I have a rather weird connection to Titanic. I'll tell that story at the end of this article for anyone interested.
This gal threw an impressive Titanic re-enactment dinner.
invitations
I had a lot of staging to do for this party so I kept the invitations relatively simple. I printed out boarding passes on my computer and slipped them into the invitations below.
I instructed guests to bring their boarding pases with them as their admission to the party and to come in costume.
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I went through the full list of Titanic passengers for the names of actual passengers and enclosed the name and a short bio of the passenger or crew member each guest would play and enclosed that in the invitation as well. However, I did not tell them whether their passenger character survived or perished in the sinking.
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Zazzle has a nice selection of Titanic party invitations.
exterior staging
I wanted guests to feel as if they were actually boarding a ship so I did do exterior staging for this party, working off actual Titanic photographs.
We had the nautical walkway up to our front door and that year hubby had broken his hip and so we still had the wheelchair ramp to the front porch that served as the boarding ramp.
I used corrugated crates I'd made, one of my steamer trunks, some old suitcases and a pile of rope we'd had at the resort to stage the entry.
My friend resembled Capt. EJ Smith. He and another guest (1sr Officer) agreed to collect the boarding passes as guests arrived.
interior
staging
I didn't want to have to tear my whole living room apart so I thought about how I could make it look like part of the ship. I decided to stage it as a 1st Class lounge.
I got a photo backdrop of the Titanic first class lounge to put on the wall my sofa was on.
All I did was remove one modern floor lamp and replace it with my grandmother's antique floor lamp from downstairs. I set the pewter coffee/tea service he'd received as a retirement gift on the coffee table.
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I needed a 1st class dining room and my main floor is open concept so it looked like the lounge flowed into 1st class dining. I had to use both tables - the round table in the corner of my living room and my main dining table.
I left the 2 chairs on that wall and moved a drop leaf nightstand from my guest bedroom between the chairs, then placed one of my oil lamps on it. I bought a lace tablecloth for the table and put my pewter candlesticks on it.
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On a third wall I put a photo backdrop of the Grand Staircase. My friend, Colanna was a musician with a string quartet and they'd played at my wedding. They were coming to play at the party and this wall was where they'd set up.
I was busy in another room when they set up and began warming up. I walked out to check it out...and started laughing, Colanna had made replicas of the Titanic life jackets and here all 4 of them were playing with those life jackets on.
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We had an activity scheduled that would involve Titanic's Marconi room so this was the last room I needed to stage.
I decided to use our bedroom as it already had antiques in it, including a secretary that could be used as the Marconi desk.
Staging this room was hubby's project so I can't give you specifics. I did change out the comforter on the bed, I bought a porthole wall decal and pasted a photo of the iceberg in it, I put one of my steamer trunks at the foot of the bed, and I purchased the Titanic print to hang over the bed. Hubby did the Marconi station, including building a DIY Marconi telegraph!
He made the Marconi electrical workings above the secretary, I believe out of corrugated (?) and spare electrical parts he had lying around.
The cost to stage the Marconi room was just shy of $25.
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This left the kitchen which was in full view of everything and very modern.
Our friend, Emil was a professional chef from Europe and he'd be preparing the dinner that night. It bothered me that the kitchen being so visible just kind of ruined the whole Titanic effect I was going for but I figured I'd have to live with it.
Hubby to the rescue!
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He and Emil enclosed the kitchen and the island behind it in removable walls. I came home from shopping and my kitchen was enclosed so I can't tell you how he did it. All I can tell you is he used wood framing at the 2 entry/exit points and the "walls" were made out of corrugated. For the entry/exit points he'd hung 2 batwing doors he said they'd found at Habitat For Humanity Restore, one of them pretty ornate. They hung that one facing the 1st class dining table.
Emil still had all of the room he needed to cook that he would have had otherwise and I was a very happy camper!
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Because of the way they'd done this, between the island and the counter behind it, I had a corrugated wall I could paint to look like a ship hallway that lead to the 1st Class lounge.
I changed the sideboard from coffee station to bar station and our bartender could use the bar cart to serve drinks.
tablescapes
The staging of the 2 tables took all of 5 minutes. On the main dining table I used a lace tablecloth my stepmother had here.
My dining table is an antique. In fact, the chairs look nearly identical to the ones in the photo.
I set my silver candleholder in the middle of the table.
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For the round table in the living room I found a lace tablecloth at Goodwill for $5 that worked. Oriental Trading Company has one for $17.
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I set my pewter candlesticks on the round table.
Dining in the Edwardian era was not anything like it is today. The video below explains:
With all the food it was necessary for Titanic to carry just for the 1st Class passengers alone, I'm surprised THAT didn't sink the ship! No wonder women squeezed themselves into corsets to make it appear as though they had waists the diameter of a No. 2 pencil!
