My daughter wanted a 1920s themed murder mystery party. She’s been pinning things for about a year. The biggest concerns were the story line and people being willing to really get into character. I decided to purchase a kit.  I got ours from mymysteryparty.com. It comes with everything you need to pull off this murder mystery. If you buy the DIY version, you should buy it a couple of weeks in advance so you can get everything cut out and sent out to your participants. They offer a full service option, but I thought it was a little pricey.

I got a backdrop from Oriental Trading. I got lucky to get it on major sale. It is normally $39 but I got it for $10. I went to Dollar Tree the morning of the party and bought gold, silver, and black balloons. I also got fresh flowers for all the tables and bathroom. There were gold fans sold at Target that we hung in the party room and kitchen. I got bloody cut outs from Amazon to put throughout the house. We used gold fringe from Amazon to put in the doorways. In the foyer, my husband made a police lineup and the birthday girl used the Cricut and our laminating machine to create photo booth props.

Because it was a speakeasy mobster theme, we planned an Italian dinner party. We served olives, peppers and onions with sausage, various meats and cheeses, caprese salad, shrimp with cocktail sauce, grapes, and salad.  We served lasagnas with Italian bread for dinner. For dessert we offered ice cream with various toppings which was a big dessert in the 1920s. I made a tiramisu. The birthday cake was a lemon cake with raspberry filling so it would look bloody when it was cut. We had a table for drinks. We had three mocktail recipes printed out for people to make their own fun drinks.

Everyone was asked whether they were willing to participate or not. Those who were willing were assigned a character which was sent to them. Once the party started, each person received a clue for each portion of the dinner party. We had things we were supposed to say to each other and conceal from one another as well.  Everyone really got into character. It was hilarious! I purposely did not read the clues so I would be able to play along. I accidentally saw who was the victim, but did not know who the murderer was until everyone else.

There was a fact game that was required in the game. I also made a trivia game.

In the kitchen, we had poker and roulette set up for those who wanted to play.

For the goody bags, I included candies that were around in the 1920s. Some of them were Reese’s peanut butter cups, Kit Kat candy bars, Dubble Bubble bubble gum, and Dum Dums. I also included a deck of cards, a gold pencil, handcuffs, a tuxedo box of Hershey kisses, Rice Krispie treats, and Pop Rocks (because everyone loves them).

It was a GREAT party and we had a wonderful time.