Favor Feb: Old Fashion Halloween

I've just discovered the most AMAZING site. Old Fashion Halloween. They sell...well, EVERYTHING.

For favors, they've got lace crows, halloween samplers, cards, reissues of Victorian palmestry guides and illusionary pamphlets (perfect for steampunk and Victorian weddings), candles, beautiful halloween treat bags and boxes, fortune teller postcards, mini crystal balls...the list goes on.

Fortune Teller Reproduction Postcard, $2, from Old Fashion Halloween

If you're looking for decor ideas for a Halloween reception, Old Fashion Halloween have you totally covered. ghost, bat, spider and skull table runners, witchy teacups and candleholders, napkins, paper plates and table skirts are but a few of the delights awaiting you in their Halloween Table section.

Witch Teacup, $16, from Old Fashion Halloween

For invitations, Old Fashion Halloween have letterpress cards, Edward Gorey, reproduction Victorian delights, and fancy art cards.

Relax Spides, I keep house casually, Letterpress card $3

They also sell wonderful antique noisemakers, decor items, fabrics and paper ephemera. And probably a kitchen sink, if you asked nicely.

They also keep a Halloween Blog, and an articles archive of old magazine articles and Halloween craft projects. AND they operate DragonFly Design studios - vintage halloween pattern reproductions, for you DIY brides.

Did I mention that I'm in LOVE with Old Fashion Halloween?

Favor Feb: Shadow Manor interview

To honor the fact that tonight I shall be seeing Iron Maiden for the third time, and that Favor Feb has been a smashing success, I've got a very special post for y'all. Jenna from Shadow Manor and the Art of Darkness blog has agreed to answer a few questions about favors, weddings, and her embarrassing taste in music.

Skull bath bombs, $1.10, from Shadow Manor

Who is Shadow Manor and what do you do?

Shadow Manor is a small company which focuses on customers who have integrated "goth" into their lifestyle as a whole. Instead of clothing and jewelry, which is pretty widely available, we carry items for bridal, home décor, crafts, etc.

In honor of Favor Feb, tell us what you have in the way of weddingfavors for the Wedding Skulls Wedding?

We offer prepackaged items like "Death Mints" and absinthe-flavored candies, plus personal items like miniature tins of bath salts and voodoo doll sachets. The blog also offers lots of DIY suggestions for favors: I'm a huge fan of the dark-yet-somehow-mainstream, so things like Dia de los Muertos-inspired sugar skulls, Medieval-themed bottles of mead, miniature corn dollies, bat-shaped chocolates, etc. etc. etc. are all good choices. Something inexpensive that's been carefully chosen (or even handmade) to fit your personality and wedding theme is a much more meaningful favor than a costlier "traditional" item.

Death Mints, $2.25, from Shadow Manor

What is goth to you?

To *me*, goth is embracing and seeing the beauty in dark things. Itake my inspiration from Morticia Addams...she was certainly dark by mainstream standards, but she was actually a very optimistic individual.

What drew you to the culture/style initially?

I don't know if I can specify any one thing, because my tendencies have always been a little on the morbid side. I was always that weird kid who was fascinated by old cemeteries and dilapidated mansions.

Voodoo kit, from Shadow Manor

How did you incorporate gothic features into your wedding?

I devoted an entire site to my gothic wedding: http://www.halloweddings.com/ Essentially, I had a Halloween party with a wedding in the middle of it. Everyone came in costume. The flower girl strewed plastic spiders instead of rose petals. I wore black velvet and my husband was in Victorian garb. It was informal, unique, and enormous fun.

Tell us a little about your design process - how do you choose materials/motifs/inspiration for your pieces?

Skully ring pillow, from Shadow Manor

I don't do "art" as much as "craft," and I like to choose motifs that are subtle enough to work in a mainstream setting but are perfectly gothy when you look closely. I love rich fabrics like velvet and brocade, and Victorian-inspired detailing.

Why do you think Shadow Manor appeals to so many people?

I think it's got a different vibe than the sites that appeal to "clubkids." The items that I tend to focus on are more in line with long-term lifestyle and decorating choices, so I guess you could say that I mainly appeal to the "settled" goth. I also try to be very inclusive and welcoming, so people who are just dipping their toes in the goth pool don't feel as though they're intruding in some kind of clique.

Name a couple of bands/songs that are on your stereo at the moment?