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Just the amount of silverware used alone was mind boggling!
I had to laugh when one of our friends playing a waiter told me he studied the above video to know what to do with what and when to remove and bring what utensils just so it looked like he knew what the hell he was doing.
I used my plain white set of dishes and my crystal I'd gotten as a wedding gift, that I never use otherwise.
For the dizzying array of silverware needed, I borrowed my sister's silverware.
We didn't have to worry about outfitting our chef, Emil. He had all of his chef gear.
I'm not sure where Karen found the jacket for the waiters. I suspect they may have been old 1970's Nehru jackets?
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We simply replaced the buttons on those jackets with gold nautical buttons.
The men had their own black pants and shoes they wore.
Actual Titanic waiter's uniform
Karen had everything but the jacket in her shop. She had a longer white jacket so we shortened it to the appropriate length and added gold nautical buttons to it.
If worse had come to worse, we could have rented the jacket from a tux rental place.
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This left hubby's Marconi operator uniform.
Titanic bartender's uniform...
We used another of my dad's Naval uniforms but had to shorten the length of the pants.
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What did I wear? Well, knowing hor fashions of that day worked and knowing Johanna had been a 3rd class passenger, I figured although she wasn't as poor as some of the steerage passengers were, she wouldn't have had 1st class women's attire but would have had an upgrade of the typical steerage passenger's "good dress" for special occasions.
And being that I'd attended so many Titanic re-enactments I had several costumes to choose from.
Who is Johanna? Well, you'll have to read the story at the end of this article to find out! *Wink*
food/menu
We already had the Titanic last dinner menu but there's no way anyone today is going to be able to put away a 10 course dinner nor did we want to take a mortgage out on our house to pay for food no one would eat, so I had chef Emil pick out what he wanted to prepare from that 10 course menu.
He'd also prepared hors d' oeuvres to pass as the party started.
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One of our waiters came up with a fantastic idea. He loaded his hors d'oeuvres tray with half hors d' oeuvres and half mini bottles I'd prepared ahead of time.
As he passed the hors d'oeuvres, he'd ask each guest if they wanted to play Titanic trivia. If they did, he'd have them choose one of the mini bottles containing a Titanic trivia question.
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If they got the trivia question right, he'd pull out a roll of LIfesavers and tell the guest something like "You might be needing these if you suddenly find yourself floating on a door in the middle of the Atlantic at 2:30 a.m."
If you're not doing a last dinner re-enactment, there are simpler foods you can serve that will come off as classy:
Pinwheel Sandwiches Recipe here
Nasturium Flower Sandwiches Recipe here
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​Baked or Mashed Potatoes Recipe here
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​Simple Salads Recipe here
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​Cream Cakes Recipe here
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Dainty Cupcakes Recipe here
Make your food menu consistent with the theme of your party. If you're doing a Titanic movie night, rent an old fashioned popcorn maker and build a concession stand out of corrugated. Or even use a bookshelf!
Who says a concession stand can only hold candy?
Put your food items in individual serving containers and put those on the top shelves.
On the lower shelves, place some movie theater style candy.
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Staging doesn't have to be an elaborate affair like I did for my party!
activities
Shuffleboard was among a handful of physical activities available aboard the Titanic.
We invested in a plastic shuffleboard and set it up on our deck so whoever wanted to play could and whoever wanted to have a drink and watch could.
I have to say, the guests really got into the competitive spirit with this - far more than I thought they would.
marconi game
On the guests' invitations I explained we'd be having a Marconi game and that anyone who wanted to participate should bring a few $1 bills with them that would go in a pot for the winner of the game to collect.
I began the game by explaining to guests how the Marconigrams (as they were called back then) actually contributed to the loss of life on Titanic that night:
The wealthy used Marconigrams as a status symbol and to flaunt their wealth to each other. By today's standards, a Marconigram would have cost $5 per word to send.
So the 1st Class passengers would send a frivolous Marconigram that didn't need to be sent, then casually drop at their dinners together "I sent a Marconigram this morning..." to flaunt to each other they could afford to do this.
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The morning and afternoon the Titanic sank, Marconi operators Phillips and Bride had been working on fixing an electrical problem with the Marconi machine. They'd been up late the night before so were exhausted. While they were fixing the machine, the pile of needless Marconigrams from 1st class passengers baclogged.
So around midnight that night, Phillips was attempting to catch up on this Marconigram 1st Class backlog that had piled up.
