I'M BACK!!!

Do people still read blogs? I guess so. Recently, several new customers have come into the shop and mentioned that they read my blog and enjoyed it. It's been almost four years since I've written one! I suppose it's time!

My last entry was about the first Galveston Island Witches' Ball and we just started selling tickets last week for the 5th annual Witches' Ball. My, how times have changed! If you read the previous post you can see that we held the first Ball in 2010 in the loft above The Witchery for 100 guests. Since then we moved it to the Ballroom at the Scottish Rite Cathedral just around the corner from the shop. The Cathedral was built in 1929 and the Grand Ballroom is the perfect place for our event.

In 2011 we doubled the ticket sales to 200 and hired HVK Studios out of Austin, Texas to transform the space into a themed nightclub for the evening. Mike Jordan and his crew built these huge monoliths out of PVC, chicken-wire and foam to create a "Stonehenge" dance floor (which we called Foamhenge!) It was absolutely incredible!

Even with 200 guests there was still plenty of room for more, so in 2012 we increased the tickets sales to 300! This was the magic number. We ran with the Mayan theme that year, with there being so much hype in the media about the end of the world and all, and HVK Studios built stone blocks out of cardboard and plaster and painted Mayan hieroglyphs on them to hide the trusses. Though we set a theme each year for the event we don't expect our guests to dress accordingly, but some do...

To me, Halloween is that one time a year when you can be whatever you want to be, whether it's a super hero, a favorite movie character, villain, monster or a witch (it is the Witches' Ball after all) and we don't want the theme of the event to limit your costume choices! We also added a photo booth which was a big hit! Every guest was able to take a photo in front of a green screen and we superimposed an appropriate backdrop to the photo that they were able to take home!

In 2013 the theme was Angels and Demons. By then we had developed a good working model for the Ball and everything went off like clockwork. We hired a great staff that kept the place clean, the food was rotated out so it was always fresh and hot and our amazing bartenders kept the drinks flowing!

So here we are looking forward to the Galveston Island Witches' Ball '14 and we have to out-do the last four years! We will start the event off with my new favorite group of musicians, Two Star Symphony, a beautifully dark string quartet.

Inspired by Madame Talbot's new posters (which we sell at the shop) of two Victorian Cabarets in Paris...

and...

We decided to use them as the theme for this year's Witches' Ball! L'Enfer was a "Hell" themed cafe where you might be greeted by the Devil.

The Cabaret du Neant was inspired by Death with coffin shaped tables...

...and waiters dressed as undertakers!

Where are the clubs like this today? I, for one, would certainly be there for a drink or two! Well, not to worry. We are going to do our best to recreate the sights and sounds of Victorian Macabre! We hope you will choose to join us and remember that all the profits will be donated to the Galveston Island Humane Society. If you have any questions about the Witches' Ball you'll find the answers here!