Halloween is tomorrow, and if you haven’t already decided on what you and your boo thang are wearing, as usual, your partner in procrastination has your back. Since I’m not necessarily the gal folks come to when they need ideas for costumes, I reached out to my cousin, Shalaine for some tips. That’s her and her fiance, Derek in the picture above from a Halloween party this weekend. Shalaine and her Derek are known for their commitment to Halloween, so I’m excited to share some these tips from her on picking a couples costume for Halloween.

Make sure people can recognize your costume.

It’s already annoying when you’re one person and all night folks are asking, “What are you supposed to be?” Multiply that by two, and you and your man will wish you’d have just stayed at home. Once you decide on a costume, go all out! For Derek’s Mr. T costume, Shalaine crafted Mr. T’s signature mohawk for her boyfriend out of fake hair and glued it on with weave glue. For her Foxy Brown costume, she made sure to have the right accessories, down to the flower in her hair and the peace sign necklace.

Stay in character.

There’s no point in dressing up if you aren’t going to have fun with it! Change your voice, your walk, whatever you have to do to portray your character for the night. Also, if your partner is in character, you HAVE to have their back by following suit! Shalaine said that she didn’t have any problem convincing Derek to stay in character. All night long he walked around talking like Mr. T, and she says he even woke up the next morning talking about, “I pity the fool who don’t get my coffee.”

Choose size appropriate costumes.

Choosing size appropriate costumes will also help folks recognize who you are. Shalaine is voluptuous, so she could pull off Foxy Brown with no problem. If my skinny tail tried to go as the 70’s movie queen, I’d look crazy! If your costume is too big or too small, not only will you feel uncomfortable all night long, but you’ll probably get irritated from pulling and tugging at your clothes all night.

You don’t have to be a pair.

Even though Shalaine and Derek went as Pebbles and Bam-Bam last year, they decided to go a different direction this year. A couples costume doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to “go together” in the sense that you are a pair, but rather the feeling of the costumes are similar. In this case, both Foxy Brown and Mr. T are iconic characters from the 70’s/80’s. They’re known for their big…jewelry, and have very distinctive looks. It’s totally acceptable for you to pull your couples costume idea from a theme rather than actually pairs.

This year Terrence and I are going as newlyweds. Yeah. We’re boring. We’re totally not dressing up, but who knows what’ll happen next year. Shalaine has advised us to go as Beyonce and Jay-Z or Barack and Michelle Obama, so check back in 2014 to see what we decide to do!

Have you and your partner had an awesome couple’s costume? What was it? Are you dressing up this year?

If you are looking for some last minute costumes for your kiddos, check out my latest post on Hello Beautiful.