I remember the excitement when when we started to plan for our wedding. I am a planner by nature, so literally half an hour after Mark proposed, I was already trying to google venues. I say trying, as Mark had proposed on the slopes of Snowdon next to a beautiful waterfall. Very very romantic, but not known for its phone signal!
I have never been one of those people who had planned out their wedding from a young age, but I always knew that I wanted to get married. The slight downside of never really thinking about what my wedding would look like, was that I honestly didn’t have a clue where to start. Every venue or bridal page I looked at was stunning beautiful, but something didn’t quite feel right. I dismissed my initial thoughts as my lack of self confidence, and buried my reservations.
A couple of days later, Mark and I were discussing the wedding, whilst driving across Wales. I’m impatient, and didn’t want to wait for several years to get married. We agreed that a Spring or Summer wedding the following year felt impossible to achieve. The conversation turned to Autumn, and then Halloween. A moment of silence, as we both processed. We had always adored Halloween, with both of us having a gothic streak. We had already created Halloween parties for our son, including a full on escape room complete with cell doors and sound and lighting effects. We knew we loved it, but could we even consider it for our wedding?
The strange thing was, the more we sat with the idea, the more it just felt right, the more it felt like us.
Once we had decided, wedding planning begun in force. I quickly realised that whilst our theme felt like us, and we were both excited, the inspiration out there was a lot thinner on the ground compared to your traditional white wedding. I did start to find a small group of suppliers who truly seemed to get it, and more than that, actually seemed to embrace it. I realised that we had inadvertently found our tribe. However, I realised that in order to deliver what we wanted, we would have to create things ourselves.
As we continued planning, I started telling people around me what we were doing. Whilst many of our friends knew exactly why we were going down this road, other people in our lives just seemed confused, not seeing how this could translate into a wedding. At this point I would be lying if I said I didn’t start to second guess myself. Should we actually do this, or would people just look at us like we were weird?
If you are reading this, and having any of the same feelings, all I can say is go for it! Firstly it is your wedding day, so you should marry the love of your life feeling like you – whatever that means for you! Secondly I found that even the most cynical amongst our guests embraced that theme once the vision was brought to life. So ignore the naysayers and have fun with it. I am positive that you wont regret it!
