Koru Kate Finds: Halloween Spirits

Happy Halloween Week!  Halloween is almost here!!!  Welcome to my chic & spooky Halloween-themed blog (this week only).  Let's start with a Koru Kate Finds: Halloween-Style!

How about some sinister drinks to spice up your Halloween party or wedding?

Black Magic Cocktails

Image via Martha Stewart

With Halloween chic names like Ghost in the Graveyard, Screwed-up Screwdriver & Berry Scary Martini, these dark drinks scream of a hauntingly good time!   Please, I beg of you, put one drink on display with a scrawled sign bearing its name.  You know what I mean- that classic, a monster-just-wrote-this scrawl.  It'll be a fearful, fabulous touch, I promise.  I can say from personal experience that black vodka is not easy to find but it's well worth the trouble.  Sinister black vodka drinks are a big hit this time of year!

 Witches' Brew

Image via Martha Stewart

Just imagine this steaming cauldron of Witches' Brew making a creepy statement at your Halloween party or wedding!  What's inside?, you may ask.  A good, old-fashioned favorite Root Bear Float.  Just add some dry ice & you've got the Halloween spirit.  A Witches' Brew that is good for big & little ghosts & goblins alike is a frightful delight this time of year.


For above recipes & more Halloween drinks, please click HERE.


Do you love or hate Halloween?  Can you tell that I'm a big fan?  Any spooky inspiration to share?

Cocktail Hour

Our cutie Flower Girl enjoys a treat during CH

The Bride chats with friends at CH

The Bride & Her Bestie/Bridesmaid at CH

Our family's table full of food & drinks at CH!
(All Photos by Friends)

Thrilled! RZ & I walked into our Cocktail Hour in the Manhattan Ballroom & we were thrilled. Candles flickered in the floor-to-ceiling windows with views of downtown Manhattan & the Statue of Liberty. Small arrangements of tightly clustered white carnations & bear grass-wrapped bases decorated the cocktail tables covered in striped ivory linens. Jazz standards wafted through the air courtesy of The Love Jones Band piano player on the grand piano.

Oh, there's more! Our beloved raw bar (done by special request as it's our favorite), our pasta station & our cheese & fruit station. Our colorful martini bar. Waiters & waitresses offering trays of cleverly-displayed hors d'oeuvres.

&, best of all, our family & friends. Eating. Drinking. Talking. Laughing. It was a dream come true.

I knew instantly that RZ's idea to enjoy a mini, private Cocktail Hour was beyond brilliant. We were happy, relaxed & full. We mixed & mingled as we pleased without a care. We didn't have to worry about getting food, balancing a plate & drink or being caught with food in our mouths which was quite priceless. We worked the room, giving hugs & accepting congratulations. It was our version of an informal, fun Receiving Line as we got the chance to chat with almost every guest. Such a fun time!

I could hardly believe the evening was young & it was just going to get better & better!

DIY Project #3: K & R

Painted K, Naked R

My final DIY wedding project was our initials, K & R. Because RZ & I branded everything from the spot in the sand where he proposed to our wedding invitations with our initials, I wanted to continue the theme at our wedding reception. I picked out the perfect spot for our initials on a site visit at Hyatt on the Hudson: our guest book table. The guest book table would be against the wall & the letters would add a bit of height & personality. After the wedding, we could hang the letters in our home as a wedding memento. Now all I needed was to complete the project!

K & R in Progress

This DIY project was the quickest & easiest. I bought two wooden letters, one ampersand, two bottles of ivory paint & one bottle of mocha paint at AC Moore. I briefly considered painting the ampersand purple because I had added touches of purple, like the bridesmaid dresses, throughout the celebration. In the end, I went with mocha for the simple reason that it would look best in our living room when the wedding was said & done. I took my supplies home & painted the K & R with about five coats of paint over a period of a few days. I applied the final coat of paint the night before the wedding :-)

The snag was the guest book table wasn't placed against the wall as the catering manager had told me. I went through three catering managers at Hyatt on the Hudson &, unfortunately, the second one who led me on a site tour may not have known everything about the cocktail hour set-up. It never occurred to me to confirm the guest book table placement with my third, final & best Hyatt contact. At our wedding, the guest book table was placed in an excellent position near the ballroom entrance- just not against a wall. I hadn't bought letters that could stand on their own so the initials were awkwardly propped up somehow on the table. For a fleeting moment as I entered the ballroom & noticed the table, I considered putting on my wedding planner hat & trying to fix the problem, then realized it wasn't a big deal. At all.

K & R in our home today

For the record, as you can see above, our initials look just right on our living room wall!

Bloody Punch

Bloody Rum Punch
from About.com:Cocktails

How are RZ & I celebrating Halloween this year? We're enjoying the perfect Halloween cocktail!! The Bloody Rum Punch is a spooky take on traditional sangria. The eerie dark red color is sinful & simply add a fake spider or eyeball for the ultimate scare. Trick or treat!

Happy Halloween!