I have very embarrassing taste in music. David Bowie, Jonathan Coulton, and The Kinks are the three that came up first when I hit shuffle. (Believe me, it could have been much, much worse.)

What's coming up for Shadow Manor?

We're planning to significantly expand our "Doom it Yourself"selection to feature items like unusual buttons, charms, and fabrics.

Any advice you could offer to Wedding Skulls?

As far as weddings go, my biggest piece of advice is what Nike suggested: Just do it. Choose a theme that makes YOU happy, and unless your relatives are paying for it, ignore any tsks of disapproval. (If they *are* paying for it, you have a choice: Either scale back to a budget you can manage without help, or choose a more mainstream theme and try to incorporate subtle details of the theme you wanted. I'd advise the former.) If you do it tastefully, your guests might be surprised at how well an offbeat theme works, and it's *so* much more personal (and fun!) than a cookie-cutter wedding.

Favor Feb: Donating to Charity

One of the recent offbeat trends is to donate the money you would use for wedding favors to a charity. I love this idea - weddings are very consumer-driven events - why not give a little back to the universe that has given you your partner? What a great way to begin your marriage.

You could place a small, handwritten card at each guest's place explaining the donation and the work of the charity you've donated too. Provide a website if guests want to contact the charity after the wedding.

When choosing a charity, try to choose something everyone can relate to. Remember, not everyone attending your wedding will have the same religious, political or cultural views. Avoid donating to staunch political or religious charities or those doing 'controversial' work, such as the charity trying to educate people that AIDs doesn't exist.

Go local - enviroment organisations, historical societies, save the main street. Get people excited about the charitable work in your area.

I'd love to hear from couples who've donated to charity in lieu of favors. How did it go? What did you write on your card? Did you experience any problems?

Favor Feb: Gothic matchbox art favors

For years I've been making matchbox artworks. I've been a dollhouse fanatic since I could walk and I love any art project that comes in miniature. So I thought I'd share with you lovely Skullys a DIY favor idea that's a little bit out there, a little bit zany. Because I know you love 'em.

With matchbox favors, you can either decorate the outer face only, leaving them as functional match boxes, or decorate the interior with pictures and trinkets or a thank you note and give them away as 'shrines' or 'matchbox lockets'.

Have your matchboxes follow the theme of your wedding. You can either make them all the same or create a unique design for each guest.

DIY Matchbox Art favors

You will need:

• Matchboxes (enough for one per guest)
• Inspiration (loads of it)
• Craft wire - needs to be very thin and pliable - I use the inner wire from twisty ties.
• Scraps of craft paper, beads, stickers, scrapbook paper, inks, paints, buttons, ribbons, stamps, etc...
  

What to Do.

1. Before you begin, browse online for altered matchbooks and match box shrines. You'll find heaps of inspiration on craft forums and etsy.

3. If you've decided to use them as matchboxes, paint around the striking boards. They won't work if you paint over them. Paint the interior drawer and box (different shades if you want) and leave to dry. You may need to use two or three coats.

4. poke two holes in the centre of the matchbox drawer for the handle with a needle or the end of the wire. poke the wire through one hole, thread a bead onto the end, twist the wire back around and secure in the inside. Now you have a cute little drawer handle.

Ideas for decoration:

I love using torn up scraps of newspaper or old bibles or dictionaries (because you can tear off relevant or humorous words). Tear the edges so they're uneven and stain them with black or brown ink.

Use scrapbooking trinkets and embellishments to add texture.

For a masquerade wedding, cut tiny masks and decorate with feathers and harlequin patterned scrapbook paper.

Fill with tiny candies, spices or a thank you note.

Replace drawer handle beads with buttons. You can often find beads or buttons in cute skull shapes

Sometimes, nail polishes are an excellent substitute for thick, glittery or glossy paints.

Look for themed rubber stamps and embossing medium - I've made beautiful matchboxes using embossed greek vase and column stamps my mum found. So elegant with purple or rep papers.

Try not to go too overboard. Remember, they're only favors! Use scrap paper, ribbons and beads you have lying around.

Above all, have fun! Have a look at all the fab matchboxes for inspiration (no, none of these are mine). And this one which I can't get to show up on the blog, but TRUST ME, it's worth a looksie.

Favor Feb: Steampunk favors from Curious Inventions

It's come to my attention that I haven't included any steampunk favors yet. Shame on me.

