Fancy Dress Dilemma

There's something a bit odd about the village I live in. And that is that invitations to most parties, suppers and in fact any kind of knees-up comes with the expectation that you will turn up in themed or "fancy dress."

Not that odd, you might be thinking. But at most themed events a good proportion of the men will come dressed as women! It seems the males in my area love nothing more than throwing on a frock, the shorter and tartier the better. Throw in a fashion era - 60's or 80's say-and they are in seventh heaven!

Dressed for a friend's 40th
murder mystery party.
Even my own dear husband, a scaffolder by trade and a stalwart of the church, has been known to squeeze himself into a little black dress - and ended up looking better in it than me! (sorry- no photo. I was banned from publishing it on here sadly)

Just recently I wrote about the "Come Dine With Me" style series of dinner parties I am currently taking part in with my friends. Basically we pick a theme each,  then once a month take it in turns to cook food, organise entertainment and dress up. (You can read more about it here)

This is the second year we have organised it with largely the same group of idiots  diners. The first year we went all out and hand-made invitations which were delivered by hand, usually under cover of darkness for added drama a few days before the event, followed by a scroll with the menu delivered the night before.

The trouble with this system is that it doesn't give you long to throw a costume together! This time we are trying out a different system whereby you get a text with the theme and menu about a week before the event. It's useful but doesn't quite have the panache of a more elaborate invitation. 
"Last night on the Titanic"

I have used Facebook in the past to organise events and do wonder if that would be better?  I've seen one party planner application which lets you send out event invites via Facebook.
It has the useful feature of letting you choose a theme and lets guests reveal what they will be wearing, avoiding the awkward situation where everyone turns up in a carrot costume- you can find the app here via the fancy dress balls homepage too I think.

It's my turn next to organise my themed dinner - I can't reveal much about it here but the friends taking part might want to be practicing their French and dusting off their berets and negligees. And that's just the men!
Costa Del Sol dinner


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