www.murderatthejuicejoint.com

Want to get ideas on how to enhance your
Murder at The Juice Joint Party?

www.murderatthejuicejoint.com

 We have set up a WHOLE site devoted to just this complete with costume, decoration, food and drink pages... EVERYTHING you need to give you ideas on how to throw the most swinging, ROARING time imaginable.

You will find:

Tips on Fashion in the 20s and what accessories you simply cannot go without!

Creating props for your own police line-up background

Food suggestions and designed menu templates

Previewing Juice Joint graphics that come with the party!

 Tips and templates to assist you in making your own props like:

Liquor "Crates"

Wanted posters for the mobsters coming!

How to create your own "back alley" entrance...

...as well as "old" liquor bottles for a fully stocked bar

If you are even considering throwing the Murder at The Juice Joint, this is the site you will want to visit. And for your hosts and hostesses, you will find it to be an invaluable resource!

Check out: www.murderatthejuicejoint.com
and start planning for a ROARING night of fun!

Party Planning - Creating Backdrops!

One way to make a memorable night is to have a backdrop where your guests can create their own memories! Whether it is serious, elegant or just plain old fun, creating a backdrop for your guests to pose by will help enhance photo opportunities and provide you with many more ways to remember the night!

A few suggestions:

• Pick a place where there will be good lighting.
• You can make it as elaborate or simple as you want.
• Accessories and decorations can make the difference. Have some extra props on hand that your guests can pose with.
• An easy way to create a background is to use a "scene setter". These affordable rolls of images  transform your room instantly and make for a good backdrop to your picture.
• Make sure there is enough room to fit everyone in to the frame.
• For individual shots of guests, designate someone to be in charge of pictures as your guests arrive. 
• Consider your character list and which character would fit the role of taking the picture. Ie, if you want mug shots, perhaps ask the police chief to be in charge of taking the pictures.
• For a group picture, take one just before the introduction is read or right after the solution is read (before people may start heading out). 
• These are two times when you can count on everyone being around and attentive.

Here are some pictures from customers who have created great backdrops and, thus, lifetime memories!

Try taking "mug shots" for your mystery theme. It is a great way to capture everyone in their costume.

Simple props can add a lot!

Glamming it up on the runway.

A "scene setter" was used here.

Sometimes you just have to pick a good spot with good lighting!

This highly crafted backdrop is one we still can't get over!

Party of the Month October 2011

Every month, we highlight one mystery on our Party of the Month link on our murder mystery message board. This is October's winner!

"One chilly night in October, we were all gathered together for a pre Halloween celebration. We wanted something different, something exciting, and thrilling and boy did we find it.
The Juice Joint was established in my parent’s basement, but this speakeasy proved to be anything but baloney.

With a secret knock at the hidden door underneath the illuminated “Juice Joint” sign, each guest arrived donning their perfectly characteristic fashions.

We began the night with mug shots and of course we made sure that our bouncer frisked everyone at the door.

 

Next came the carefully crafted menu divided into act.

We nibbled on everything from Great Gatsby’s Greek salad, Cotton Club Crab stuffed mushrooms to Bees Knees Banana Pudding . As the hostess of the mostess, I, Rosie Marie, began introducing the plot. As my guests at the Juice Joint began partaking in the booze in the bathtub and hooch, the enthusiasm pursued. One after the other mystery envelope opened and we all began unraveling the caper with the clues and exhibits. We shared laughs, suspicions, and some unforeseen acting chops. The night was climaxed with a bang, as the shot rang out created by a blank in a gun. The victim lay there as each guest began putting together the clues. The mystery was revealed and the party continued with group photos, more libations, a lesson in the Charleston, and of course speak of undying interest in doing this again as soon as possible. "

 Click here for more pictures from this Murder At The Juice Joint Party

To enter comments and pictures for your party, please register on our message board and post your comments under the party theme that you hosted. You will automatically be entered to win!

Circus Party Decoration Comment Winner!

