Ice Roses

Ooo. This is pretty:

Check it out over at Jonathan Fong Style!!!

I'd recommend taking a gander at some of the 'decor' selections as well.

READY FOR HALLOWEEN DAY 19: Elegant Wreath

Remember when Halloween used to be all about getting married and pretty wedding decor?

Yeah, me too. I really am glad that's all over and I can just enjoy this year!

But sometimes I still see things that make me think Halloween=romance. Craftily Ever After has a wreath project that would be stunning at a Hallowedding. If you don't have a lacy shirt to cut up, you can find a yard of lace fabric -- often in the leftovers bin of your local fabric store.

Decoupage Pumpkins - like stenciled!

Bugaboo, Mini, Mr & Me has been decoupaging pumpkins. It's not the idea that's revolutionary, it's the exact materials and the result -- they look almost stenciled and they are so elegant!

Sounds like an easy (and relatively inexpensive) way to get some really gorgeous patterns on wedding pumpkins or general seasonal decor.

Happy hauntings, all.

Somber Pumpkin Centerpiece

It's so hard to remember, but I feel like this time last year I was still worrying over centerpieces a bit.

These would have been kind of perfect for my black-and-silvery Hallowedding, so I must share them with my friends (all of you guys out there kindly reading my sporadic nonsense!): Martha's Glittery Gray Pumpkin Table.

She says the dusty miller is optional, but I rather disagree. You can find the plant at pretty much any home and garden store (at least around here), and it's so soft and ghostly.

The whole table on her project page looks divine. Makes me think that a gray table cloth is the way to go, rather than black, for any Halloween party this year. The stretched cheese cloth is just so haunted-house chic!

All-in-all, not a bad balance of spooky and elegant.

Glow-in-the-Dark Cocktails

Do you have a blacklight? Well, go get it! And consider it the primary light-source for your bar area at your Halloween party -- especially if said party has a mad science theme.

Because you should be serving up tonic-centric cocktails, which will glow in the dark under the black light! Seriously. Check out that link for all the details; they even have suggestions for a black light sensitive food-treat!

Gin and Tonics are a staple you can make, but they are bitter and manly. There are other options out there. Try a mind eraser with tonic (as opposed to club soda), a Leprechaun, or seek out additional tonic drinks.

Spider Web Skirt

This is so simple it's almost silly; all you need is a solid skirt (preferably black or white) and a contrasting, thick thread.

The long strands are pinned at the top of the skirt, and then each layer of the 'webbing' is pinned to the skirt to let it fall in a scalloped pattern.

Check out MarthaStewart.com for full details!

Magical Centerpieces

It sparkles. It drips with shiny things. It's covered in blood red roses. I LOVE IT (!).

If gold and glittery isn't your thing, try imagining it with strings of shiny black beads and silver branches. Or a high-gloss black branch with silk purple flowers. The possibilities are elegantly endless.

As always, Hostess with the Mostess pulls through with a spectacular idea.

Inspired Outdoor Wedding

I'm sorry, friends. I don't care for Twilight. At all.

Still, this is an amazing wedding (found at the Hostess Blog - don't miss Part 1 , nor Part 2). It so green and earthy; the combination of rustic and elegant is overwhelmingly romantic.

An outdoor wedding using greenery and a few exquisite candelabras would make me swoon.

Or maybe just a nice dinner party with this setup? Perfect for an intimate evening.

into the woods cake

Somehow this Black Forest cake just screams 'wedding' to me. It's so basic, so easy, so... like little gothic scribbles.

Mmm.

The kind of cake is less important than the white icing and the decorative chocolate trees. The trees are just scribbly little things -- you should read this article (the section on "chocolate shapes") for ideas on how to make such a thing. Just make sure some of your trees will stand taller than your cake layer.

Oh yeah. And HI. :)

Edible Wedding Favor -- Tombstone cups

These little 'dirt' cups are freaking cute, but would be so much cuter if the spoons were printed with some tombstoney messaging (RIP or 'Til Death Do Us Part).

Or served with a tombstone shaped cookie. :)

Recipe over at Martha, but it's essentially little pudding cups with crushed chocolate cookies for a dirt effect.

Gummi worms could always be added for an extra creepy touch, or little edible skull/bone candies.

Rad Cocktail -- Perfectly Awesome!

Do you see this? It's called a Jack O' Lantern, and it's made of orange juice and Cognac. You can find it and 9 other great Halloween cocktail recipes here.

