On a dark, misty October evening, Laura Garcia-Culler wore a silky red robe and fluffy kitten heels, sluggishly clutching a bottle of wine in one hand and an empty glass in the other.
This popular party hostess strategically dressed up as a lush to welcome guests to one of Savannah’s hottest and most inspired Halloween parties.  Halloween, she explained, has always been one of her favorite holidays.
“I love the fact that people can let loose on Halloween,” she said with a smile.  “It lets you express your zanier side.”
By day, Laura serves as the executive vice president and COO of the Georgia Historical Society, but, by night, she transforms into one of Savannah’s best-loved and most creative party planners.  Her fun-filled Halloween bash, which featured a few tricks and plenty of treats, served as a collaborative event co-hosted by a coterie of close friends.
By her own admission, Laura loves to throw a party, bringing a diverse group of people together for an evening of camaraderie.
“I like people to have a good time,” she said.  “I like to organize events that bring people together.  That makes me very happy.”
Her high-energy costume party attracted approximately 130 guests who mingled beneath a massive white tent set up in Laura’s Bolton Street side yard.  As if on cue, partygoers arrived in waves, wearing a remarkably eclectic array of costumes, from Bonnie and Clyde to the Royal Tenenbaums.  A disc jockey played death-oriented songs like U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” as revelers clad in Girl Scout uniforms, prison garb, bridal gowns, flasher outfits, devil capes and butterfly costumes gathered near a bonfire towards the back of the party.
Black and white, gay and straight, young and old, revelers traded stories and shared Halloween memories throughout the evening.  As clouds of fog surrounded partygoers, guests relished the opportunity to indulge their wild side and to dress up in outrageous, imaginative and daring costumes.
Brynn Grant, the vice president of marketing for the Savannah Economic Development Authority and executive director of the Creative Coast Alliance, donned a racy Asian masseuse costume, wearing a Chinese-inspired dress and a black wig.  This busy mother of three explained that she has spent the last 11 years dressing her children up for Halloween.  On this fall evening, however, she relished the opportunity to turn the tables.
“This is the first party where my kids watched me get dressed up in a costume,” she laughed.  “It’s been a lot of fun.”
The Creative Coast’s project manager Fitz Haile decided to turn his striking resemblance to race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. into a costume for the evening, wearing a cherry red NASCAR jacket and a navy blue Dale baseball cap.  
“I don’t know anything about NASCAR at all,” he confessed.  “But I’m having a good time.”
Wait staff wearing red devil horns served platters of spooky-themed treats, as severed heads dangled from the top of the tent’s interior.  In a tribute to the frightful spirit of the holiday, giant spiders and massive spider webs decorated the exterior, as red gel dripped like blood in the windowpanes of Laura’s restored Victorian home.
The party’s ghoulish menu, most of which was prepared by John Nichols Catering, included a full array of Halloween-themed hors d’oeuvres, including Poison Pimento Bat Bites, Bleeding Hearts and Scary Berries.  In a clever twist, food was served up on stainless steel autopsy tables adorned with vases of dead flowers and skull-shaped candles.
Enjoying the food, the ambiance and the crowd were Chad and Vicki Garrett, recent Atlanta transplants who dressed up as pirate Jack Sparrow and his favorite wench.  
“We just moved to Savannah three months ago,” said Chad, a high-tech sales specialist who bore an uncanny resemblance to Johnny Depp in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean.  “We’re been very impressed.  People are very warm and friendly here.”
Dressing up in costume served as a highlight of the evening for Wendy Cooper, the manager at 2CarGarage Gallery.   Clad in an old-fashioned pink polyester minidress with a matching pillbox hat, she successfully evoked the vintage stewardess look of the 1960s.
“I love fashion and dressing up,” she confessed.  “I like being someone else for an evening.”
Burton Sauls, a local blog designer who wore a biohazard worker costume complete with bright orange rubber gloves and a plastic face mask, certainly agreed, explaining that Halloween is one of his favorite holidays.
“Halloween has been reclaimed by adults since the ’90s,” he enthused.  “I like how nobody knows who you are when you’re in costume.  Suddenly the music is much more danceable.”
For the party, Tammy and Chris Ray decided to coordinate to create a more conceptual costume.  The married couple dressed in green golf-style shirts emblazoned with “P” nametags, explaining that they were, in fact, “two peas in a pod.”  Tammy, who owns her own event planning and public relations company, raved about the party’s unabashed creativity and remarkable ambition.
“This ranks up there on the scale of parties,” she enthused.  “They really went all out.”
The key to the success of this spooky Halloween soiree, however, lay in the planning, which began several months before guests arrived.  In fact, the seed for the party was inadvertently planted over the summer, when a friend complimented Laura on her outstanding parties and asked if she planned to throw a Halloween celebration.
“I had been toying with the idea,” she explained.  “After that conversation, I decided that I would just go ahead and do it.”
Laura quickly enlisted help from a close circle of friends — including Jennifer Dickinson, Fitz Haile, Michelle Hunter, Roger Smith, Brynn Grant, John Dickinson, Jennifer Abshire, Kevin Peek and Wendy Cooper — to help make the party a success.  Some friends donated money and some donated time, but all turned out in full force to celebrate the spookiest night of the year.
In an effort to keep costs down, Laura prepared a clever E-vite inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s eerie poem, “The Raven,” to set the tone for the festivities.  
In the days before the party, friends helped by preparing bat-shaped Jell-O shooters, baking ghoulish desserts and adorning the side yard and the house with Halloween-themed decorations.
Party co-host Heather Gordon, who sported a black witch hat adorned with ebony feathers, raved about the strong turnout and the dynamic crowd.          
“Everybody’s having a great time,” she gushed.  “There’s such a wide variety of costumes and people.  You’ve got SCAD people, nonprofit people and socialites.  We’re all having a blast together.  This is life in Savannah at its best.”