Curious Inventions of Dr. Roberts create these beautiful steampunk fridge magnets from stamping cogs and tine impressions in clay, then firing and painting/glazing the stamps. I love how these seem archaeological - like looking at another time and place from the end of your trowel.

Steampunk fridge magnets, $3 each, from Curious Inventions.

At $3 each, you can't go wrong purchusing a set of these to share around your steamy guests. Viva la steampunk!

Favor Feb: Speleobooks bat favors

Speleobooks sell bats. All kinds of bats. Bat books, bat toys, bat toilet paper holders, bat clothing, bat jewellery, bat stationary...you name it, they've got it with bats on.

So...if you like bats, they've got some cool favor items for you:

Bat Balm - for lips and more. 8ml. Kering fastener. $4 each.

Itsy Bitsies Bean Bag Bat - with 7inch wingspan. $5 each.

Fuzzy Finger Puppetbat - with 11inch wingspan. So cute! $3.50 each.

A lot of their items would work well as favors for a Halloween wedding with many kids present. I still can't get over how cute that bat bean bag plushie is...awwww :)

Favor Feb: Twig pens

via Bagwell Productions, these fabulous twiggy pens and pencils. These twigs are made from horticultural waste or picked from the ground - no hurting innocent trees! Each twig is hand-drilled and a lead-free graphite rod or brass ballpoint cartridge inserted. What a classy idea for a havest theme or medieval gothic wedding - they'd match gnarled twig centerpieces like the ones in this picture:

Favor Feb: Medieval Love Potion

Via the lovely ladies at Midnight Garden forums, Love Potion favors!

DIY Love potion favor

You will need

• enough corked glass bottles for one per guest
• plain paper
• string or thin ribbon
• black tea
• rosemary
• nutmeg
• thyme
• mint leaves
• dried roses - various colours.
• lemon leaves

To make the favors:

1. Chop the herbs and leaves and place in seperate piles.

2. Into each glass bottle/container, add

• 2 teaspoons black tea
• 1 pinch rosemary
• 3 pinches thyme
• 3 pinches nutmeg
• 3 fresh mint leaves (chopped)
• 6 rose petels (chopped)
• 6 lemon leaves (chopped)

Use a funnel if you're having trouble.

3. Cork each bottle.

4. On a computer, write out the love tea instructions below, in a suitably 'witchy' font. Print these out small - around 8 blocks of instructions per page, and cut out into squares.

5. Place the squares in the oven on 150 celcius and bake for a few minutes. Be careful not to burn the paper. Roll each paper into a scroll and tie with string, leaving long ends dangling off.

6. Use those ends to tie the string around the neck of the bottle in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

Medieval Love Tea

To make another person love you, brew this tea in a earthware or coppor kettle on a Friday during a waxing moon. Sweeten with sugar and honey, as desired. The following friday, brew this tea for your beloved, and they shall desire you.

Favor Feb: Gothic Wedding Bubbles

2Dark Sisters sell these adorable Gothic Wedding Bubble sets alongside their gothic bouquets and coffin favor boxes. Totally cute bottles with a gothic rose, tied with strings of silver or burgandy beads. You won't find these at Michaels or Spotlight, that's for sure :)
A set of 12 will set you back a paltry $15 or $25 for a set of 24. they come in four colour choices: burgandy flower/silver beads, burgandy flower/burgandy beads, black flower/silver beads and black flower/blurgandy beads.

BHG Halloween Wedding Feature - Coffin Favor Boxes

Via Art of Adornment's delicious blog, I've been tipped off that Better Home and Garden magazine has featured ideas for a Halloween wedding reception in this cool but slightly annoying slideshow format. There's lots of cool ideas for halloween weddings - I love the ripped vellum invitations and the burnt-edged guestbook with ink splatters and faux-fountain pen.

Given the nature of Favour February, I'll give you the link to their DIY Coffin Favor Boxes filled with Halloween Candy - these are just adorable. The edges are 'weathered' with chalk.

Custom temporary wedding tattoos

One favor idea that's totally punk rock or heavy metal is customized wedding temporary tattoos.

Yeah, you know the ones you used to get in the chewing gum wrappers? Just like them. How cool is THAT? Totally memorable, totally rad, and totally cost effective.

