Planning a Halloween themed wedding?   Dare your guests to come with a Halloween themed invitation.  You can go with the traditional invitation or make your own.  Handmade  invitation can be stamped images or cut outs of bats, spiders, witches or pumpkins as a border. A simpler approach would be a  pumpkin shaped card that also expresses your theme.  If  you want your guests to arrive in costume be sure to include it on the invitation. Just remember that creativity is "key" and to use Halloween colors: orange, black, harvest gold, marroon and purple. 

Next:  Location, location, location. Where should you have your Halloween themed wedding? Check if there is an old large house (i.e., bed and breakfast) that could host your party, an old mansion, or perhaps an old building or lodge with a fireplace.  If it is outdoors, a forest or park would work well.  And, to really get the show off to a good start, make sure your wedding is at night.

Decorating Outside

First impressions are lasting impressions, when decorating the reception site remember that the outside is as important as the inside.  Greet your guests at the curb by decorating the outside of  the site as much as possible.  Here are some great ideas: 

• Play Halloween music or scary sounds outside
• Create your own graveyard scene by making or buying Styrofoam tombstones.  Have a pile of dirt placed in front of  each tombstone and place  dead flowers on top.  Then stretch spider webbing across the tombstones. 
• Buy "Crime Scene" tape to wrap around the entrance way of the hall. 
• Line the driveway or sidewalk with Halloween luminaries
• Use sheets or white Gossamer to have ghosts hanging from the trees, or have scarecrows on bales of hay sitting outside the hall 
• There are all sorts of light strands available; such as blinking bats, witch faces, ghosts, pumpkins and others.  Simple black, green or white blinking mini lights will also add a spooky glow to the place.  Place them in bushes, hang them from trees, or stretch the web between your porch and the tombstones in your yard for a dim eerie light.  
• Orange and black streamers also make a nice touch.
• Cob webs are one of most inexpensive, high impact decorating items you can use to create an authentic atmosphere for your scariest of parties. Hang them throughout your house - fasten them to the corners of shelving, across the facing of cabinets, and around lamps or almost any other object. You can never have too many of these around! 

Decorating Inside

• Decorate the site with floral arrangements  with gilded fruits, berries, acorns, and pumpkins. 
• Halloween weddings can also  use jack-o-lanterns as the center attraction. Use wired ribbons in your wedding colors to add decorative accents to your arrangements and to make bows to accent doorways, tables, pews, and the aisle.
• Lighting is everything! You can choose to go with candle lighting only, which is very mysterious but can be dangerous or use Black Light Bulbs wherever possible to create an atmosphere that is to die for! Place a Strobe Light in one corner of your room, or in a separate room for a spine-tingling effect!   
• Don’t forget the faux Cobwebs draped from the ceiling and doorways. 
• Rent wrought-iron candelabra (or buy them) to use as centerpieces, place them on the cake table, and use freestanding ones at the altar and at the corners of the reception hall. Remember to lay down dark paper or, better yet, swags of cheap, dispensable cloth around the bases to take care of the unavoidable drips, since the amount of movement in the room will stir the air and cause the candles to burn unevenly. 
• Have candy dishes filled with roasted pumpkin seeds placed on all the tables for guests to snack on while waiting for dinner. 

Favors

• What better time to make trick or treat bags?  Fill small paper bags with foil covered chocolate pumpkins and other fall themed Candy!  
• Halloween candles (i.e., ghosts, houses, candy corn) wrapped in tulle and tied with black or orange curly ribbon are nice.
• Small tabletop plastic pumpkins filled with candy are an excellent alternative to the trick or treat bag.
• Pumpkin butter or Apple Butter decorated with ribbon make a nice take home favor.  (Jar labels can be found here at (Colorful Images:  Special Occasions Deluxe Variety Labels (6 different images)
• Small pumpkins pies or pumpkin bread decoratively wrapped is also a unique favor.
  Halloween themed cookies are also a nice touch.
• Be sure to buy wax lips for each guest

