With the way everything happened last year I was worried that our annual Halloween costume making wouldn’t happen. Every year for the last ten years my fiancé and I have made a couples costume. I’m actually surprised how many we’ve been able to do. I also never expected to be someone who made couples costumes. I’m thrilled that he seems to share the same love of Halloween I have.

We also have a love of Disney, and visit several times a year. In the years we’ve been together we have only missed one Halloween at Disney. Surprisingly it wasn’t 2020. Its similarly become a tradition that we go to a Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) every year. Last year they didn’t do any but you were allowed to wear a costume into the park during the Disney Halloween time frame (August to October, following their usual costume rules).

When we started discussing what we could do for 2020 we decided to just upgrade a couple of the costumes we had used prior. In 2019 we did a separate costume for Halloween night on top of the MNSSHP costumes. Why I decided to make another new costume for both of us (and my pup, and my sister) after already having done one that year, can only be described as insanity, but make them I did. We decided to do Toy Story 4. So I made a Ducky (my youngest sister), Bo Peep (the pup), and Duke Caboom (Scott) costume. They turned out pretty good considering I did it in a week. And I will admit I bought a Bunny costume for myself instead because making a second adult onesie was too time consuming.

For the MNSSHP we decided to do Aladdin. As in the original 90’s cartoon version. Since we were going to two MNSSHP in 2019 we actually also brought our costumes from 2018 (because they are awesome!!) But the Aladdin costumes and Halloween parties from 2019 are a story for another time.

Since we had the Toy Story and Aladdin costumes, and Scott was particularly enamored of his Duke Caboom costume we went with those. He made some alterations to the stripes on the Caboom jumpsuit and had me re-adjust the fit in the front since it was a little tight (Again with the ill-fitting store bought stuff!) He found some great additions for the belt and helmet. And he had a specially made mask from a store on Etsy so that he would look like he had a handle bar mustache despite not being able to see his actual face.

I decided rather than wear a hot fleece onesie in September with a face mask (because Florida is the worst until at least November heat-wise) I would do a new Bo Peep costume for myself.

I started ordering stuff in July and August to make sure I could get the right materials. Then it was just trying to recreate what she wore. I even purchased a stuffed billy goats gruff toy and made it into a purse to hold my wallet and phone. Its not the best costume I’ve made. Even now as I write I’m thinking of ways to fix the top into a more corset shape. Maybe even add actual boning. It was not as tightly fit as I would have liked and I felt shapeless in it. But I do like the way it turned out visually.

Re-creating something from a computer animated movie is tough. So many different people work on them. They do try to create a seamless flow, but often you’ll find that in one scene an outfit will look a certain way and in another it may be similar but a different color or not so detailed. We do the best we can with what we have.

We did also update the Aladdin costumes slightly from the year before. Minor fixes for fittings and Scott upgraded his shoes. We intended on going to the Magic Kingdom twice on our trip. It was the only place you could supposedly wear full costumes. But the second MK day turned into an Epcot day for us when the weather didn’t cooperate. I did not want all of our hard work on those special costumes to be ruined by foul weather so despite it we opted out.

Overall I think the costumes were fun this year. I am certainly glad we even got to do them because in July no one was even sure the parks would stay open. Poor Disneyland is still closed, and its been almost year. Understandably so, but I cannot wait for the day when we can mingle in crowds again without the fear of the last year upon us.

Soon enough here we’ll begin discussing this years costumes. In fact we’ve already thrown around some ideas. Usually by July we start working. We often end up at the MNSSHP in August or September so we start as early as possible. We’ll have to see how it goes this year with a wedding in November (at Disney of course!) I will update soon once we start down that road.