Most stockists offer a range of stock tattoos which you can customize with your own colours and words. Or if your wedding uses a motif or you want to copy one of your own inked designs, you can ask for a total custom order. I've included some of the stockists below.

Stray Tats

You can upload your own design or select from their gallery. An impressive array of cool Halloween, fairy, pin-up, celtic and dragon designs. You can add writing on any tat and order in any quantity you like. Prices range from $2 per unit upward, with discounts for bulk orders.

Australian Temporary Tattoo Shop

For the Southern Hemisphere couples. In-stock and custom designs (min order 50 of in-stock designs and 1000 custom designs). Prices start at 70c per tattoo with discounts if you order over 100.

FNR Temporary Tattoos

Large US stockist of custom and temporary tattoos. Huge selection available with prices starting around 7c per tattoo. orders begin at 50 tattoos for in-stock designs, 1000 for custom designs (but they say this is negotaible). Options for glitter and glow-in-the-dark tattoos. made from FDA-approved inks and safe for children.

Temp Tats

Special Wedding Design service package - 500 2inch tats for $79 - this includes adding your own custom design or using any design from their extensive range, with your own custom colours, names and date. Lots of cool pictures so you can see how they look.

Punk Rock DIY Candy Buffet

Argh, well, I suck. Second day into Favour Feb and I'm already behind on the posts. I WAS halfway through this post yesterday, but a power cut that destroyed half of Auckland city (my half) and a disasters with the wonderfully delightful ARC bus service left me rather annoyed and powerless and short on blogging time. Rest assured I shall make it up to you all today, perhaps with a wonderful BONUS post later on. Yaaay!

I'm doing a feature on Alexzandra and Kevin's fab punk rock wedding later in the month (be prepared for quite possbily the COOLEST WEDDING CAKE EVER), but for now, a sneak peak at their oxblood red, zebra print and black decor and their awesome CANDY BUFFET.

One of the joys of a candy buffet is that you don't have to supply dessert, so although they're not necessarily cheap, they're probably cheaper than the $10 a head dessert menu from your caterer. They're also SO much fun and just about the coolest thing you can have at a wedding reception, EVER.

DIY Punk Rock Candy Buffet

You will need:

• Several bell jars, containers or bowls for the candy
• black, red and zebra print ribbon
• white cardstock
• contrasting cardstock - black, red or zebra print.
• pattern for chinese takeout boxes (either download and print a pattern online or buy a takeout box from a craft shop and flatten it out)
• bulk sweets
• plastic scoops
  

1. Well before the wedding, copy the pattern onto the white cardstock several times - one box for each guest. Cut these boxes out and glue them together.

2. On a computer, draw up some suitably punk rock nametags for your guests. Print these out and cut to a uniform size - say 2cm by 6cm.

3. From the zebra print paper, cut squares slightly larger than the nametags - say 4cm by 8cm. Glue the nametags to the centre of the zebra print paper.

4. Glue the tag onto the front of each takeout box.

5. Purchuse several bulk bags of candy - choose your favourite childhood sweets or the latest chocolately goodies. You could look for sweets that match your wedding colours or flavours that say something about you as a couple. If your buffet table will be outside in the sun, try to avoid chocolates as they will melt.

6. Source your jars and candy containers - for the punk rock look, scour second-hand shops for odd shaped jars, decanters and vases. Mix a few martini glasses in for effect.

7. Using the same method as the nametags above, make labels for your candy jars.

8. Take the ribbon, and wrap around the centre of each jar. Secure in place with double sided tape. Cover the join with the label and glue in place.

To Set Up the Candy Buffet

1. On the Eve of the wedding arrange your jars on the table in an aesthetically appealing pattern

2. Rearrange when fiance comes along and 'accidentally' messes up your design

3. Fill jars with candy in a punk rock fashion - think stripes and swirls, clashing colours and skulls and sparkles as accessories. Cover table with cloth, keep out of sun, and clamour in excitement for the following day.

Favour February: Weird n' Witchy Gothic/Pagan soap

Welcome to Favour February, where I shall herewith post many ideas for wedding favours for the dark at heart.

