Ideas for Mafia Party Invitations

If you're throwing a party with a Mafia theme, start with your invitations. They needn't be expensive to get the point across that your friends are wanted---for good times. Watch movies and shows such as "The Godfather," The Sopranos" or other mob-related movies and shows from which to draw inspiration.

Famous Figures

Use iconic images of the Mafia, such as Marlon Brando as Don Corleone in "The Godfather" or Robert de Niro as Al Capone in "The Untouchables." Print the images out on your computer printer, and glue them onto blank card stock. Or simply print the figures out on card stock and use those as your invitations. Draw speech balloons to give the images words such as "Here's an invitation you can't refuse."

If you want your guests to dress in mobster attire, say so in the invitation.

Violin Case

Shape your invitations in the form of violin cases, using brown paper. Tape a small, plastic gun (the kind you can get as party favors or for GI Joe-type figures at party supply stores or dollar stores) inside the invitations, to make it look as if they've opened a violin case and found a gun inside.

Tools of the Trade

Cut your invitations out of black construction paper in the shape of tommy guns, whiskey bottles or looped garottes, an implement infamously used by the Mafia to execute people.

Use a silver pen to make your wording show up on the black paper. Or cut words from newspapers and magazines for your information. Print mailing labels using the Ransom font.

Cigars

Buy inexpensive or chocolate cigars. Remove the bands and replace them with your own band that includes all the party information. Send each cigar to your invitees in a sturdy cardboard or paper box, with a note to "check the band."

Wanted

Design a "Wanted" poster for each of the people you plan to invite, including their names, some fictional mafia-related crimes and fun facts. Include photos or caricatures, physical descriptions and what they're worth in reward money. A sample might read: "Wanted! Sally Tyson, dead or alive, for bank robbery. Tyson is 5'6" tall, blonde with blue eyes. May be in the company of her dog Twinkles. Reward: As many chocolate truffles as you can eat on the evening of March 6 at 6:00 p.m., Dave and Jayne's house."

References

• My Party Planner: Mobster party ideas
• Crime Culture: Gangster Movies of the 1930s