Table Decorations

• Cover your table with Black Gossamer to keep the atmosphere creepy and dark. A black or orange linen tablecloth works well too.  Next, add one large carved out pumpkin and 2 smaller pumpkins in the center of the table. Don't carve faces on the pumpkins but instead fill them with water. Add a Mist Maker inside the pumpkins for a spooky mist - all without chemicals!
• Centerpieces can be created by using a pumpkin, foam, Mylar shred and a character balloon on sticks. Simply carve out the pumpkin, insert the foam, balloon and then add the shred.  
• A simple carved out pumpkin will work too.
• A cornucopia  makes a perfect centerpiece. Place some Tissue Grass Mats around the pumpkins and across the center of the table letting it hang down from the sides of the table.
• By placing one or two Ravens perched on the pumpkins you will add an interesting and eerie appeal to your table.
• As an alternative to Halloween confetti as table decoration, use candy corn.
• For place cards, use Headstones that can be personalized with your guests' names. At each table setting, place one of these along with a candy pumpkin and a small patch of Cobwebs.
• Use orange and black plates.. Dress them up a bit by adding Halloween Napkin Assortment to the ensemble. Tie the napkins with the silverware up in a bundle and tie with a small bunch of raffia or ribbon. Add a Clip On Crawly to each bundle and scatter a couple spiders on each plate as well.
• Throw some dry ice in the punch bowl. It creates a bubbling, roiling fog that spills out over the table -- nicely chilling any nearby hors d'oeuvres, by the way.
• Decorate the buffet and gift tables with small, decorative gourds. 
• Provide 1/2 masks for those guests who don't come in costume.  They can pretend they are at a masque ball.
• If you're playing popular music, include a few Halloween-themed pieces. Anything having anything to do with Danny Elfman (the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack, Dead Man's Party by Oingo Boingo) is de rigueur, Michael Jackson's "Thriller",  Or the "Monster Mash," for people from the 50's.
  

Wedding Cake Alternatives:

• Pumpkin cake with black, white and orange frosting.
• Spice or Apple cake
• Ginger Cake
• Traditional Wedding cake with plastic spiders on the flowers
• Traditional Wedding Cake with fall colored flowers.
  

Attire:

• Use dark colors rather than pastels in all the bouquets: blood-red roses, for example. If you prefer white flowers, calla lilies, although they will not be readily available in autumn, are traditionally associated with funerals, as are chrysanthemums.  The Bride can carry black roses (silk or fresh).   Other choices could be:  Orange Hawkweed, Day Lily's, Tiger Lily's, Orange/Yellow Freesia's, Orange Roses, Orange Poppy's.
• Have the bridesmaids wear black gowns in luxe materials such as velvet, crepe, or chiffon. If the bridesmaids don't want to wear black,  they could wear sienna with black velvet cameo chokers, or black lace shawls, or some other spooky accessory. Instead of a regular neckline, consider having a seamstress add a high, stiff collar to frame their faces. Use tiara's in their hair or matching ribbons.
• Put the groomsmen and ushers in tails. Undertakers traditionally wore swallowtail coats. They can also wear black tuxedo's with red cummerbunds. Another option would be black shirts, black slacks and a red-lined black cape with high collar and black top hat with cane (old-fashioned Dracula style).
  
• As the bride you can wear the traditional gown of white or ivory, or go with black, blood red, etc.  The sky is the limit.  As the bride you can do whatever you want.  Even wear a gothic gown with a top hat.  Many brides  choose a renaissance type gown or corset type look.
• A slim fitting dress in the Mortica (Addams Family) style would work nicely. You may also choose to have your gown choice died black or red. Add a black cape with red lining, black veil and long, sleek black gloves.
  

• PLUS VENICIAN	BELLE	SNOW WHITE
  SNOW WHITE'S QUEEN	TARZAN'S JANE	TINKERBELL
  BURNIN' UP	ANCHORS-A-WOW	GOLD WIDOW

Twists to the Traditional Wedding

Leaving the Reception

• Have your guests throw black and orange confetti
• Bubbles work for any occasion
• Have the guests throw plastic snakes, bugs or spiders

   

    

  Check out Freed's Bakery and view his remarkable cakes~
  

  Halloween Spider Cupcake  
  (These make a great visual impact if you place this at each place sitting.

