How long does it usually take to decorate before the wedding?

It depends on a lot of things. For my wedding, it took around 4 hours. I had a pretty fancy wedding I would say, but then again I had a whole crew of professionals getting it all done. So it just depends on how much you have to do and how many people you have helping you.

I love the theme by the way, that sounds like a lot of fun

Thank you very much. We are a very unique couple if I do say so myself & we started dating on Halloween, so it only seems appropiate in my opinion. & plus, we both love Halloween & Tim Burton. It's definetely not your typical wedding, but our families seem very exicted about it, & the venues employees have told me that they are looking forward to it. As far as the decorations are concerned...we really aren't planning much. I mean, we went shopping at our local Halloween store after Halloween & got most of everything we needed for 50% off, which helped out a lot. Plus, the bridal parties costumes which we got at Wal-Mart for 75% off. I think we've done an excellent job budget wise. Although we are doing one thing that I have never seen or heard about before. Our venue is a good size, but it's not proportioned very well, so we are going to have our guest seated at tables for both the ceremony & reception. This way, we don't have to remove everything & start over after the ceremony.

How long do you have the venue? I think you can get things done relatively quickly if you have a solid game plan. If you have pictures or a room diagram, take the decorations that you have and figure out exactly how/where you want to use them. Make sure you have everything you need as far as tape, scissors, etc. (Be sure to check with your venue about what you're allowed to do/use so there's no surprises). Start making a list of everything you will need to take with you. Enlist plenty of help that will make things go faster. Spend the time upfront planning so the execution will be easy. Do as much as you can ahead of time. One woman blogged that she went to her church and draped the aisle ahead of time and then just took it off and hung it on a hanger until her wedding. Not the case for you but you get the idea. Try to take a good faith estimate of how long it will take and then allow yourself a couple of hours to freshen up and get dressed. Sorry to be so longwinded!

Luckily we have the venue all day, which is from 10am till midnight (meaning we, along with all of our stuff has to be out by midnight or else pay for another day) & no problem at all, I write a lot too, lol! Thank you though, that sounds great! I might actually be able to get it all done in an hour or so. That ebing said, what time is a good time to have a wedding?

I LOVE that theme!!!

Love the theme! Depends onj how elaborate you go with the decor, the place we rented will let oyu in the day before to set up and decorate..my guess is it will most likely take better part of the day as we have to set up the table and chairs and what not..and I'm kind of a perfectionist...And there are some tings I want to do that most people don't do when decorateing the hall, like move all the crap out of the annex, I will be doing that and cleaning/tidying the bar area and making the ladies room a bit nicer..adding a basket and I was thinking of putting a basket in the mens rooms but the only thing I can think of to put in there is deodorant and gum..lol

Congrats Amanda P. Love the theme. I recently was a Catering Director and sometimes I was able to allow my customer to come in the night before and set up. If that was not possible, then they were able to come in by 10 AM and start setup. Depending on how much decor you have to set up on your tables and stuff it could take 1 1/2 hrs. The more people the faster setup will go and just like Ladydee said, the more planning upfront, the better the turnout will be. Good Luck & HAPPY PLANNING. :-)

Schmidt if you are serving alcohol you might want to put some condoms in there too! LOL j/k well not really but kinda lol!

Amanda me and FH personally didn't want to have our wedding take up our entire day so we are having our ceremony at 11AM. Reception beginning at 1PM and ending around 5-6PM. HOWEVER!!!!!!!!! Much as I like the idea of gettin it over with, I think with your theme it just calls for a night-time party. Are there windows in the room or can you dim the lights? I think a dimly candle lit ceremony would just a little umph to your theme. I would lean towards an evening ceremony. That way the reception stretches into the night. End it by 9 or 10 PM to allow time for cleanup.

An evening candlelight ceremony would be great for a Halloween wedding...I would shoot for 6:30. That will give you plenty of time to decorate.

Well, I guess I forgot to mention that there are lights in the floor made for the dancing area, which sounds really cool. & as far as candlelight goes, I have planned to have jack-o-lanterens everywhere to match the theme. I like the idea of having it at night though, maybe start around 4 or 5 so that at the reception the jack-o-lanterns & floor lights would make the room nice & dim. & as far as the decorating goes, luckily, the venue sets up the tables & chairs for you, all you have to do is tell them how you want it & when you come in, all you have to do is decorate, but they will not let you in the night before unless you pay for that day as well. I'm about to post some pictures of the jack-o-lanterns if yall want to check them out. So far, there will be 12 full size jack-o-lanterns, & 10 semi-small sized jack-o-lanterns with the table number carved into them as the center piece of each table. I look forward to hearing more ideas from you all!

I knew there was halloween-centered lighting but I don't really do halloween so the words wouldn't come to me lol! I think the jack o lanterns will be great. wow I'm really excited for you. When I tell you I don't do halloween...I mean I don't even buy candy to pass out to the kids lol. But your theme sounds really fun. I'm excited to see how it out plays out. You'll have to share pictures with us!

I will definetely post pictures! This is definetely going to be a night to remember!

Yes have it in the evening or late afternoon...decorating could take twice as long as you think and your getting ready depending if you are doing it yourself or someone else could take three times as long as you think. Plus, you don't want a big gap in between the ceremony and reception. I feel like it should flow into one another. Stake out some time to take private pics too with you and your FH and family and bridal party.

I was gonna ask about that...if the wedding & ceremony are at night, then how can we take the pictures?

I have put up the current Jack-O-Lanterns that we have decided on. The illistrations are on inspiration boards. Go check em' out & lemme know what you thing.

Think*

Anyone else have any suggestions?

I think that orange and purple rope lights would be awesome... especially on the head table I love halloween... you could do carmel apples as a favor... I want to but FH thinks its to haloweeny... I know as a kid we did bobbing for apples out of trees so we didnt get wet... you could hang apples on yarn from the celing (if its a drop celing) I think nothing screams halloween more than GLOW STICKS! you could also get a fog machine

this is awesome

http://www.yankeehalloween.com/images/pumpkinfriends19.jpg

and this would be a cool cake

http://www.wedding-cakes-for-you.com/images/halloween-wedding-cake.jpg

http://www.balloonsculptures.com/blk and orange wedding copy.jpg

just some random things that caught my eye... not in the mood for homework lol

Love the theme and the jack o'lanterns are awesome! When I think of Halloween, I automatically assume evening affair. Our ceremony is at 5p and the reception at 6p. We're going to do a lot of photos before the ceremony so we have time for family photos after the ceremony and to keep guests from having to wait too long for us to finish taking pictures.