­Party-planning Tips
Laura Garcia-Culler has hosted a number of creative parties at her Bolton Street home, from explosive Fourth of July celebrations to high-energy birthday bashes.  This passionate party host offers the following advice to make any event a success:
1.  Be creative.  Add your own unique imprint to your party by coming up with creative food, drink and decorations that tie into the theme at hand.  “Pay attention to detail,” she said.  “The little things matter.”
2.  Involve others.  Don’t be afraid to enlist help from family and friends to make the party a collaborative experience.
3.  Invite a wide range of guests.  An eclectic guest list enables people to meet, mingle and make new friends.
4.  Plan the music.  Make sure that your party’s soundtrack reflects your personality.  “Good music brings people together,” she said.
5.  Have fun.  Once the party starts, relax, visit with guests and enjoy!

Food & Fun
Well-planned hors d’oeuvres serve as an integral component in any party’s success. Here are a few delicious Halloween-themed recipes to ramp up the fright factor at any costume party.

Bloody Mary Tomatoes
2 pints sweet grape tomatoes
1 quart good vodka
1/2 cup Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
4 good shakes Tabasco sauce (or to taste)
Seasoned salt:
1/2 cup iodized salt (not kosher)
2 tbsp. paprika
1 tbsp. granulated garlic
1 tbsp. celery seed
1 tbsp. chopped lime zest
 
Mix vodka, Worcestershire sauce, lime juice and Tabasco sauce in a medium-size bowl.  With a paring knife, cut an “X” in one end of each of the tomatoes and drop into the seasoned vodka.  Refrigerate overnight.  Drain and serve with seasoned salt (see recipe above) and party picks.  
-- Recipe provided by John Nichols of John Nichols Catering

Bat-shaped Jell-O Shooters
4 packages of black cherry Jell-O (provides a great Halloween color)
2 cups freshly boiled water
1 cup vodka
 
Dissolve Jell-O powder in hot water and vodka and stir.  Pour liquid mixture into a tray.  Allow to cool and set.  Use bat-shaped cookie cutters to cut out the shapes and serve.
-- Recipe provided by Halloween party co-host Heather Gordon