It has been some time since I last blogged. I have been so tied up as the Production Manager of the Singapore International Storytelling Festival 2013 as well as planning a Monopoly afternoon. I will write more about the festival later as I don’t have pictures of the festival to share with you yet.

In this blog post I plan to tell you all about the Monopoly afternoon I hosted for those I worked closely with at the festival. The idea was to wind down and play some Monopoly!

Being the party planner that I am, I decided to make the afternoon a real Monopoly party. From decor to food, the entire afternoon was themed around the board game. As with all real estate transactions, plenty of wheeling and dealing results in certain tensed moments.  My aim was to set the right ambience from the start and get everyone geared up to play for the fun of it!

Ever heard of the expression “money doesn’t grow on trees”? We stuck money bills to a cane tree to look like a real money tree. Contrary to the expression, I like the idea that everything is possible!

We had a Community Chest filled with old coins and chocolate gold bars. For some added fun, we put in cards with guest names on it. At the back of the card was a witty accusation relating to that person and the recent festival and demanding that they pay a fine of $5 in chocolate coins.

We printed Monopoly icons on little squares and made them into streamers which we hung around the room.

Most of our parties involve signature cocktails. For this party we served 3 drinks – a berry sangria, an appletini and an orange/lime mocktail. Of course we gave them names to suit the theme and location. The party was hosted at Hullet Road – taking the pun from the word ‘harlot’, we chose to serve a berry sangria to reflect that. Perpendicular to Hullet Road is the famous Emerald Hill of Singapore. As such, a green cocktail was in order – appletini. The mocktail was named Just Visiting. We wanted an orange colour drink to reflect the orange jumpsuits of prisoners’ since on the Monopoly board Just Visiting was a sign on the prison square. To present the drinks we styled the glasses with Mr. Monopoly’s bow ties and top hats.

The drinks counter was decorated with white flowers with a red base, dice and gold chocolate coins were placed around.

The food was a little trickier to incorporate into the theme. We decided on some simple Chinese food and gave them names of streets and Monopoly icons. The buffet table was styled with dice, chocolate gold coins and chocolate bars. We also incorporated some yellow-gold flowers to brighten the table.

Everyone has a sweet tooth so for dessert we decided to serve Mr. Monopoly cupcakes and Tarts to dice for – which were made by the lovely Lilah of the Little Red Hen.

The game table was set and each player was given a Community Chest favor (which they could use as part of a trade), a top hat and a moustache.

After the game ended we brought out the Chance spin-the-wheel which was designed and crafted by my talented husband. Players were asked to spin the wheel and win some chocolate coins to go home with.

A special thanks to Kamini Ramachandran and Geophin George for helping me plan, prepare and set up the event. In one way or another you played a big part in making the event happen.

To the man behind the camera, Geophin George (The Silver Fox) thank you for taking pictures of the event and giving me something to be proud of in my portfolio.

To Kabir Bhugtiar, thank you for helping me with the designs. You did a great job!

To Lilah of the Little Red Hen, thank you for the lovely cupcakes and tarts. They were to dice for!

To the Parker Brothers, for bringing Monopoly to the world!

Dream team:

Event Styling, Planning and Coordinating: Never Ending Ideas

Stationery: Never Ending Ideas with Kabir Bhugtiar

Photography: The Silver Fox

Cupcakes and Tarts: Lilah of the Little Red Hen

Catering: Mackenzie Rex

For more pictures of this event – check out our gallery!