I wish I had seen this before my wedding. I might not have mixed this exact drink, but I would SO have walked around sipping something orange-colored with this garnish. Maybe a mimosa? It's an orange slice with just a little bit of greenery in the top. You might also consider a green straw poking through the middle, there.

And what if you used glass paint to make a jack face on the container? Oh my goodness. Splendid. :)

CHEERS!

One Cupcake is Poisoned

It's cupcake making day!! All day long, I'm making cupcakes.

It's fairly traditional in the south to have a groom's cake. But my groom isn't getting one cake, he's getting about 100 cup-sized cakes. Very, very, very chocolaty cupcakes!! And I made an adorable sign to go on the table:


Sliced my finger making it, but I'm happy with the results.

Now for that icing recipe -- makes an insane amount of icing. Probably twice as much as you need, but I think the original recipe claims 32 servings:

• 2 cups SOFTENED unsalted butter

WHIP IT. WHIP IT GOOD. (on a high setting, with a paddle attachment, until light and fluffy).

• 9 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 ^1/2 cups cocoa powder, unsweetened, sifted (I used about 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder from Hershey's -- yummy)
• 1 tsp (I used a tablespoon) vanilla extract

Beat this in with the butter. A little at a time, if you don't like cleaning cocoa powder off the ceiling.

• 1/2 cup to 1 cup whole milk (as needed for consistency)

The last step is to add the milk in, a little at time, still beating on high until it's the consistency you like. It will harden some in the fridge if you cool it for awhile.

This is an AMAZING recipe, both for taste and for getting good shapes with a piping bag (after cooling in the fridge).

Enjoy!! Happy (almost) Halloween.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Hallowedding Photo Table Options

You've been to weddings, surely. And probably at least one had a table littered with family photographs (like this).

My fiance and I are definitely family people; heck, that's the whole reason for having a wedding in our book - to share our love with the people we care about. And my Mummy is wonderfully traditional and sentimental, so we're having a table stocked with pictures of us, of our parents, of our grandparents.

It's fantastic, but not very Halloweeny.

We're going the moderately Halloween route by finding a few Halloween-themed picture frames and inserting as many costumed pictures from years past as we have available, but there are at least two fun ideas for creeping it up a bit more than that!

Idea # 1: The Haunted House Photo Wall

Credit for this idea goes to the Halloweddings LJ community for the inspiration to spook up this idea:

Some fabulous bride and groom got a piece of plywood, covered it in a beautiful wallpaper, cut out spaces for people to stand, and put pictures frames up with family photos - thus making the most perfectly fun photo op for guests EVER. And just imagine the pictures they got back!?

Anyway, this is adorable and perfect for a traditional wedding, but imagine the Halloween possibilities. Like the wallpaper - find something old, elaborate, and perfectly well suited for a haunted house. Taking up a luxurious cloth could work as well.

It's not cheap, but there are places that sell the Haunted Mansion wallpaper (hallway, foyer, and gallery). I shouldn't even recommend this, but someone who wasn't too worried about 'borrowing' the pattern could probably also make a repeating pattern in photoshop (or other graphics software) and have it printed large-scale at someplace like kinkos. I am just sayin'. -- If you use this wallpaper, may I suggest you also make or buy a 13-hour clock?

Don't forget to place some kind of back-drop behind where your guests would stand to have their pictures taken -- it's will help the illusion of framed photographs on your 'wall.'

Idea #2: The Creepy Eyed Photos

This is a fantastically fun idea from Country Living. For subtlety you could follow directions one and two (print photos in black and white on printer paper, 'age' by painting with water that has just a drop or two of black craft paint in it).

To really set this off as Halloween, go ahead and make LED lighted eyes on you friends and loved ones (steps 3, 4, and 5).

Combine the Two

There is nothing that says you can't make a killer creepy photo wall with some glowing eyed portraits (or maybe some old movie photos from monster-flicks thrown in). If your guests are in costume, they would fit right in!

For either project idea, you might consider antiquing or distressing any frames. I recommend printing all your photos in black and white or sepia tone; I use photoshop, but just about any photo editing software can help you do this. You can also turn photos black and white in programs like Microsoft Word, but the printed quality won't be very good (so I don't suggest it unless you've no alternative and really, really want b&w for this).

