the faux insect taxidermy plaques, the wrapped kraft paper boards with vintage Halloween ephemera, and the autumnal dried floral arrangements and glass bottle candle holders.
My favorite decor elements were the apothecary shelves I decorated. I placed two of these HYLLIS shelf units from IKEA (which have actually come in handy for multiple parties) on the console table behind my sofa. And I filled the shelves with a ton of witch, dark academia, and apothecary inspired decor.
I stacked a bunch of books on the shelves to create some height. For the books, I simply looked through my bookshelves at home for books that had good dark/moody spines under their paper covers to look like old vintage books. You could also totally thrift books like this if you don’t already have some at home!
The Dollar Tree had some really cute items that I purchased as additional decor — like these ceramic eye decor pieces, amber plastic potion bottles, black pillar candle pedestals, creepy cloth, and these plastic cloche dome containers that I filled with extra bugs and butterflies.
I tried to only buy a few new decor elements — like I knew we needed one of these black crows for the theme. I mostly tried to use as much decor that I could find around my house that I felt like matched the gothic vintage apothecary theme. So things like old candle jars, miscellaneous bottles (I filled some with bath salt to give the look of potions), coffee table books, succulents, pillar candles, etc.
I actually had two dinner tables setup in different areas of my living room (trying to make the most of my little apartment space!) and I spray painted some Dollar Tree skulls white to add an extra spooky touch to the centerpieces. I also loved the moody vibe of the candles all lit once it started to get dark out!
This table also happened to be setup next to a big bookshelf we have in our living room (filled with movies & records) so it kind of gave off a dark academia feeling of a moody library.
FOOD & DRINKS
Obviously the most important parts of a dinner party are the food and drinks. So let’s get into some of the items we served!
As guests arrived, we had a few appetizers set out on our living room coffee table. We had an extensive charcuterie board that included a few types of cheese, crackers, and prosciutto. I think Trader Joes is the best place to go if you are looking to build a cheese board. I thrifted a beautiful silver tray, perfect for our party theme. And to add a little decoration and garnish, I used things like blackberries, pomegranate seeds, and figs for a gothic Halloween feel.
We also made a delicious fall fruit salad (that I would absolutely recommend!) and had a few glass candy jars filled with different Trader Joe’s sweets and cookies.
For drinks, I rented a big silver punch bowl and ladle to match the witchy theme. And we filled it with this yummy but simple 3 ingredient fall party punch recipe. We also left a bottle of whiskey out if anyone wanted to spike their punch!
For dinner (I unfortunately didn’t get any photos of this) my husband Daniel made a big pot of chicken and dumplings with a fresh baguette on the side. It was a huge hit! It was the perfect cozy meal for our first fall evening of the year.
And after dinner, my friend Josh kept the autumnal vibes going with a delectable apple tart and homemade dulce de leche ice cream. Just perfect! *chef’s kiss
PARTY FAVORS
I think one of my greatest giving love languages is gifts because I have always loved to pick out gifts for friends and family. So when it comes to entertaining, I can’t help myself but have a small favor for my guests to take home with them to commemorate the event. Favors can also be a fun way to add some more personality and theme to your party.
But I’m not a big fan of receiving useless junk, no matter how sweet the thought is. So I try to be cognizant of the quality of my party favors and I love to give a consumable gift or something that the recipient can actually use up (and won’t just clutter their home).
For my apothecary themed party, a potion bottle just seemed like the perfect fit. So I bought a collection of mini glass potion-shaped bottles in assorted shapes at the craft store and I created these little olive oil favors disguised in “poison” bottles. I’m sharing all the details and the free printable poison labels on my upcoming post Apothecary Potion Bottle Favors, so stay tuned for that!
If you are hosting an even bigger dinner party, it would be fun to use these olive oil favors as the namecards at each guest’s place. Just tie on a little paper name tag with twine to show guests where to sit!
CRAFTS
Another thing that I think is cute for guests to take home after a party is something they actually created! Having some kind of craft or activity is also a great way to pass time while chatting or with a Halloween movie on in the background. So for our party, I bought these cute little resin skulls from Michaels that everyone could paint and decorate to their heart’s desire.
I set out a bunch of different acrylic paint colors, a few cans of assorted paint brushes, and some mini paint palettes and I think everyone had a fun time decorating the skulls. And they got to go home with a cute piece of Halloween decor to decorate their own space!
The little skulls also made a cute piece of decor for the party. I dumped them into a thrifted glass jar with some spanish moss mixed throughout to give it a spooky apothecary vibe. Paired with an old vintage marmalade jar full of paint brushes, it really set the tone for this magical oddity workshop feel.
And that’s a wrap on all the details of the dinner party! We had so much fun and all the decor turned out even better than I imagined. I think we can totally reuse a lot of the decor pieces for future Halloweens to come as well.
It was also really fun to collaborate with a bunch of my friends on this party. And I would highly recommend doing the same if you want to host your own dinner party this season! Find out what aspect of the party each friend would like to contribute and make it a group effort.
Thank you to my friend Cindy who worked tirelessly on making all my crazy DIY ideas come to life. We had such a fun day of Harry Potter movie marathon-ing while crafting a bunch of the party decor. Thank you to my friend Josh for offering his impeccable baking skills and providing the dessert. Thank you to my friend Michael for making his homemade bread to accompany our dinner. Thank you to my friend Lisee for designing me the most EPIC potion bottle labels and for helping to setup on the day of. And thank you to my husband Daniel for being the chef for the day and actually feeding everyone at this “dinner party”, because, let’s face it, that was the last thing on my mind. You all are the best! :P
We definitely lucked out on having the perfect 60 degree, overcast weekend for the Halloween dinner party. But Los Angeles is now back in the 90s, so I guess I’m back to manifesting a cozy fall ambience in my air conditioning.
If you host a Halloween or Autumn dinner party this year, I would love to know all the details you included. Comment below or share photos with me on instagram! Happy Halloween!
xo Rachael
