October is the 5th most popular month for weddings, notes an article published in the June 16, 2005 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. While not all of those are Halloween weddings, I’m sure a fair amount of them are. Despite the date’s popularity, though, good Halloween wedding decorations aren’t so easy to come by.
A lot of the typical Halloween decor is either too cutesy (think “kids’ party”) or too grusome to subject your grandmother and your little neices and nephews to. So for those planning a Halloween wedding, here are a few decor ideas that strike a good balance between spooky and tasteful.
Vampires’ Wedding
The vampire theme is easy to work with for a wedding. You can go with elegant, Old World spookiness or add as much ghoulishness as you think your guests can handle. Stock up on large cathedral-style candles if you don’t want any natural lighting. Placing red covers or theater lighting gels over also adds to the ambiance.
SpiritHalloween.com has a “Vampire Hot Shot Garter” that’s perfect for the Halloween bride. They also have the Nox Arcana Transylvania Music CD, which could work well for the prelude and the reception. Way better than cheesy, romanitc soft rock in any case. 
One potential pitful with this theme is that it’s a little too death-oriented for some people’s tastes. The Twilight craze makes the “whole vampire thing” seem a little cliché right now. With class or enough humor, though, these facts shouldn’t be a problem.
Zombies’ Wedding
What’s not to love about those brain-munching zombies? One advantage the living dead have over the undead is they know how to party! Zombies are so over-the-top, so B-movie silly that you can add gore to your heart’s and other internal organs’ delight without appearing too morbid.
Make sure you set up at least one grave site, which can be as simple as speading some hay or woodchips or a piece of plastic, and set up a headstone along with a zombie prop digging its way out of said hay or woodchips. Small tiki torches add to that “zombies on a rampage” feel, strips of gauze bandages make good streamers and plastic body parts or bones can fit in almost anywhere. And dont forget a bowl or two of brains for your guests to snack on.
SpiritHalloween.com has a complete Zombie Bride costume for $40 if you’re looking for a budget option. It’s a little plain for a real wedding, though (what do you expect for $40?), so you’ll probably want to embellish it with extra ribbons, lace, bits of brains and so on.
Ghosts’ Wedding
The undead, the living dead, and last but not least we have the plain ol’ dead. If you’re not into gore and prefer a low-key, mildly spooky wedding, this is an ideal theme. It also works well if you want to put a spin on the traditional white wedding. In fact, you can even enhance your unholy paleness with black lights. If that’s a little too head-ache-inducing for you, try blue lighting to give the venue a cool, graveyard feel. Lanterns also fit this theme well.
Add plenty of cobwebs, the odd artificial crow or raven, and a don’t forget a headstone for the bride and groom. A fog machine also adds a nice touch, but make sure you have plenty of ventilation and remember the machine will coat everthing in a fine layer of fog fluid.
To add more ghosts on the cheap, hand a lenticular (”changing”) portrait or two. If your venue has an upper window, consider getting a ghost or scary faces DVD. Prop a large (35 – 40 inch) TV in the window and play the DVD so the faces appear in the window. While they’re a little more expensive and time-consuming to set up, “haunted” animatronics that move on their own can be a lot of fun, too. An example would be a small table that starts wobbling when a guest walks past, triggering a motion sensor.
Another theme to consider for your Halloween wedding decor is the Heaven and Hell theme, as long as either you or your betrothed don’t mind showing up dressed as the devil. This these also gives guests a little more leeway in choosing how the dress, since they can pick which side to take.
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