How to host a Great Graduation Party
It’s that time of year again. Exams are over and so is college or High School. It’s time to enter the scary wide world, but first it’s summer and a time to celebrate your diploma. The years of hard work will finally pay off and you can enter the next stages of your life.
Why not celebrate with your friends and family by hosting a Graduation Murder Mystery Party? Whether you’re planning a party for yourself or for someone you care about, at Masters of Mystery you can take your pick of a variety of themes to suit all occasions.
A graduation party is something special so why not hire a function room at a nice hotel or a local pub? Think about the guests you’re planning on having and what might work best for them. If you are inviting your college friends who may not live nearby once school’s out, consider looking at hotels nearby and seeing what they have to offer. If guests can have a place to stay, they might be less worried about how long they stay or how much they have to drink.
Step One: Choose your game
At Masters of Mystery we have a wide variety of games to choose from including our “Graduation to Die For” Game. With a diverse set of characters to choose from, you can take on the role of a fellow student, guest speaker or tutor and help solve the mysterious death of that unpleasant professor we’ve all had during our time in Education and, more than once probably contemplated removing them.
If you want something fun and quirky after all that studying why not look at our Circus murder mystery. Take on the role of trapeze artist, contortionist or magician and step into a world of music, flying and frivolity for an evening. Or step back in time to one of our Period games. Dress up in your best glitzy and jazzy outfits in our 1920’s Murder Mystery or dig out your neon tights and leg warmers and join us in our 1980’s Murder Mystery. At Masters of Mystery you will not be short of options.
Each game can be downloaded and printed at home and contains all the information that you will need from costume ideas, to guest lists, as well as a host guide and character guides for all your guests, so the only thing you and your guests have to worry about on the night is whodunit?
Step Two: Choose your guests
Our murder mystery games can have up to 20 characters, ideal for more intimate parties where everyone can get involved, dress up and play a character. But don’t worry if you want more than that at your party.
You can have a think about which guests you think would be most up for a laugh and who would be more confident playing a character. You can issue those people a character. If you have a more confident person, why not team them up with a less confident person? One can be the lead and another can support and get involved if they wish to.
If you have some people who would be happy just dressing up and getting involved in accusations, then they are more than welcome to do that. Murder Mysteries are a fun activity to do at a party but not everyone has to be involved if they don’t want to be.
If you are a creative individual, you could always add your own characters, have a look at the character list and create your own options, it could be the sister or partner of a character or it could be someone completely unconnected to the case who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Your possibilities are limitless.
All Masters of Mystery games include a diverse choice of casting, we make sure that there is something for everyone. Some people allow their guests to choose their own characters upon arrival at the party, this is fine if you want to do that, however, we recommend that the host (that’s you) chooses the characters they want people to play and send these out with the invitations before the party, this will give you the greatest diversity, the host will know what characters are attending the party and it will give the guests a chance to plan how they want to play their part and what costumes they might need beforehand. It makes the event run smoother.
Step Three: The Venue
Once you know how many guests you want you can think about the space that you might need. Is this something more intimate that you can have at home? Or will you and your guests need a little more room? Many hotels and pubs will have function rooms that you can hire out for all sorts of occasions. Some are often likely to have catering options as well so you don’t even need to worry about the food, this can effect the cost though so you many prefer to organise your own food or set up a buffet and ask your guests to bring something to contribute towards it. That was you can be assured that there’s something for everyone.
Next thing to think about is how you want to decorate, if your budget is a little larger then you can probably talk to the hotel who will be able to connect you with suppliers and assist you in finding what you want, however many people prefer to source their own decorations. Bargain shops will often have an entire isle of decorations that fit the current season, it’s worth looking there as you may find some summer BBQ or even wedding decorations at this time of year that you can repurpose to celebrate your graduation. Or you can browse online and if you give yourself a few weeks before your party you can be sure they will get to you in time, all websites will give you an idea of postage times so factor that into your planning.
Step Four: Final Preparations
Before your party make sure you’ve done all the preparation. Below is a handy guide and some helpful tips to support your planning.
Before the party, think about whether you have:-
- Chosen a game that you and your guests will enjoy
- Chosen your guests who you will invite and you know the numbers.
- Booked Venue that has the space and the facilities to accommodate all your guests.
- Chosen characters for guests, you know your guests better than anyone, think about which characters they would have the most fun with.
- Sent out invitations (make sure to include recommended costumes)
- Bought or made any decorations that fit your party theme.
- Chosen your food options, made sure that there’s enough for everyone and catered to any dietary requirements.
What about you as the host?
Remember it’s your party, you want to have fun as well, it can be too easy to get bigged down by the details and forget the fun.
As the host:-
- Are you playing a character or just hosting? If you want to play then make sure you save a character guide for yourself.
What are you wearing? If you’re playing a character have a look at their description and plan a killer (maybe even literally) outfit. - Who are you playing? Are they based on a real person? Or fictional? What do you know about them?
We recommend doing a little bit of research on who your character (if anyone) is based on. Charity shops are also a great place for finding low cost costumes that can be adapted to fit most time periods. If it’s a modern day party you and your guests will have time to find the perfect outfit from their own wardrobes or maybe even hire one from somewhere.
Finishing touches
As this is a graduation party, why not have certificates and awards, these can be handed out at a ceremony at the end of an event. Even better if your venue has a stage area, you can set up chairs and call people forward, shake their hand and present them with a certificate.
You can have different categories:-
- Best sleuth (did one person get the answer spot on?)
- Best Costume (who went all out and dressed for the occasion)
- Most convincing (who had the strongest performance and stayed in character the most)
- Most suspicious (if one character who wasn’t the murderer got a lot of guesses)
Step Five: The Party
If you’ve followed our guide and managed to do everything on the list, then you have very little left to do, once you’ve welcomed your guests, handed out the character booklets and started the event, it’s time to have fun! The host guide will support you in the running of the event, the food is sorted, the venue is sorted, the decorations are sorted and so all that’s left to do now is celebrate. It’s your Graduation Party!
