Halloween Wedding

Erin,

I did a Halloween wedding in 2009, and it was a blast. What I observed to be most important is to give your guests choices so that they do not feel uncomfortable in any way. For this wedding, costumes were optional and I would estimate maybe 1/3 were in costumes and 2/3 were in dressy wedding clothes. The bridal party was in traditional bridal wear, with the exception of a top hat that the groom wore.

Also, if your ceremony is in a church, schedule some time between the ceremony and the reception when guests could change into their costumes.

Table centerpieces were jack-o-lanterns. There was a best costume contest, and plenty of Halloween themed dance music.

Some people are into Halloween and some are not. Best not to force anybody into the theme or put too many constraints on your guests.

Dan

My questions are this:

are you dressing up, and is your wedding party dressing up?

I like the idea of letting them wear costumes, I think it could be fun but maybe you could word it along the lines of "church appropriate" or "family-friendly costumes are welcomed."

LOL @ fte

Halloween is a pagan holiday. "church appropreate" isn't really....appropreate. but family friendly would be good.

I know this Analy as I am Pagan but I didn't know if they were having their wedding in a church so I included it, plus most people understand that "church appropriate" clothing isn't slutty Halloween costumes.

We getting married in a garden (I am also Pagan, my FH leans towards it but has not claimed it as his religion, but we are having a hand fasting). I think I'll put "family friendly costumes" on the invitations.

Analy, we are partially dressing up... meaning we are still wearing traditional outfits, and then giving the bridal party the option of adding a little Halloween flair to it. Like I'm planning on wearing wings and I think FH is going to wear a cape....details to be discussed at further date, lol.

Thanks Dan, I didn't even think about having a Best Costume contest, that's a pretty cool idea! Yea we aren't going to force people to do anything they don't want to. I was thinking we would put on the invites "Family friendly costumes encouraged but not required" or something like that.

I think that your guests should follow your lead. That said, maybe if you are going to ask them to dress up, you could change into something more...festive for the reception? The contest is such a cool idea!

I would love to dress up for a halloween wedding. as long as its just encouraged and not required go for it! you could play the monster mash and other halloween songs and definitely have a best costume event

That sounds like a lot of fun. Also, I'm excited to learn you are doing a hand fasting ceremony too. I'd love to talk to you about it and see what kind of wording you are using. I am trying to rewrite a couple of hand fasting ceremonies that I have found to make something uniquely special for us and I would just like to know how somebody else is doing it.

Lovely, that's one thing I was worried about, half the guest dressing up and half not. And then looking at the pictures later down the road and being unhappy with them.

This is why I'm so torn!

FTE, I have a couple that I found in my books, as well as our officiant sent us a bunch of spiritual ceremonies she has done in the past.

I'll have to find my notes and let you know. FH and I started putting together ceremony but it's not completed.

Now to remember where I put my notes at....