A Party is a Party...but a Murder Mystery Party...

Okay, so this was one of the most fun parties I've had the privilege to take part in. Oh.My.Gosh. It was SO fun. We started with a Murder Mystery Party kit that you can get online (http://www.nightofmystery.com/). We chose the theme "Murder at the Juice Joint", which is set at a 1920s speakeasy. Before the party, each person got their character profile, as well as some information known only to them. We transformed our "downstairs" into the Juice Joint, and everyone arrived, dressed and ready to play their part. Throughout the night, we were given more information, as well as objectives - like accusing people of murder, infidelity, and bribery. The whole point was to figure out the relationships between all of the people, so that when, in the middle of the party, a certain person was murdered, we could deduce motives and use the clues to discover the culprit. Everyone stayed in character throughout the night (for the most part...), and we had an absolute blast. My detective skills weren't so great - I had no clue who the murderer was, and I didn't discover who was trying to poison whom and who was cheating on who with whom until after the party. My acting skills were even worse - although I was a 1920s flapper (presumably from New York), my accent sounded a bit more like Scarlet O'Hara from Gone With the Wind. Oh well.

Now, for the pictures. I've mentioned my friend Callie here before. She came with her professional camera, and took some AMAZING shots. She does weddings, engagement pictures, and even portraits, so if you ever need someone, check her out at http://www.achorandeden.com/. She's wonderful!

The ladies of Club 5111: Ann, Jen, Cori and Me. Otherwise known as Flirty Flapper, Mabel Biggs (wife of Mayor Biggs), Rosie Marie (owner of the Juice Joint), and Anna Marie (Rosie's daughter).

Birthday girl, Alli. aka Molly Moll, the most popular girl in town. During the course of the evening, she got engaged to...Notorious Nick Nemetz, the North Side Mob Boss (more commonly known as our friend Patrick) who...

got himself killed right after announcing his engagement to Molly. Of course, everyone had a motive, including Hal Hollywood and Dina Diva (Kent and Rachel)...

...Mugsy Malone (Sean), Nick's henchman and second in command...

...Cy Ramsey (Mike), a member of Nick's North Side gang...

...Flora Nemetz-Gadora (Shawn), Nick's ex-wife, who, shall we say, got around...

...and yes, even Anna Marie.

Mayor Biggs (Bobby) had secrets of his own...

...cheating on his wife, Mabel...

...with one Flirty Flapper.Don't forget Nick's sister, Natalie Nemetz (Kate)......who conveniently waited until AFTER Nick's death to announce that she was in a relationship with his arch-rival, South Side Sal (Luke). This is one picture I took, by the way.There are other characters, including Gino Gin, the bartender, Cindy Butts, the cigarette girl, and Bernie Booze, a bootlegger. Chief Cameron, the police chief, was there to supposedly keep the order. But it was P.I. Pinkerton (Vince) who performed the principle invesigation and eventually revealed the identity of the murderer.

Of course, it wasn't just the party that was a blast for me, GETTING READY for the party was just as fun. We transformed our downstairs, which usually looks like this...

...into the Juice Joint...

I don't suppose they usually served chocolate covered strawberries at places like the Juice Joint, but that didn't stop them from being a hit at our party.
I could keep going, but this is already a pretty long post. I just enjoyed myself so much, and wanted to share it with you all!