Having a theme for your wedding can help make all of your decisions easier. If you have a winter-wonderland theme with blue and silver snowflakes, those hot-pink bridesmaid dresses won’t make sense – easy. If you are planning your wedding for Halloween, the decisions might not be so obvious. How do you go for classy but creepy?
1. Choose the right venue
It can be a lot of work turning a not-so-spooky hotel ballroom into an elegant, gothic space, and you may end up making it look like a primary school Halloween disco! It is a lot less effort to choose a venue that is already preloaded with old-worldly class. A manor house or castle is perfect – bonus points if it has a ghost story attached!
2. Pick a Halloween colour scheme
Halloween doesn’t have to mean the classic combination of purple, black and orange, any more than it needs to include rubber bats and fake blood! Emerald greens, rich reds, or even floaty layers of greys and white are the classic ways to have a Halloween themed wedding.
3. Don’t ignore pumpkins
If you want to integrate Halloween into your wedding in the simplest way possible – buy a lot of pumpkins and put them everywhere. Line the entranceway with carved jack-o-lanterns; make a display of pumpkins for photos, for you and your guests to use; have mini pumpkins as centrepieces; or make pumpkin soup to start the wedding meal!
4. Think about your Food and Drink
Pumpkin pie, soup, risotto are all classic ways to bring a taste of Halloween for your wedding meal. You could go really gothic with your menu, but make sure your guests aren’t likely to gag at any of the choices! Desserts and drinks are other great places for showing off your spooky style with ghoulish-themed cocktails and delightfully dark chocolate treats. The wedding cake is another opportunity to add some gothic flair, and an easy place to let loose creativity and go over-the-top if you’ve been holding back everywhere else!
5. Consider the dress code
Will it be fancy dress for your guests? Or perhaps a black and white theme? Or will take it down a notch and opt for a fancy dress photo-booth at the reception? A Halloween theme for a wedding provides brides and grooms with the perfect excuse to wear non-traditional wedding clothes and let your imaginations run wild with accessories!
6. The devil is in the detail…
Candles, stunning flowers, layered linens, and the odd skull or raven are going to create a moody, gothic and elegant feel for your wedding, so don’t overlook the details, they are what will sell the theme.
And remember, you don’t have to go ‘all in’ on the Halloween theme to embrace it – you can pick and choose the elements that you include to make it a spooktacular success.