My friend Kristen and I would play for hours and hours and hours while watching the movie Clue.
A great fun murder mystery? Super grand time in my book.
Naturally, when I discovered there were Mystery dinners and mystery theatre… well…
that just opened a whole new world of crazy fun possibilities!
In 2008 I convinced Bryan we should do a Murder Mystery Dinner. It went awesome so when it came to our next wedding I threw out the idea to do it as a giant Murder Mystery Wedding.
He loved the idea!
I'm sure there are like a ton of sites you could buy a pre-written murder mystery from but…
considering I like to write and the thought of asking people to memorize lines did not sound like fun, I decided to write it myself to prevent me from wasting money and re-writing whatever I bought.
I only have a few odd gifts and coming up with fun stories is one of them.
First we had to think of a story… and that starts with a dead body.
We didn't want to kill the bride or groom. Super bummer at a wedding.
We needed a villain of sorts that a bunch of people would have a motive to kill.
In came Col. Reginald Cumberbottom.
I called up one of my friends and asked if he would perform our wedding for us that year…
(That is him above and his lovely wife Sarah, whom I crazy adore) and if we could kill him off.
I bet he didn't even flinch on the other side of the phone. Although most normal people would if you called them up and asked if you could kill them… but since he had been my friend for awhile he probably wasn't surprised in the least.
Now once you have someone to kill… then the motives and characters just start rolling in.
I called up a few of my friends and asked if they would be game to be apart of my Mystery. Then I started creating their characters. I tried to pick certain personality traits my friends either had or didn't have and make it the focal points of their character they would play for the evening.
My murder Mystery parties are basically all improve. I pick the players and send them a packet in the mail. In the packet is their entire character: their name, their personality, what they would be likely to wear and their motive. {Because everyone has a motive} Along with that at the very bottom I tell them if they are the killer or not. Only two people usually know who the killer is and it's me and the killer. Not even the person getting killed finds out till the end so that they can vote too.
With everything they need to become another person for the evening it's then all the characters jobs to inform the guests through casual conversations or often open fights between other characters their backgrounds and motives or other characters motives. This turns the entire evening into an interactive adventure that the guests have to pay attention too or they will be stumped when someone suddenly drops dead.
Here were all my characters:
And here was our main story that went out to all of our guests:
Bryan & Jessica
O'Brian have been happily married for over six years... or so they thought.
When they tried to set up a trust for their two kids with their newly inherited
fortune from their Great Aunt Margo their lawyer informed them of a crucial
fact… their Marriage was never legal. Which means any children birthed during
that time would not be eligible for Great Aunt Margo’s fortune as a stipulation
in her will.
Since they had been dirt broke when they wed an old family
friend had offered his service to marry them for free. Yet, Colonel Reginald’s
“online ordination” was about as legit as his corrupt business empire and the
O’Brian’s aren’t the only people Colonel Reginald has caused issue for over the
years. In an attempt to confront Colonel Reginald with his dastardly doings the
O’Brian’s are getting re-married by the now officially ordained Colonel again
with many of the invited guests Dying to speak their minds
to Colonel Reginald. It will be a wedding to Die for.
Thankfully, it's actually a proven fact that I only make friends with Awesome people. I don't set out to do this. Everyone I meet and am blessed to form a friendship with just turn out to be completely AWESOME.
I mean what other people would agree to my crazy shenanigans?! (Besides Bryan who adores them)
The evening went amazing. I had coached everyone to stay in character no matter what but I was so overwhelmed by their awesome performances and how blessed I was to even know these people… I broke character almost the whole night with laughter.
Col. Reginald loved his "special mug". He drank his sweet tea out of it like a true Southerner. Yet, his beloved cup would be his demise as throughout the night our characters were taking it from him… one may have even slipped something in it..
If I could have recorded any wedding I wish we would have done this one. They went crazy with their characters, especially my friend Jason Fite who married us that evening. I'm pretty sure we should have paid to see his awesome performance as Colonel Cumberbottom… he was that great.
Yet, his grand skills couldn't get him out of what happened shortly after we cut the cake…
It literally had to be one of the longest death scenes ever… He even came back a few times to randomly shout things just for good measure.
After his demise the jig was up and all of our guests had to vote on which one of us done it.
Was it the cut off step-son? His angry cheese-making wife?
Was it the bride and groom whose fortune was going to go to Cumberbottom instead of their kids?
How about his right hand man who knew all his dastardly deeds?
I'd tell you… but then you might be next.
I think we'll have to have a Murder Mystery Wedding every few years…
It was killer.
God Bless and Much Love,
Jessica
