Costumes · CouplesNo. 8838 · The 2026 edition
Couples Halloween costumes for any budget, from closet to craft.
Twenty pairs, each linked to its creator’s tutorial, from Home Alone’s Harry and Marv in clothes you own to Jack and Sally, Elphaba and Glinda and a Lego bride and groom, sorted by how much you’ll buy and make.
Couples Halloween costumes are easy to picture and harder to pull off, so every pair here links to a creator’s own how-to. Bring a partner, a friend or anyone you can talk into the other half; the twenty run from clothes you already own to builds with plaster and foam.
We sorted them by what each page asks of you, closet first. The National Retail Federation’s 2026 Halloween survey doesn’t break out couples costumes, but it found that 34% of consumers say they would look for items to reuse or repurpose if Halloween prices run higher than expected. Our budget groups are an estimate from each page’s materials, and most pages list no prices, so check the supplies before you shop.
Twenty pairs, sorted by effort
From your closet: your own clothes plus a small add-on
- Harry and Marv (Home Alone) — Styling and makeup only, no sewing: winter coats from your closet, a marker-drawn doorknob burn on Harry’s hand and a fake-blood iron mark on Marv’s face. The Home Alone post is written for a trio with Kevin, so a couple takes the two burglars. The tutorial
- Gru and Lucy (Despicable Me) — The Despicable Me pair, explicitly no-sew: Gru in a black hoodie with a mustache sticker flipped and halved into eyebrows, Lucy in a turquoise trench coat over a matching dress. The page says minions, Gru’s dog and the three daughters can join for a family version. The tutorial
- Where's Waldo and Wenda — This one is an assemble-it list rather than a craft tutorial: Waldo’s striped shirt, bobble hat and round glasses, Wenda’s denim skirt, striped knee socks and camera. The hat and glasses are the only specialty pieces, and the same post floats a Carmen Sandiego twist. The tutorial
- Pantone color combo — Two solid-color outfits, plus a strip of white vinyl and black letter stickers on a skirt hem and a jacket pocket, turn you both into paint-chip swatches. It’s two steps, and the labels come off afterward, so the outfits stay wearable. The tutorial
- Ketchup and mustard — Red clothes for one of you, yellow for the other, and a squeeze-bottle hat on each, made from a painted pie tin, cardstock and a headband. It’s one short craft session, and the post suggests a hot dog or burger to make it a trio. The tutorial
Low-cost: a few craft supplies and a little making
- Salt and pepper shakers — All white with a silver S, all black with a silver P, and gray hats dotted with Velcro circles as shaker tops. Most of the roughly three hours is paint drying, and the author swapped her hat for a foil-wrapped flower clip when it looked odd. The tutorial
- Peanut butter and jelly — Cardboard bread slices with painted crusts hang from ropes around your necks, one with a poster-board smear of peanut butter, the other jelly. Six short steps, about two hours; the brief write-up ends by telling you to find a friend for the other half. The tutorial
- Ms. Pac-Man and a ghost — Yellow felt on a cardboard circle, plus red lips and a mole, makes Ms. Pac-Man; a red felt poncho makes the ghost in about ten minutes. The author’s figure is under $10 per costume, and she advises a circle small enough for doorways. The tutorial
- Bob Ross and a happy little tree — Bob Ross needs a curly wig, beard and cardboard palette; the happy little tree is a brown tee turned dress, with Sharpie bark and fall-leaf branches pinned on. Sewing the dress took the author about 45 minutes, and the page links an easier painted version. The tutorial
- Cookies and milk — Peel-and-stick chocolate chips turn a tan dress into the cookie, with a milk-bottle headpiece on top; the other half is a milkman in white with a bow tie and a carrier of bottles. About an hour, and the chips are the blog’s own shop product. The tutorial
- Eleven and an Eggo waffle (Stranger Things) — Stranger Things’ Eleven, in a pink dress, pairs with a giant Eggo waffle worn like a backpack, built from cardboard and a pool noodle. The link is the waffle page, which leads to the dress tutorial; a store-bought dress with a collar added skips the sewing. The tutorial
Worth the effort: sewn gowns, plaster masks and foam heads
- Mario and Princess Peach — From the Mario games: Mario is mostly store-bought plus a fake-fur mustache; Peach is the sewing project, a pink ball gown the author rates intermediate. She names the patterns rather than walking through the gown, but gives full steps for the mustache, crown and power-up props. The tutorial
- Westley and Buttercup (The Princess Bride) — Both garments are sewn from Simplicity patterns: Westley as The Princess Bride’s masked Dread Pirate Roberts, in an all-black shirt and head scarf, and Buttercup in a red puff-sleeve maxi dress with a gold-trim belt. The page also links ready-made shortcuts and a free eye-mask pattern. The tutorial
- Adam and Barbara Maitland (Beetlejuice) — Beetlejuice’s married ghost couple as plaster-wrap masks built over a hard hat for Adam and wire hangers for Barbara. Nineteen steps with overnight drying between layers; the author’s costs were $1.99 for the hard hat and about $20 for plaster wrap, under half of it used. The tutorial
- Jack Skellington and Sally (The Nightmare Before Christmas) — Jack gets a rubber head mask with a swinging cardboard chin and a thrifted pinstripe suit; Sally gets a thrifted dress patched with hand-sewn scraps and a red wig. The Nightmare Before Christmas pair opens a page of several couples, told as a story, not steps. The tutorial
- Frankenstein and his Bride — Easier Bride, advanced Frankenstein: she gets a sprayed-black carpet hair shape, face-paint stitches and a dress glued from two white sheets, while his head is foam and liquid latex over a helmet and a big container. The write-up is one narrative paragraph, not numbered steps. The tutorial
- Mummy and ghost — Creepy on purpose, and with no sewing steps: this magazine how-to drapes white and cream cotton over a hard hat to make a grim-reaper-style ghost with a copper lantern, and wraps a shredded-skirt mummy in fabric strips, with a makeup tutorial for the pale, bruised eyes. The tutorial
- Lego bride and groom — Oversized Lego minifigure heads, each stacked from about 18 glued insulation-foam discs and painted yellow, worn as a bride and groom. Built for New York City’s Halloween parade, it’s a hard project of careful measuring and cutting, and the ventilation fans are optional. The tutorial
- Elphaba and Glinda (Wicked) — A general build guide for Wicked’s witches: Elphaba in black layers with a foam-and-felt hat and green makeup, Glinda in a knotted-tulle tutu with a wig and wand. The page’s own estimates run $25 to $60 thrifted for Elphaba and $30 to $70 for Glinda. The tutorial
- Rumi and Jinu (KPop Demon Hunters) — KPop Demon Hunters in everyday clothes: Rumi in a patched yellow cropped jacket, navy shorts and a purple braid; Jinu in his human-disguise look of a pink tee, windowpane shirt and white high-tops. Each look has a wikiHow page; the patches and braid are the fiddly parts. The tutorial
A good couples costume is only half a joke until the other person walks in.
Plenty of these split the work unevenly: Mario is easy and Peach needs intermediate sewing, the Pac-Man ghost takes about ten minutes while the circle is the moderate half, and Frankenstein’s head is advanced where his Bride is easier. Settle who takes the harder half before anyone buys supplies. A few of these pages carry affiliate links, so shop only for what your closet can’t cover, and the full costume shelf has more.