  By the Cake Mix Doctor
  

  Makes 24 cupcakes (2 1/2 inches each)
  Preparation time: 30 minutes
  Spider chilling time: 30 to 40 minutes
  Baking time: 16 to 20 minutes
  Assembly time: 15 minutes

  24 silver or foil liners for cupcake pans (2 1/2-inch size)

  
  CUPCAKES:
  1 package (18.25 ounces) plain devil’s food cake mix
  2 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa powder
  1 1/3 cups buttermilk
  1/2 cup vegetable oil
  3 large eggs
  1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  

  FROSTING:
  Buttercream Frosting (recipe below)
  6 drops yellow food coloring
  2 drops red food coloring

  
  GARNISHES:
  24 Chocolate Spiders (recipe follows)
  Tiny round decorating candies (optional)
  Brown decorating gel (optional)
  

  1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with silver paper liners. Set the pans aside.

  2. Prepare the cupcake batter: Place the cake mix, cocoa powder, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. Spoon or scoop a heaping 1/4 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it two thirds of the way full. (You will get between 22 and 24 cupcakes; remove the empty liners, if any.) Place the pans in the oven.

  3. Bake the cupcakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 16 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edges of the cupcake liners, lift the cupcakes up from the bottoms of the cups using the end of the knife, and pick them out of the cups carefully with your fingertips. Place them on a wire rack to cool completely, 30 minutes.

  4. Meanwhile, prepare the Buttercream Frosting. Place G cup of the frosting in a plastic sandwich bag and set aside. Add the yellow and red food coloring to the remaining frosting. Blend well so the frosting is evenly orange. Place a heaping tablespoon of frosting on each cupcake and swirl to spread it out with a short metal spatula or a spoon, taking care to cover the tops completely.

  5. Garnish the cupcakes: Cut off a small piece from one of the bottom corners of the plastic bag holding the frosting. Pipe 2 eyes on each of the Chocolate Spiders. Place a small round decorating candy in the center of each eye, if desired. Place a spider on top of each cupcake. There will be 6 extra spiders for additional platter garnish or simply to enjoy. If you wish, pipe a web on the platter using brown decorating gel. The cupcakes are ready to serve.

  Store these cupcakes, uncovered or in a cake saver, at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze the unfrosted and undecorated cupcakes in a cake saver for up to 6 months. Thaw the cupcakes overnight in the refrigerator before frosting, decorating, and serving.

  CHOCOLATE SPIDERS
  You can make these spiders up to two days before you bake the cupcakes. The six extras make wonderful platter decorations or sweet treats by themselves.
  1 1/4 cups chow mein noodles
  2 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  1/3 cup milk
  1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
  1 cup crispy rice cereal

  
  1. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper and set aside.

  2. Measure out 1 cup chow mein noodles and break them into small pieces. Break the remaining noodles into 2-inch pieces. These will be the spiders’ legs. Set the noodles aside in separate groupings.

  3. Combine the chocolate chips and milk in a medium-size saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the confectioners’ sugar, cereal, and the small chow mein noodle pieces until blended. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Drop the chocolate mixture by tablespoons in a slightly oblong shape (the body of the spider) onto the prepared baking sheet. You will have about 30 bodies, about 2 inches in size. Immediately insert the noodle legs into the spider bodies, 4 on one side and 4 on the opposite side. Space them evenly apart. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator and chill the spiders until hardened, 30 to 40 minutes.

  4. Once chilled, remove them from the waxed paper by pushing up from the underside of the waxed paper.

  Store the spiders in a plastic storage container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

  BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

  
  Makes 2 1/2 cups, enough to frost 24 cupcakes (2 1/2 -inch size
  Preparation time: 5 minutes
  
  8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature (see "the Cupcake Doctor says" below)
  3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
  3 to 4 tablespoons milk
  1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  
  1.Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine and add the confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons of the milk, and the vanilla.

  2. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Add up to 1 tablespoon more milk if the frosting seems too stiff.