How To Have A Halloween Wedding That Doesn’t Look Like A Party Shop
Tell someone you're getting married at Halloween and watch their face. Somewhere behind the smile, they're picturing cobweb spray, a plastic cauldron and a best man dressed as a zombie.
You're picturing candlelight, deep red florals and a ceremony at dusk.
Both of those are a Halloween wedding. Only one of them is yours. Here's how to make sure the day you get is the one in your head.
Decide What Halloween Actually Means To You
Before you choose a single candle, work out what you love about this time of year. Is it the horror films? The folklore? The turning of the season? The fact that it's the one night the rest of the world dresses like you do?
Your answer shapes everything. A couple who love Hammer Horror will plan a very different day to a couple who mark Samhain. Neither is more "proper" than the other, but trying to do all of it at once is how you end up with a theme instead of a wedding.
Choose A Mood, Not A Motif
Pumpkins, bats and skulls are motifs. Candlelit, eerie, decadent, wild: those are moods.
Motifs get repeated until the room feels like a shop display. A mood gets interpreted, and that's where good suppliers earn their fee. Give your florist "overgrown and slightly dangerous" and you'll get something far more interesting than if you'd asked for black roses and a skull.
You can still have the skull. It just shouldn't be doing all the work.
Let The Season Do The Decorating
Late October hands you most of what you need for free. Early dusk. Bare branches. Mist if you're lucky. Dahlias, berries, seed heads and foliage the colour of dried blood.
Use real things wherever you can. Real pumpkins and gourds, real candles (or very good LED ones if your venue says no), real fruit on the tables. Pomegranates, figs and black grapes look like a Dutch still life and cost less than you'd think.
Natural texture is what separates gothic from gimmick.
Pick Your Palette Carefully
Orange and black is the fastest route to the party shop. If you love orange, try the burnt, rusty end of it and pair it with plum, oxblood or deep green.
Black with one rich colour and one metallic rarely fails. And as we've said before, dark doesn't have to mean black. Midnight blue and gold at Halloween is still unmistakably yours.
Be Clear About The Dress Code
This is the one that catches people out. If you say nothing, at least one guest will arrive in fancy dress and at least one will spend weeks worrying that they should have.
Decide early, then spell it out on the invitation. "Dress dark and dramatic" tells people what you want. "Black tie, black everything" does too. If you'd love full costume, say so. If you'd rather not see a single inflatable dinosaur, say that as well, kindly.
Guests like being told. It's guessing they hate.
Keep The Playful Bits For The Evening
There's room for fun. A horror film playing silently on a wall. A tarot reader. Trick or treat favours for the walk home. A cocktail that smokes.
Put them later in the day. A ceremony that's sincere and an evening that's mischievous gives you both versions of Halloween without either one undermining the other.
Book Earlier Than You Think
Halloween is the busiest date in the alternative wedding calendar. The suppliers who do this well are often booked a year or two ahead, and October venues with the right atmosphere go quickly too.
If you have your heart set on the 31st itself, start conversations now. If you're flexible, the whole last fortnight of October has the same light, the same leaves and far more availability.
It's A Wedding First
The best Halloween weddings we've seen have one thing in common: take away every seasonal detail and it would still obviously be that couple's day.
Start there. Then add the dark.
If you're planning an October wedding and want suppliers who won't reach for the cobweb spray, you'll find them in the Dark Wedding Directory. They already know the difference.
