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If I could think of any time of year that makes me feel more like “me” than any other time of year, it would have to be the fall, Halloween to be exact. As far as I can remember into my 26 years on earth, no other holiday has ever made me feel as happy or as in sync with life as when orange and black become the world’s primary colors. It’s just fundamentally within me to love the spooky holiday. That’s probably why I strategically planned for at least one of my wedding events to specifically fall on Halloween.So how does one come to love Halloween so much? I come from a family that planned vacations around cemeteries within the area that we could visit. There are framed pictures hanging in my mom and dad’s house of us on a trip to New Orleans in Saint Louis Cemetery at Marie Laveau’s tomb. I can remember my mom hand making or searching for months for the perfect Halloween costume for my sister and me. Some of my favorite movies as a child were The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, and of course, Hocus Pocus. I could go on for days. As you can see, Halloween is the season that speaks to my soul.
My now husband asked me to marry him in February and there were two things I was absolutely certain of: 1). I was the luckiest girl in the world to be the person Dusty chose to marry, and 2). My wedding would be in the fall. I had nine months to plan and had a big dream in my heart.
Also, now that I’m coming up on my one year wedding anniversary and with all of the fall décor and the pumpkin spice flavored everything being out on the shelves of stores everywhere, I’m feeling extremely nostalgic. So much so that I find myself going through wedding photos regularly which somehow leads to me watching my wedding video by myself in the dark and crying into a glass of wine because of how beautiful my wedding day was and because it’s over and you only live that day once. Just kidding about the crying into wine (sort of).
It seems as though others are loving the cooler months for their nuptials as well. We have received more wedding invitations for the fall and winter months than all of May and June combined. Therefore, for all of my fellow fall brides, there are few pieces of advice I can definitely guarantee will make your life easier and your wedding perfect:
1. You’ve probably picked the best season for cheap, easy decoration. Pumpkins and hay bales are so cheap, yet so beautiful at any event. Pumpkins were used as centerpieces at the reception and as decoration around our ceremony. Are pumpkins too blah for your wedding fantasy? Don’t worry, I feel you on that. They were for me too. I fixed this problem by buying a pale pink and metallic gold spray paint and spray painting the pumpkins to “glam them up” a bit. Also, I would recommend having a signature color or pattern that is implemented throughout your wedding that provides a “pop”. The trendy pattern in recent years is burlap with the rustic wedding becoming a mainstream theme, but like I said before, a little more glam was more my style. So, I used Beetlejuice black and white chunky striped ribbon and fabric everywhere I could. Not only that, our candy bar was black and white, and the back of our wedding invitation was donned with black and white stripes as well. It was one of my favorite things about the decoration at our wedding.
(I bought all of the pumkins in our wedding for about $75.00 total - now that's a steal)
2. Plan for cold weather – make room in your budget to make your guests comfortable if you want them to stay to see the cake cut. We underestimated this greatly. One of the problems we faced (and mind you, it was not a huge problem for us personally – we understood that people wanted to be comfortable!) was that we splurged on a band instead of hiring a DJ, set up the main reception outside and a majority of our guests preferred to stay in the smaller indoor area because of the chilly temperature outside. Again, this was completely understandable. We were just glad everyone came to see us get married and enjoyed themselves, that was most important. However, if you feel you would be offended if your guests could not stay until they’re kicked out and your heart is set on an outdoor reception, set aside a chunk of money for a lot of heaters and a tent!
(By the time maid of honor/best man speeches started, it was extremely cold)
(Our band, The Caravan Band, all bundled up - p.s. - They were AMAZING!)
3. Don’t make everything fall themed – My home is full of pictures from our wedding as well as my bridals and our engagement pictures. If I had made all of our photos fall-themed, when it’s blazing hot outside in the middle of July, your pictures may seem a bit off – and maybe even a bit anger-inducing on those dog days of summer when all you want is to be a even a little chilly. (See our engagement picture theme - "Alice in Wonderland-esque" and my bridals below).
(This is Dusty's favorite picture of me - he's a football coach, so he thought this was absolutely perfect.)
3. Request a holiday shower – This was the coolest idea for a shower that I was lucky enough to have thrown for me. At a holiday shower, your guests give you seasonal gifts for all holidays – including Halloween, Christmas, 4th of July, Mardi Gras, etc..With internet shopping so prominent now, you can buy any type of seasonal gift at anytime, so don’t worry too much about the time of the year this shower falls on.
(Christmas in September! Photos from my holiday shower)
4. Plan your attire accordingly for the wedding day – I messed up here. I did not bustle my dress. I know you’re probably thinking, “What?! How do you not bustle your dress?!” It was one of the things on my list that I just couldn’t get to and I didn’t think anything of it, really. However, my dress was dirty. REALLY dirty. Bustle your dress ladies, just trust me! Also, toward the end of the night when the temperature dropped significantly, I got cold. I ended up wearing Dusty’s suit jacket, but what an opportunity I missed for an amazing “wardrobe change” without changing anything.
5. Have a Halloween themed SOMETHING! My favorite part of Steel Magnolias is when Truvy, M’Lynn, Ouiser, and Clairee throw Anelle a Halloween themed shower and M’Lynn says, “That’s what you get for getting married on Halloween!” I did have a holiday shower where I received a lot of Halloween themed gifts, but my Halloween themed event was my rehearsal dinner. My dress was black and white and I wore orange earrings, we decorated the room in the restaurant with Halloween decoration that I bought for cheap at Target, and every minute of it was a Halloween lover’s dream come true.
So for all of my sisters that love the scary holiday and have their heart set on a fall wedding or even if you’re a lover of Christmas and are dying to get married in the winter, I hope this blog found you and I hope you found it helpful. Happy Halloween!