Halloween 2021 Wedding Guest dress code Help!

Gothic ball? Is there a monster you prefer? like ghosts? I think having people dress up as ghosts from different decades would be fun!

You could do elegant Gothic or Day of the Dead. Or you could pick an era, like the 1920s, 1950s, etc. Or even just suggest all black attire- having all guests in black would touch on the Halloween aspect of it and look amazing in photos

Sounds so cool! Just to clarify, you prefer your guests dressed in typical semi formal or formal wedding wear with just a touch of "costume"? Because you could request formal wedding wear, but allow accessories like a mask. So it's not full blown masquerade but still a little nod to Halloween. Or having your guests dress up as people from Victorian times would be very on theme!

Ya I was thinking semi-formal and asking them to wear all black. After posting this I saw a halloween wedding video where they had racks set up for guests in the reception area with little costume pieces, like hats and silly things to throw over their clothes! Also thought about having a face painter so people can get their face painted ala Day of the Dead or glittery fairies or whatever! But not sure how that would work with current covid restrictions.

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You can certainly ask them to wear black as a suggestion, but I wouldn't make it a requirement.

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Ya I don't want to be pushy or dictate their behavior. Just try to use phrasing so people don't show up in full costume and during the ceremony we're looking out at our friends dressed as superheroes.

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Then I would just state something along the lines of while we understand the wedding is taking place the day before Halloween we kindly ask customs to be left at home. As for hiring someone to do face painting, I would wait until closer to the wedding. Right now everyone is having to wear masks and I honestly don't see that restriction going away even with the vaccine. I think people are going to be hesitant to get the vaccine because the short and long term effects are unknown. A new strain of Covid was also recently discovered so who knows if the vaccine will even protect against it. I do know that my OB (currently pregnant with my first child) said that she thinks the restrictions will remain in effect until at least through summer if not longer. I don't look for things to really change until 2022.

Dictating a semi formal dress code when you're having a tented backyard wedding seems pretentious and inappropriate for the venue.


If you don't want people in costume, don't mention Halloween or costumes on your invite. Send out a more formal suite as if this were a formal wedding on any other day. The guests will get the hint.
Are you able to change your date?

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While it's in a backyard, we still want it to feel like a formal event. The backyard is 1/2 an acre so it's not a typical backyard. We're going for a fancy house party of sorts.

We are very very set on our date. But I am getting great ideas from y'all on how to avoid full blown costumes! I don't mind a pumpkin patterned suit but that's very different from a Batman costume. We're also comedians so we're okay with the silly, we just still want it to feel like a wedding and not a halloween party.

That’s awesome!
Can you ask for goth, Victorian or just dark clothing yet no costumes? Or maybe muted dark attire?

Weddings are semiformal by default. Unless the venue requires a dress code for entrance, it's considered rude to request or dictate any dress code. You can say "Elegant Gothic attire welcome" but that is the extent of it.