Happy Hauntings

Free, Community Halloween Event Sponsored by: Hamburg Pavilion Happy Hauntings Facebook Event Photographer: Lora Boyadjieva

Still to date, Happy Hauntings is my favorite event to execute! Everything went smoothly and exactly as planned and that can be a rarity with any event. 

Credit for the success was the amount of planning, my all star volunteers, and talented vendor team. With this incredible team I was able to enjoy the moment (no small act) and even take a few twirls to the music in my polka-dotted Minnie Mouse dress!

 This was a free, public event and I wanted to offer a family, friendly Halloween event geared towards children. Lexington’s Halloween events tend to lean toward horror, and I wanted Hamburg Pavilion’s event to emphasize the magic and wonder a child experiences with trick-or-treating. 

For this one night children were given the chance to dress up in their favorite Princess, Ninja, or mystical creature costume and simply have fun. 

Happy Hauntings offered a variety of activities from face painting, trick-or-treating, choreographed dancing, costume contests, character meet and greet, and plenty of photograph opportunities with festive backdrops.

Gifted makeup artist, Laine Comley with her company, Memory Laine transformed children into unicorns, butterflies, tigers - works of art - with just a few swishes of her wrists. Face painting was a memorial experience for each child and the line never disappeared. 

Along with the fantastical face painting, the company, Once Upon a Dream showed up as popular characters from Descendants Two: Mal, Evie, and Uma. Wickedly charming and dead on look a-likes, these three characters seemed to have stepped right out of Auradon. 

I kept to the traditional Halloween theme of black cats, witches, and orange pumpkins; the traditional black and orange colors with pops of purple here and there. Welcoming the guests centered in the room was a Cemetery Gate purchased from Home Goods, which I later used as a winter wonderland entrance wrapped with garland for Christmas events. It’s a striking gold purchase that has resulted in becoming a multipurpose piece!

 A take away lesson from planning this event was children LOVE to dance! The highlight of the event was DJ Larry Humes with Outrageous Music Machine and UK Dancer Ellen Ward choreographed and led children in dance moves. Even the Descendants characters joined in on the dance party!

Event Planning & Design: Events by Julie