Lady Spleen - Artist : Pin-Up Girl : Rock n' Roll Vixen

More in my series of posts about my 2009 Halloween Wedding. I hope fellow darklings draw inspiration from these images and follow suit with their own unique celebrations!

We chose to have a formal reception but, it being Halloween, we had to have a nod to costumed revelry and give our guests something fun to play with during the reception. I decided to make some festive favors that would be available next to the candy buffet - glittered Bat Masks and (in keeping with the vintage aesthetic) masquerade mustaches!

Apparently there is and has been a mustache craze spreading among DIY weddings. I was not aware of this when I crafted my papier mache mustaches-on-sticks months and months before my wedding, but after making them I discovered that I was not the first nor only one to have this stroke of genius! I've since seen all manner of wearable mustaches and mustache favors incorporated into weddings. Great minds think alike I suppose :)

In short, our guests LOVED THEM! They were the perfect silly, irreverent touch to our otherwise fairly traditional party. I couldn't possibly fit all of the photos into this post, so I chose my favorites.

I'm so glad we did this! Looking back at these photos of my friends and family being silly and having fun is priceless!

More in my series of posts about my 2009 Halloween Wedding. I hope fellow darklings draw inspiration from these images and follow suit with their own unique celebrations!

The ceremony was held in the woods in front of a tiny rustic chapel built by a long time family friend who is an amazing artist and whose Victorian era home we used for the
celebration.

The little building was beautiful to begin with but the florist had made a special trip to visit the chapel beforehand to plan her arrangements. The end result was an assortment of gorgeous flowers in all shades of orange along with trailing vines, shiny little berries and glossy leaves above the doorway and on  the railings.

Candelabra flanked each side of the chapel, each with their own flowers. At the base of the steps were white pumpkins and wood barrels of orange flowers were placed on either end of the landing.

Coordinating flowers were used in all the bouquets , corsages, and  boutonnieres. Small table arrangements were made for the reception (some were placed in hollowed out white pumpkins!) and nearly all had one or two of my glittered black spiders placed upon them.

Up next, serious silliness....

More in my series of posts about my 2009 Halloween Wedding. I hope fellow darklings draw inspiration from these images and follow suit with their own unique celebrations!

For the wedding, we had the great honor of having SINched outfit the wedding party!  The overall goal was to have beautiful vintage inspired outfits that were timeless , unique and elegant.  They certainly delivered!

My gown was my mother's wedding gown - a Victorian inspired 80's dress which SINched subtly reworked into an elegant new gown. They  put in hours of work removing the high illusion neckline , bustling  the long A-line skirt, removing the intricate applique from the bodice and transferring it to a brand new matching corset to be worn on top of the dress. The full length lace-covered sleeves remained completely original.

SINched were on hand the day of the wedding to dress me and the bridesmaids. It takes effort getting into almost any wedding gown, but my ribbon laced corset needed a bit of extra attention!

To go with the gown, I purchased a vintage fabric flower fascinator from Etsy seller Feathers and Frills. It already had beautiful lace, silk and crystals but I added more white ostrich feathers and white veiling. Jessicka, the amazing hair dresser, created a towering stack of romantic curls to place it on. To complete the look I wore a pair of mid-calf black velvet boots.

SINched also made the groom's Victorian/Regency inspired jacket and waistcoat! The jacket fabric was a rich black and brown pinstriped velvet and the cuffs and collar were solid black. The lining matched the bridesmaids' orange corsets and groomsmen's ascots and his black ascot was tacked with a tie pin covered in the same orange silk dupioni.

We couldn't have asked for more beautiful clothing to wear on our wedding day. It meant even more that our outfits were made by the hands of loving friends!

In the next few posts - flowers, mustaches and masks!

What would your dream wedding outfit be?

More in my series of posts about my 2009 Halloween Wedding. I hope fellow darklings draw inspiration from these images and follow suit with their own unique celebrations!

For the wedding, we had the great honor of having SINched outfit the wedding party! First up - the bridesmaids. They wore an entirely custom ensemble of a black satin hobble skirt, black satin long-sleeved shrug and burnt orange silk dupioni overbust corset. Their hair was coiffed in retro style by Jessicka Watkins and each lovely lady's 'do was topped with a veiled black silk flower fascinator.

Beautiful orange rose Victorian pomanders were made by the florist, Carol Bergman, to compliment the outfit.

SINched supplied handmade silk dupioni ascots for the groomsmen to match the bridesmaid's corsets.

...Coming up next, the custom vintage bridal gown and handmade groom's coat

Last year my husband and I were married on Halloween. To almost all this was an obvious choice, but to strangers there could be nothing weirder (I actually had to replace some of my vendors because of their obvious disgust at my choice of date).  I wanted to share some of my favorite photos  to  inspire others interested in a Halloween wedding (or ANY "unique" wedding) and to show the doubters that it can indeed be done and done well!

First off, the candy bar! No Halloween is complete without candy, so in addition to cake we put out a spread of serve-yourself sweets. It was a bit of work finding entirely orange candy but the effect was well worth it. The peach gummi bears turned out to be the biggest hit. By the end of the night everyone was dropping them in their champagne!

Custom bridesmaid corsets, orange roses and mustaches to follow in the coming posts...