Dhanusha Sivajee is chief marketing officer at The Knot Worldwide, the umbrella group for wedding planning sites The Knot, WeddingWire and Bodas—and other relationship milestone brands including The Bump, The Nest and Lasting.

In this episode of the “Ad Block” podcast, Sivajee talks about her love of themed costume parties, which she throws regularly at her house in Westchester. (Sorry, The Knot employees, no co-workers allowed.) She and her husband have held masquerade balls, prohibition bashes and ‘80s parties.

“We take ourselves too seriously,” she says. “I love getting people together and saying, ‘You’re going to be so and so today.’ You can just live out whatever fantasy you want to live out. You can be whoever you want to be today.”

These are adults-only soirees, so no kids allowed. “I turn people away if they don’t come dressed up. These are my friends, they should know better,” she says. “There’s no room for lameness at my parties.”

Before moving to the suburbs, the tradition began in New York City with dinner parties, murder mystery parties and whodunits. “I said to my husband the only way I was going to move to the ‘burbs was if I got to have big parties in our living room where people dress up. It’s an excuse to hire a DJ, have a band and dance ‘til 2:00 in the morning.”

Not only does it get people to visit her, it’s an outlet for people who’ve aged out of the downtown night life. “At this age, where can I go clubbing in New York City?” she says. And friends don’t want to be the old person in the club, either.

Sivajee also plays wedding matchmaker, learns new lingo for getting drunk and explains why she likes people who tell it like it is. “We all want someone to just keep it real with us and then do what they f-cking said they were going to do, right?”