The ship reportedly nearest to Titanic was the Californian. Its wireless operator sent a Marconi to Phillips that the Californian was stopped due to all of the surrounding ice. Phillips, frustrated with catching up on the stack of 1st Class Marconigrams told the Californian's wireless operator to shut up, he was busy. As a result, the Californian's wireless operator shut down his Marconi machine and went to bed. This is why the Caifornian never received Titanic's QLD that she was sinking! Had Phillips not caused the Californian's wireless operator to shut down their Marconi machine, the Californian likely could have saved many of those who drowned. And had Phillips paid attention to the California's warning they were stopped in ice, Titanic's sinking may have never happened at all. In fact, 7 ice warnings never reached Captain Smith. So this 1st class hoidy toidy nonsense of sending needless Marconigrams contributed to the sinking of the Titanic.
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HOW TO PLAY THE GAME
I gave each guest a blank telegram form, a pencil and a clipboard to write on.
Each guest had to write 3 things about themselves they would send as their Marconigram: 2 of which were lies, 1 of which was truth that no one knew about them. They could not share their Marconigrams with anyone.
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Their Marconigram cost $1 to send and the money went into a pot for the winner of the game.
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They then went into our Marconi room, where hubby typed out their Marconigram in Morse code. After he'd sent their message, he kept their telegram form and the player rejoined the other guests.
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When everyone's Marconigram had been sent, hubby rejoined the guests with all of their Marconigrams and read them aloud. Players had to guess who'd sent the Marconigram being read and which was the truth among the 3 things they written on their telegram form, that no one knew about them.
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The game got pretty hilarious as everyone's truths came spilling out about them. We ended up playing several rounds by the guests' requests.
dancing
Everyone loved Colanna's sstring quartet so some guests spontaneously began dancing while the quartet was still there. (The quartet were playing music that had been played on Titanic.)
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I just rolled with it...if the guests wanted to dance, let them dance!
titanic treasure hunt
If your crowd is into treasure hunts, you can download this Titanic Treasure Hunt for $3.98.
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We awarded the winner with a nice gift basket.
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The Titanic Museum Online Gift Shop has a nice assortment of memorabilia.
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Etsy also has a large selection of Titanic items.
Heading 5
costume contest
No Titanic party is complete without a costume contest.
We had guest choose their favorite and 1st, 2nd and 3rd runners up.
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The winner received a Titanic gift baset and we handed out ribbons to the runners up.
titanicopoly
For a smaller group of guests consider playing Titanic-opoly - a take off on the game of Monopoly.
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AT THE END OF YOUR PARTY DON'T FORGET TO TELL YOUR GUESTS WHETHER THE TITANIC PASSENGER THEY'RE PLAYING, LIVED OR DIED IN THE SINKING!
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As we did this at our party, Colanna's quartet played Nearer My God To Thee.
my weird connection to the titanic
Ever since I was a very little kid I've had an inexplicable fascination with ships, especially Titanic. My dad used to take me swimming in Lake Michigan. The water wouldn't even be 40 degrees, I'd be turning blue and yet my dad would still have to drag me kicking and screaming from the water. After I swam, I'd ask him to take me to the Kenosha harbor to see the ships.
I'm an internationally certified professional psychic medium so most of my friends are psychic. I was chatting with a psychic friend of mine who knew absolutely nothing about my fascination with Titanic or ships in general. The subject had never come up between us.
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Suddenly she began reading me:
"Patty, in your last life here you were on a ship. You weren't alone...you had a younger male with you. I want to say brother. I'm seeing the Swedish flag. I think you were Swedish, I'm also getting the name Johanna and the letters P and A. You were steerage passengers. Patty, this ship sank and you and this male died when it did.
OMG! Patty? I think you were on the Titanic!"
Now, I know there are psychics who are very good at what they do and are not frauds in any sense. But I have a skeptical side of me that wants proof. Curiosity got the better of me. I went to the Titanic 3rd class passenger list...and what do I find?
My friend had nailed the story of Johanna Persdotter Ahlin from Sweden who'd lost her life when the Titanic sank.
As if that weren't odd enough...
My grandmother was from Sweden. She came to America on a ship, traveling with one of her younger brothers. Both were steerage passengers.
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She settled in the same city Johanna had settled in when Johanna had arrived in America.
Johanna's husband was in the dairy business. One of my cousins in Sweden runs a large dairy farm.
The synchronicities between our two families kept piling up.
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Was I Johanna Persdotter Ahlin in a previous life? I've had 5 full fledged NDE'S so I know for a fact that we reincarnate. Anything is possible.
If I was Johanna, that's okay and if I wasn't Johanna, that's okay too. I don't get fussed over past lives because they're just that - past.
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Now whenever I attend a Titanic party, I go as Johanna for no other reason than in a tiny way, to help keep her memory alive.
