Your Parties: Twilight Novice (name withheld)

We started by creating a centerpiece inspired by all four book covers: a vase filled with red and clear glass beads holds wax tulips painted to match those found on the New Moon cover and stemmed wax apples (Twilight), then we wrapped a red ribbon around the neck of the vase (Eclipse) and placed the vase on top of a chess board with red and white chess pieces (Breaking Dawn). We had trouble finding a red and white chess set for an affordable price, so we bought a black andwhite set and used fusible spray paint on the black pieces. We also used extra red ribbon and wound it through the candelabra over the table.
We also printed full-size copies of each book cover and hung them on the wall as decorations, along with prints and posters from the Twilight movie. We found posters for $5-10 online and at Michael’s craft stores. We printed promotional photos on glossy paper for extra “artwork.”
We also took our cues from the books’ red, black and white color scheme — putting clusters of balloons in these colors around the room. We found confetti in red, black and white for tabletops. And we filled vases with fresh red and white roses. You could also use streamers and other party decorations in red, black and white. We even filled a candy dish with red, black and white M&Ms.

For added fun, we created family portraits of ourselves with the Cullens. Using photoshop — we combined images of the birthday girl and our family with publicity photos/movie stills from Twilight — to create a custom Cullen portrait gallery.
A bowl of Red Delicious apples can also add to the decor, as well as providing more photo opportunities — you and your friends can mimic the “hands holding the apple” from the original cover of the Twilight book.
Our party was for a birthday party so, of course, there was cake. But not just any cake. It was a chocolate cake covered in pure white frosting, with shimmering edible luster dust in red and black with black candles of course. It sparkled just like Edward's skin. We called our dining table "La Bella Italia Restaurante" and even made menus on nice paper for each place setting with the restaurant name printed on it and on the menu was mushroom ravioli and garlic bread (remember garlic doesn't scare off these vampire!)

We had fun incorporating this detail (from the Twilight book) into the party. Since Jasper tries to attack Bella after she gets a paper cut at her birthday party at the Cullen's, I put this sign on the front door and had pack of bandaids attached so that guest could cover all open wounds.

For atmosphere, we turned to the extensive playlists for each book featured on Stephenie Meyer’s website. You can either play the music directly off of her website, or download the songs yourself and create a playlist on your computer or MP3 player, or create mix CDs. For party favors, I made a CD of my favorite tracks and created a custom cover & CD label. The movie soundtrack and score are also great choices for music.