Halloween can have a variety of looks. It can range from Halloweentown to horror movies. An event could certainly be modeled after either one, but you won’t find the latter from me (I’m too much of a wimp to watch horror movies). I definitely err on the cute side of the holiday: Puffy black cats, silly jack-o-lantern faces, and cartoon-y witches, Frankensteins, and skeletons.
This event is mostly inspired by a nostalgic Halloween but, whatever your preference for scariness, you can find inspiration here.
Though I obviously love the idea of a spooky wedding, if anyone questions you, assure them that there is nothing more appropriate for a wedding than being constantly reminded of the full gravity of the vow “til death do us part.”
Colors
There are plenty of options for a Halloween color palette. All black, black and purple, black and red, burgundy, or ruby, black and orange, greyscale, metallics, or, my favorite, black, orange, purple, and neon green. A Halloween color combination smorgasbord would work perfectly. A vampy ceremony and a fun-colored reception, a greyscale theme with pops of color, all black with a colorful picture wall or head table, are all options. I’m a big fan of color so I say the more the merrier but do whatever you love! If this isn’t quite dark and vampy enough for you, check out Vampy Dark Academia.
Décor
Above, I mentioned a few decoration ideas but I’ll go more in depth here. In this Fall Wedding, I advised pumpkins everywhere, but here it’s all about jack-o-lanterns (feel free to supplement with plain or painted pumpkins). You can use jack-o-lanterns as centerpieces, a card “box”, candleholders, and more (that will be detailed in the Food section). In my opinion, jack-o-lanterns are essential for this wedding, however, there are plenty of other things you can add. Do you like the evil scientist/Frankenstein(‘s monster) vibe? Are you, like Safiya Nygaard, a bat girlie (or guy). Will you decorate with all things skeleton? Spiders? Witches and cauldrons? Vampires and coffins? A graveyard? The possibilities are endless. Below I’ll list suggestions for each.
Evil scientist: If you fully want this theme, take a look at this Science Wedding and then add dry ice, lightning flashes, and spooky colors. Add in some beakers and maybe some patchworked monsters and (scientific explosion queue) BOOM, you’ve got it down pat.
Bats: Hang them from the ceiling, an archway, on a photo backdrop, or from floral installations. Add sticky or paper bats to the wall or flying up your cake.
Skeletons: I think this is the most popular scary figure featured on this wedding board. A skeleton logo, of sorts, is two skulls facing each other making a heart silhouette. One of my favorite ideas is a skull being used as a vase or a flower arrangement. Another haunting idea is a runner of moss with assorted body parts sprinkled throughout. This could also tie into the graveyard section (to come)… if your graveyards are prone to having unburied bodies.
Spiders: I must have had hundreds of spider rings at one point in my life from fall fests, trick-or-treating, and prize boxes. Something remarkably similar to those flimsy plastic rings is a spider napkin ring. If you like mason jar centerpieces, hot glue a spider web on the outside, fill the inside with cotton or something that resembles a web, and stick some spiders on the outside. That’s a DIY I did about 5 years ago and it’s super cheap and easy. You can also use spider web netting as a table runner, hung from corners, or around anything else stationary.
Witches: The Food section has plenty of witchy ideas but, if you can’t wait until then, take a glance at this Harry Potter Wedding. Aside from food, cauldrons could be used for anything that needs to be held such as programs, favors, cards, or floral arrangements.
Vampires: I could see this tying more into the colors than the actual decorations. I imagine deep reds or purples on a backdrop of black. Maybe even wait staff dressed in tuxedos greeting you with appetizers and a “gooodeeeevening.”
Graveyard: In addition to the skeletons from above, use gravestones as signage, put your rings in a coffin, and rent a fog machine.
There will be overlap of these sections and that’s great! All of the ghouls and goblins come out on Halloween. Regardless of which you choose, you must have drippy tapered candles. If they drip red wax (despite being a color like black or white), even better!
I’m dying to get to the food section but let’s touch on florals first.
Florals
One fun thing about this wedding is that you can use non-floral alternatives like branches, pumpkin or leaf picks, moss, or pampas. If you do want flowers, I recommend red, black, or orange.
Red: Generally, I don’t like red roses that much. They turn black around the edges the very second you get them home. But that’s perfect for a slightly creepy wedding! Buy your roses two days in advance and you’re all set. Carnations are a deeply underrated flower that, when prepared correctly, are very full and luscious. Dahlias can come in a deep red that suit the color scheme well.
Black: Real black flowers are hard to come by. Faux or dried flowers would work in place of real ones. Black spray painted greenery would provide the perfect backdrop for more colorful flowers. Some potentially hard to find but gorgeous black blooms include the Black Star Calla Lily, the Black Barlow Columbine, and the Green Wizard Coneflower.
Orange: Dahlias, mentioned above, also come in shades of peach and orange. Cosmos are a whimsical bloom that can add movement to a bouquet or centerpiece. There’s no shortage of orange flowers including tickseed, roses, bidens, osteospermum, and poppies. For more options, see the décor section in this post.
FINALLY. The food. I’ve been so excited to write this section. You can go a few different ways here. You can have “normal” food with a unique presentation, you can have fall seasonal food, or you can have Halloween food. Of course, you could have normal food with a normal presentation: your typical chicken or fish with steamed veggies and mashed potatoes. But how boring?
Do you remember when you’d go to a fall festival at your school and they’d have a haunted house in the auditorium? Just me? Anyway, outside this haunted house were bowls and platters of spooky foods: Peeled grapes as “eyeballs”, cold pasta as assorted innards, and Jell-O as brains. I don’t really recommend this for a wedding but it’s your party.
There are more edible options, though. Fill cauldrons with soup or punch, serve appetizers on char-boo-terie boards, or shape food like common Halloween symbols. For example, chocolate dipped strawberries and Oreos to make a witches hat, gingerbread skeletons, stuffed bell peppers cut like jack-o-lanterns, or pizzas topped with olive or pepperoni spiders or mummies, or a jack-o-lantern face added to a pumpkin or sweet potato pie. My husband and I made these mini pizzas for a Halloween party once.
For season appropriate food, check out the food section here.
For the best part, what is better than Halloween candy? And lots of it. I would probably supplement with one of the above sections too, but I’d be fine filling up on candy. Let guests make trick-or-treat bags from a sweets table. Have classic candy like candy corn (are you a lover or a hater?), gummy pumpkins, smarties, and M&M's. Make sure to include The Main Two’s favorites too.
What to Wear
Have you heard about the couple who invited all their friends to a costume party and when they showed up it was their wedding? If not, pleasepleaseplease read about and view picture evidence here. I advise against doing this secretly because people won’t come BUT it could work as a wedding dress code. A masquerade ball could be a more formal option. Or, if you still like the idea of a dress code, suggest guests wear all black or an equally Halloween-y color.
If you watch Say Yes to the Dress, you know that people always make a big deal out of black wedding dresses. Personally, I think if you want a black wedding dress, you should look for a “ballgown” instead of a “wedding dress” but I would love to see a black wedding dress at a Halloween event. Just make sure to coordinate with the bridal party and guests so you stand out (if you want to).
Black suits and tuxedos are easier to come by but orange or burnt orange are fun too! For bridesmaids and groomsmen I recommend any of the colors from your color scheme such as black, grey, deep red, orange, green, or purple.
So, don your pumpkin head, tell the DJ to play Thriller, and get ready to fill up on candy. This wedding is going to be wickedly good.
Comments