 With the release of Murder Under the Big Top, we asked our readers to comment on what decorations they would add to our Murder Under The Big Top Decoration Ideas. 

Here's the one that won!

I have done 4 Night of Mystery parties and I think I'm most excited about the possibilities with Murder Under the Big Top. I think everyone has the idea on circus food. So, I am thinking of decor.

 **For a great, cheap decorating idea: use lots of glow sticks. Most effective is to place them inside of balloons. It definitely provides a colorful circus atmosphere laid out all over the floor. 
 **Also, my guests always love going home with photographs, so incorporating that into a 'kissing booth' is a fun idea.

 ** Two words: dunk tank.
**And finally, for the 'true' circus experience...you have to have a creepy carny walking around. (Thinking I'll invite my dad to come dress up.)

 Thank you, Tanner Fam. We will be emailing you your mystery and look forward to hearing the comments and seeing the pictures from it!

HELP! I've got too many people coming to my party!

I know, I know, you didn’t actually EXPECT that everyone you invited would ACTUALLY  be able to attend your party... but they all can! Who knew your sister and brother-in-law would rearrange their vacation plans and your co-worker would skip their bunco night just so they could attend your mystery party? Or as word of your party has gotten out and more and more people want to join in… and you just don’t want to say no.

It’s a phenomenon and undeniable at the same time. But, then again, you aren’t just throwing the same old party, you can’t expect the same old response.

HOW TO AVOID THIS PREDICAMENT: Get an accurate guest count before ordering.

To help you do this, we offer free invitations on the site that you can either send out via the post or email to your hopeful guests. Simply download the invitations, enter in your details (time, place, date, rsvp info) and send them to your guests. This will allow you to get an accurate head count before even ordering the party, causing little to no confusion about which size party version to order.

In the event you DID NOT do this ahead of time and found yourself with a smaller version of party (too few characters, too many guests) here are a few options for you.

 

FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE PURCHASED THE 15-20 GUEST VERSION.

Option #1—Purchase the upgrade materials.

If you have purchased the 15-20 guest version of the mystery, than you CAN purchase the upgrade materials off of the site without any problem. This upgrade includes a number of general character descriptions for additional guests. These additional general characters will keep their birth name (or names you give them) and they will have information about the murder, secrets to keep and objectives to complete. These characters will act as sleuths and help bring to the surface some of the hidden motives of the suspects in question. You may have duplicates of as many of these general characters are you need in order to fill your guest list. With larger parties, we find that it is important to have these extra roles to (a) make sure everyone is "involved" with the murder and (b) to help bring to light all of the possible motives for the murder. These versions are also a great way to accommodate guests who are last-minute add-ons or guests who are unsure if they are going to be able to make the party at all. Additionally, you will NOT have to redistribute your original materials sent to your first 20 guests.

Option #2— same as #3 (see below).

FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE PURCHASED THE 8-12 or 10-15 GUEST VERSION AND HAVE MORE PEOPLE COMING.

Option #3— Make the extra guests “investigators”. 

With the party materials offered in the smaller versions, you can still involve the additional guests without giving them roles. One successful way to do this is to send the additional guests the invite and newletter/newspiece that introduces the characters. This way, the guests are still informed and ‘in the know’ of everything that is happening. When these guests arrive at the party, provide them with money (maybe even more than the character guests) and instruct them to use it wisely to gain secrets and information on the characters at large. Additionally, inform the investigators they are still competing for “best actor/actress”, “best costume”, “most money” and “super sleuth” awards. This allows the guests to be involved with the mystery without having their own roles. (This idea came to light after a customer had a great time successfully executing it and recounted it for us here.)

Option #4– Purchase the size you intend to use.

