Casa Bella’s Halloween is a monster success!

It’s the day after the night before… and what a night!

After more than 3 months of planning, Casa Bella’s Halloween took place last night, and I have to say that when I set about designing the concept, I couldn’t have wished for such a successful conclusion to the evening.  Success being judged by the reaction of our guests and the simultaneous  execution of multiple tasks which included lighting over 30 different types of candles, switching on over twenty battery candles, activating 40 electric lights, and drowning a whole coffin in a tidal wave of dry ice, to name a few!

I guess the reason why I was able to pull all of this together was because of the Casa Bella team, which included my sister, Francesca, my niece, Anna, and my best friend, Tom. They all rallied around when I needed them most and we managed  to (I believe) pull off the best ‘wow’ factor of any Casa Bella event yet. Luckily, much of the imagery of the evening, including the reactions of our guests has been caught for posterity and published to the  Casa Bella Facebook website (address below).

What couldn’t  be caught in stills or in moving pixels (yes, video cameras rolled) was the atmosphere brought by the fortuitous gale that howled around Casa Bella shaking the collection  of pumpkin lanterns hanging outside of the haunted mansion and over the cursed grave, all viewable from the thrones of our guests that encircled a life size coffin that bubbled like a cauldron and spewed mist, nor the specially mixed score that ran throughout the evening, featuring  a through-the-door moaning gale, an eerie music box, a few ghosts, thunder, rain and the odd slamming door (again, to name a few).  This was the ideal soundtrack to the collection of ghosts stories penned by each guest specially for the event with the hope of winning the title and prize of BEST STORY. This award was eventually snatched up by Selina Daley from an equally impressive collection of  creepy, gruesome and sometimes witty accounts. Selina’s real life account of premonition will be published to this blog as soon as it is made available by its author.  Selina also wins a £20 Amazon voucher which will be winging its way to her over the next few days.

Of course, Halloween wouldn’t be the same without its costumes and, in true Casa Bella style, we were also handing out an award for Best Costume. It seemed to me that all of our guests were very keen on getting their hands on our skeleton trophy, judging by the quality of some of the costumes and make up. I was really blown away by some of the characters. We had vampires, demons, zombies and even one of the most terrifying depictions of a reaper that I have ever seen! However, it appears that the most impressive of all was….. well, mine! Yes, I was lucky enough to be voted BEST COSTUME WINNER for my depiction of Nosfertu. What do you think?   Needless to say, I was somewhat choked when I counted out the votes.   In all honesty, I really was not expecting the win! And yes, before you ask, I kept all of the so called ballot papers just in case of query. 😉   So, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the hideous jury for their most generous votes. It’s very much appreciated!  Clearly, it was the smile that did it. 😉

So, now, nearly 24 hours later, the Casa Bella entertainment’s room has been restored to its former glory; the wallpapers gone, the hideous portraits of mutant ancestors, the coffin that struck fear into the superstitious heart of my beloved sister has been folded and neatly packed away, and with it, chunks of plaster from the dining room ceiling! Yes,  my dysfunctional relationship with Mr Sellotape ended acrimoniously when I decided to rip him down and throw him out. Which is rather ironic considering I had to ‘refresh’  the sellotape on those walls no less than 6 times as the paper kept falling down! Oh well, he’s been evicted now and I’ll have to call my trusty chum to ‘touch’ up those walls with some paint, ready for the next event.

Yes, presently, there are plans (not yet formalised) for another Casa Bella ‘experience’ in the New Year.  For those of you that may not have caught my previous post. Read all about it here. The announcement of this event received unprecedented interest. Read about it here.  I’ve already held initial talks with Andrew R Hubbard about a potential Casa Bella Charity event in aid of Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Which means that if you’ve been intrigued with Casa Bella and our dinner party experiences and have wanted to attend then you may well get your wish.  Our dinner parties have been strictly by invitation only (for family and friends). However, in order to raise funds for Andrew’s charity, we’re considering  throwing open our doors and selling tickets to our next event. So, if  you’ve always fancied a unique dinner party experience and like the idea of supporting a worthwhile cause  then visit Casa Bella’s Facebook page and LIKE it. We’ll be announcing further details about the next event on this blog and on Casa Bella’s Facebook page where you’ll also be able to see more pictures of last night’s spooktacular event. Visit and LIKE the Facebook page now .  Tickets for the next event will be limited (we already have reserved bookings) so if you want to be in with a chance to get a seat, you’ll have to act fast!

Casa Bella’s Halloween Video Extract