# All Saints' Wake

> A gothic manor staged for a party — banquet hall, library, alchemy corner and a garden of lanterns.

https://narunest.com/portfolio/all-saints-wake

Style: Venue, Seasonal

The idea: A whole house dressed for one night, and laid out so a crowd could actually move through all of it.

Arrive through an eerie maze and discover a banquet hall and runway. A long table runs down the middle of a patterned stone floor under tall stained glass, laid end to end with pumpkins, candles and tiered cakes.

In the maze you'll find a library with floor-to-ceiling shelves and occult symbols, an alchemy corner with a fanged cauldron and a wall of bottles, a strange garden, and a lantern-hung corridor full of staring namazus leading to an archway built as a set of open jaws.

What went into it:
- A single long banquet table exuberantly stuffed with treats
- Rooms formal and strange — banquet hall, alchemist's workshop, uncanny garden, downright unsettling namazus
- An elaborate runway for the costume contest aglow with torches and topped with a giant floating pumpkin
- Planting lit from beneath, with darkness deliberately left in between
- Blue light through stained glass and orange candlelight doing all of the colour work

Photographs:
- The banquet hall — a long table laid with pumpkins and candles under stained glass, staircase behind (caption: The banquet hall, before the guests arrived.)
- Two guests in costume with arms raised on the runway, beneath a giant floating jack-o'-lantern and between burning torches (caption: The runway, and the costume contest it was built for.)
- The banquet table on a patterned stone floor, tall stained-glass windows along the wall and pumpkin stools drawn up to it
- The table seen from above, laid end to end with pumpkins, cakes and candlesticks, a guest seated at each end (caption: Laid end to end.)
- The hall seen wide — the runway platform under its floating pumpkin, rope barriers, torches, and a tiered dessert stand to one side
- A tiered stand of cakes and pastries beside a carved wooden dresser, guests in costume gathered to the right
- A hedgehog on the dessert table between plates of cake and tarts, a guest in a dark gown behind (caption: Detail, at table height.)
- A guest in a witch's hat beside the banquet table, seen past a cake stand, stained glass behind
- The table close up — a glazed pie, cakes, candlesticks and mugs, a high-backed chair drawn in at the end
- The banquet table seen from the side, pumpkin stools around it, a potted orange tree and a rose window beyond
- The library — floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, a festival poster, shield-backed chairs and a blue lantern on a side table (caption: The library, one room off the hall.)
- A blue lantern in an ornate cage on a side table, a guest in a pumpkin-trimmed witch's hat beside it
- The alchemist's workshop — a fanged cauldron glowing at floor level, bookshelves, and moon and star lights on the wall
- The workshop from the other side — a table of coloured bottles, the cauldron glowing, and namazus watching from the doorway
- The alchemy corner, a fanged cauldron glowing beside a wall of bottles and shelves (caption: The alchemy corner.)
- A dim blue corridor with namazus gathered along one side and a glowing jellyfish drifting overhead
- Six namazus in red aprons lined up down a lantern-lit corridor, staring straight ahead (caption: The namazus, who stare.)
- The archway built as a set of open jaws, red curtains and hanging vines around it, a guest standing in the opening (caption: The jaws, at the end of the lantern corridor.)
- Guests with arms raised beneath the jaws archway, drifts of pink flowers in the foreground and bats on the wall behind
- A hedgehog in close-up beside a lit jack-o'-lantern, a basket of apples and a drift of white flowers (caption: Detail, at ground level.)
- A guest in a witch's hat beside a stack of three lit jack-o'-lanterns, in a bed of pink and violet flowers
- The hall after dark — planters and a low bench under the lit round window, a guest crossing the floor (caption: The same room, once it got dark.)
- The hall seen wide at night, a guest standing before the glowing round window, dessert on the table in the foreground
- Candles burning in the foreground, stained glass and the round window lit beyond
- The banquet table at night, a guest in a long coat beside it, stained glass lit blue along the wall
- A guest standing between a carved dresser and the laid table, stained glass lit behind
- The hall wide at night — blue crystal lamps on stands, stained glass, and the staircase rising at the right (caption: Blue glass and orange candlelight, doing all the colour work.)
- The runway seen from above over a chain railing lined with candles, torches and blue crystal lamps on the floor below (caption: The runway from above.)