This is our least favorite option. While we would love to honor the ability to upgrade or downgrade for a game, unfortunately, we cannot. Since our games are custom written for the size of the party (ie, we don't just create a mystery with 8 characters and then keep adding more characters to it), each mystery size is unique unto itself and must be charged that way. That being said, going from 10-15 version to 15-20 version, will not only add in more characters, but it will change the storylines of the existing characters, and vice-versa in going from a larger version to a smaller one. (This is why we strongly suggest you get a guest count before formally ordering.) Unfortunately, if you find yourself in this predicament, and you don’t want to add people as investigators (as described directly above) you will have to purchase another version of the mystery for the size you want unless you are moving from the 15-20 version to the 20+ version. Keep in mind that if you have already distributed the character information from the previous party you purchased and you switch to another party size, you will need to redistribute the character information, as it will have changed for everyone, not just the new people now included in the party.

 We understand no one likes to leave anyone out - or be left out - which is why we put this together to help you plan your party to be the best it can be. Here's to mischievous and murderous times with friends - no matter how many are there!!!

 

Circus Food Comment Contest Winner!

Thank you to "Castronomer" who posted these food ideas on our Circus Food Blog!

Lemonade with basil, fried pickles and ranch, carmel apples with toppings - just a few of the ideas!

I am very excited for the circus theme!

Food ideas:

Have a gourmet mustard bar along with the bratwursts and polish sausages.

Fried foods such as elephant ears, french fries, homemade potato chips, fried zucchini, and my personal favorite, fried dill pickle spears served with ranch.

Caramel apples with toppings like nuts, crushed oreos, dipping chocolate, sprinkles and mini m&ms.

Food on sticks like corn on the cob, corn dogs, beef skewers. On the sweet side would be lollipops, ice cream treats and the currently popular cake pops in bright colors.

Popcorn can be sprinkled with hot sauce, brewer's yeast, lemon pepper, garlic salt, grated cheese or taco seasoning.

Fisher scones with raspberry jam.

If it's someones birthday, you can make a tiered cake-like structure out of cake donuts frosted in pink frosting with lots of colorful sprinkles.

A table full of candy in jars for guests to take home. You can also hand out boxes of Barnum's animal crackers that have a cute circus picture on the front.

Drink ideas:
Lemonade garnished with fresh raspberries and/or mint leaves.

Other drinks can be served out of vintage bottles with labels that say, "elixers" and "tonics." This would be cool if the drinks were dyed vibrant colors like blue or green. Use Blue Curacao liquor.

Guests can drink out of canning jars with red and white candy-striped straws.

Serve bottled drinks like pop out of an old galvanized tub or bucket or an old bath tub filled with ice.

Serve food out of rectangular paper boats, or paper bags, or paper cones.

Decorations ideas:
Decorate with strings of lights and colorful lanterns. Use bright colors, stripes, and polka dots for table clothes and decorating. Put pin wheels in flower vases. Hang flag banners. You might even hang up a clothes line and hang some vintage garments like bloomers and pants with suspenders and colorful socks. Balloon animals. Sign on the bathroom that says "Elephant Bath." Any vintage furniture like trunks and chairs would be neat. You can use an old dresser with its drawers pulled out to fill up with peanuts or other snack items. You can have a cardboard head cut out with a lion and a lion tamer for people to take pictures. You can have a gypsy walking around to read peoples' palms and tell their fortunes. Have fake, curly mustaches, clown noses, and wind-up toys strewn about for people to play with or take home. Put up posters of old circus advertisements. For music, play old french accordion music.

Castronomer, we need you to "follow" the blog, so that we can contact you for your free party! Thanks for the great ideas and excitement!!! We look forward to hearing and seeing how your party goes!

For more ideas on food for Murder Under the Big Top!

Time still left to win a Murder Under The Big Top party here!

Downloadable Murder Mystery Party Invitations!

Looking to get a head count before you purchase your party?

No worries! We have created invitations for you to email or send to your friends.

With each invite, you can fill out your party information (date, time, place and r.s.v.p. information) and then send it to your friends.  Not only will this stir up the excitement, but it will allow you to get an accurate head count before purchasing.

{Click Below To}

DOWNLOAD NIGHT OF MYSTERY PARTY INVITATIONS

*** It's not to late to leave comments to win a FREE Murder Under The Big Top Mystery!!!