Also for both ideas: cobwebs would rock! You have three options, as I see it - pull the pre-packaged, store bought cotton webbing across your wall and around your frames until it is just the lightest wisp. Pull, pull, pull if you want it to look good! More than you usually do. No thick cotton clumps! - OR - use cheesecloth (also pulled apart slightly) - OR - make yourself a hot glue gun and spray your silly little heart out:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Pretty Centerpieces

The Wicked Bride is a fascinating creature that I in no way understand - she's getting married on Halloween, but not having a Hallowedding. Huh.

I mean, I feared that would happen to me - but in the end, we're 'balancing' things.

Anyway, I first saw the picture, left, at her blog. Can I just say how cute this would be with a few black spiders and some webbing hanging off the sides? It would be terrific.

Batty Tree

Look how cute this bat tree is; found over at ljc fyi.

This is one of the nicest variations I've ever seen on the decorated tree branch idea. Simple, perfect. The only thing I might choose to do differently is painting the branch silver, but that's just because I'm so into silver and black for the wedding.

Check out the blog link for a few more Halloween pictures and projects -- including little paper mache treat container pumpkins!

Paper Lanterns

It's a recycling year for Ms. Martha, but that doesn't mean there aren't exciting things to be found.

Sure -- all her Halloween stuff has been published before, but how much of it have I actually made? Err - umm - okay, quite a bit, because I'm a geek. Though usually not with all her pricey materials!

The vellum Halloween lanterns were new to me. I think that I could find some new silhouette clipart - maybe something a bit more Victorian - but overall these are quite lovely. *thinking* Light paper lanterns wouldn't work well on the tables of an outside wedding, would they?

She has hanging lantern patterns, too!

EDIT! I just found this really great update on her lantern tutorial - snakes and bugs; how cute!

Rustic Halloween Wreath

Long story short: I'm really stressed out today. I might be taking it easy on the blog posts for the next few days -- just need to see how life goes...

I saw this over at Lipstick and Laundry and really liked it; it reminds me of being outdoors in the country, but it's still completely classy, homemade-sophisticate-style Halloween decor:

Wouldn't this look cute as a centerpiece -- with two painted bits of board leaned against one another (so that they were standing) and ringed by the wreath laying on the table?

(Oh, umm - centerpieces - why no, I haven't started on those yet).

Ghosties Brush Pack

I've been at it again: toying with Martha's wine labels.

When my parents came over to help clean up the basement flood, my Mom helpfully suggested that I could make each one different and add some of the clip art from my invitations. As they were already cut out and sealed, and thus practically done - simply awaiting the bottles - I scoffed at first. Then I thought about it some, and well - I think she was absolutely right:

The monogram label is for our toasting champagne, the rest are pretty self explanatory. The ghost was a new element; I found the brush pack on deviant art and thought it too cute not to use:


Ghosties Brush Pack by ~learn-to-spel on deviantART

UPDATE! I almost forgot to include the 'finished' picture (blurry as always):

What I'll Be Drinking

I will have the amazing bridal beverage of champagne with a fruit mixer (possibly raspberry kir), floating about in a boring champagne glass. I had no plan to Halloween-it-up.

And then, I saw the most miraculous thing in this year's "Taste of Home: Halloween Food & Fun" - not an idea I haven't seen before, but something about their presentation just struck a spark!


Oh yeah. Floating lychee eyeballs in the champagne. I'm all about it.


picture to be removed promptly upon owner request.

Reception Table Update - they are largely decor-less

Centerpieces - eclectic - haven't even started. Grandmother wants to do 10 tables with ikebana-light floral arrangements - black containers, white or silver candles, white or orange flowers ... that leaves me 10 tables to make something Halloweeny happen.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I keep changing my mind about what that means, even though we all voted and decided PUMPKINS and some of everything else, too. That was supposed to put my mind to rest.

No one will notice anyway (I can't remember centerpieces from but one wedding I've ever been to - and that's because they were M&M's with the bride and groom's picture on them), but I guess that just makes me that much crazier - no one will care but me and I feel like it's my biggest chance to make the reception feel Halloween-friendly.

Anyway, I'm not freaking out - just feel like there's a lot to do and I still haven't made final decisions. Things pop into my head like "ooo... we could do a table with Ghosts!" and then I wonder if it is all going to look terrible because I feel the need to make everything myself.

Blah. I KNEW GETTING MARRIED TURNED GIRLS NUTSO, BUT I NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD HAPPEN TO ME.

I went to sleep last night thinking about what I might want to do; oh wow the weird dreams I had after that! :) But on a good note, I think I have a plan.