This looks an absolutely fantastic party based on our Murder in the Wild West game. Yee-haw partner! The decorations take you right on back to when Deadstone Creek was a haven for "sin" of all kinds.
Bonnie and Ray run a monthly dinner club with friends and feature these innovative themed dinner parties plus all sorts of interesting recipes and food tips on their "Just for the Food of It" social media pages. If you don't already follow them, check out Just For the Food Of It on Facebook and YouTube.
Bonnie says:
Last night on 8/20/2022 we had our dinner party which was our wild west murder mystery party. This was so much fun to decorate and plan a meal around your theme party.
We all dressed up and we all looked amazing!
The guys were ‘Hot’!
There was no CanCan even though they were calling for a dance: I told them I broke my leg. Hehe.
The ladies had gotten on your website; they saw a couple they thought were really going to be fun to do. It looks like this will be a staple in our dinner club. Thank you Jan and Maple Mystery Games!
Wild West Dinner Party Decorations
We decorated the house and Ray went all out to create working saloon doors and a jail with real bars! He is an overachiever lol. They were awesome!
Jail:
Saloon Door with card surrounds:
I used a lot of the free printables you provided to decorate with. I printed some in colour and some in black and white. Then I coffee-stained them. I then took a match to them to burn the edges.. note.. do this outside or your house will smell of burnt paper lol.
The brick wall was some wall stickers I picked up at a Dollar tree store where everything is a dollar. I probably got 40 if I'm honest, but they are removable and I can use them for other DIY projects like a back splash or something so I consider it an investment.
The table setting is a cheap plastic table cloth; the dinner plates and chargers I already had. It's a camp dinnerwear set. I used toy money from a previous game of the 1920s (Maple Mystery Games Speakeasy game) and cigar box. The glass mugs also from DT “dollar tree”.
The dice I took from your idea and wrapped a couple different size gift boxes with red Christmas paper and added black stickers for dots. I created the little flower arrangement with items I already had in a vase I had and wrapped with leftover material and a ribbon.
I also used your idea with the big playing cards which I found cheaper at a craft store than online and used a regular playing deck to decorate with as well as the suit garland at the front door. Now I bought that but it could easily be made and cut out. I used handkerchiefs for napkins. And they doubled as swag gifts. We also found some old-fashioned candy that I didn’t get a picture of but will shortly; we gave them as swag gifts as well.
Food for Cowboys - and Saloon Women!
We wanted to keep the meal part of our dinner party simple so as to focus on the fun of the game. We made a wagon wheel dip with chips and quick draw poppers, jalapeño peppers stuffed with cream cheese mix. A chuck wagon stew with cheesy buttermilk biscuits and for dessert, Hand picked from my garden fresh blackberry cobbler with homemade ice cream. We served root beer in ice-cold mugs and Sweet tea.
Western Costumes
My husband and I put pieces together from other costumes to make my costume and I made his vest for his costume.
The lady that played Faith was so funny because in real life so far from that character but she owned it! Her costume she pulled together as well; she had all the pieces separately and put them together. Her broach was stunning! It was a Christmas ornament she said somehow was not put away and was lying around and she thought it was perfect, and it was! My jaw dropped when she told me what it was.
Mis Kitty also pulled her outfit from a couple other outfits. 1920s dress with a bar-made wig; it was perfect. Hank had a tiny little gun and the rest of the guys use the finger as a gun.
The sheriff had a really nice quality star they got online.
Verdict
The game itself was easy to print out and read. We all were taking turns and also helping each other with prompts to read because we all were excited to hurry up and keep the momentum going. This one we all agreed was a difficult one to figure out ‘whodunit it’. Without saying the answer, let's say we were all shocked to find out who it was. Even the killer was lol. But on a personal note it was not the same person as in the last two games. She was relieved it wasn’t a third time lol.