While most of my readers come from the US and the UK, where favours are standard wedding faire, I thought I'd enlighten some of you who live in other parts of the world as to what exactly a wedding favour is. This is probably not necessary as any wedding magazine contains ample information about these delightful things. Exhibit A:

This delightfully bland chinese takeout box would be filled with jordan almonds, candies or chocolates carved with the bride and groom's initials or some other such thing. The favors are then placed at each guests setting, often with a nametag attached at a jaunty angle. Alternatively, they're arranged on a platter in the centre of the table as a centrepiece. The guests can either eat their candies while they wait for the bride and groom to finish mucking about with the photographer, or they can take the box home as a way to forever remember the happy wedding day - or at least as long as the chocolates last.

So where did this alien tradition come from? Well, we have the Europeans to thank. When a European aristocrat threw any kind of party, whether it be a wedding, birthday party or fraternity kegger, they'd send each guest home with a bomboneire - small boxes made from porcelain, metal, crystal or precious stones filled with delicious candy. It's easy to see how this tradion evolved into the wedding industry ploy for moneys that we see today.

Oops. Did that sound snarky? Forgive me.

While I think wedding favours (especially the ones you'll see this month) look FABULOUS, they're a totally unnecessary wedding purchuse. AND they can be expensive. Say you're inviting a hundred guests - at $1 a favour, that's $100 - and that $1 won't buy you the cute little boxes, let alone the chocolates or jordan almonds to fill them. More than likely, you're looking at $3-$5 per person - around $300-500 on favours alone. Who needs that in this shady economic climate?

But my skully brides are a special breed - they have all sorts of wonderful, quirky ideas for personal favours that guests love and that don't cost the earth. And I know many of you feel pressured by parents, relatives or society in general (not that you should necessarily listen to them) to include favours. Thus, the idea of Favour February was born.

I've had tons of emails from businesses, artists and DIY brides sharing their ideas and enthusiasm for cute little skully favours. I love you all - thank you for your enthusiasm. I've still got some gaps in the programme, so if you're in the business of favours or you're a Skully bride with some rad ideas, shoot me any email at steff_green AT hotmail DOT com and I shall hook you up with a guest feature.

And don't forget, for more favour ideas for Halloween weddings, pick up your copy of the Halloween Wedding Planner!

Without further yammering, I present your first favour idea of the month - Gothic, Wiccan and Pagan soaps from Weird n' Witchy

A Suffolk-based soap company, Weird n' Witchy create handcrafted soaps from natural ingredients. blood-red roses, celtic knots, bats, skulls, pentegrams, coffins, baby dragons...you name it, they've created it. They also carry a selection of bath bombs and other bathroom delights - and they specialise in wedding favour packages. They can even customise their soaps to your wedding colours. How rad is that?

Queen of Sheba, £3.80, from Weird n' Witchy

Now these beauties don't come cheap - around £2-4 poind per soap, so they're better if you're buying favours for a small wedding. They do, however, carry several soaps for under £1 - some as low as 40p!

Coffin soap, £2.25 from Weird n' Witchy

Check out Weird n' Witchy's website. They accept all major credit cards and paypal, and ship internationally. And return tomorrow for another wonderful favour idea.

Gothic Wedding Theme Ideas

With the pace of a geriatric snail I am working on updating my website. While I'm generally happy with it for now, it needs a bit of tweaking. I'm focusing on adding loads of free articles about wedding planning for all you lovely brides and grooms.

The first two new articles are up now. I hope y'all find them useful:

Halloween Wedding Theme Ideas

Gothic Wedding Theme Ideas

Over the next weeks and months, more free content will go up, both on Weddings and on Writing (if you're interested). And, if you like what you read, don't forget there's HEAPS more in the Halloween Wedding ebook!

On a personal note, it's been a wonderful week for me, as my sweet baby sister has given birth to her first child! I'm an Auntie! I'm Kreig Aunty Steff! Momma and Baby are healthy and relaxing at home at present. My mom sent through photos today - the little lad looks just like a smushed-up parsnip. Kids, aye?

Seriously, that's awesome!

Also, don't forget that all next month will be Favour February. Every day I'll be talking about wedding favours - one of my favourite details of weddings even though we did none ourselves - and all their manifestations; DIY, budget store-brough favours, customised favours and tips, tricks and advice from favour experts. I know it sounds a little kitsch but, trust me, it will be fun.

Gothic Wedding Favours

Just a heads up, for the entire month of february I'm going to feature fabulous favour ideas for all you Skully brides - gothic, halloween, steampunk, heavy metal, rockabilly, punk, alternative and generally skully.

So artists and vendors, if you sell small, inexpensive do-dads that you think would be perfect for Skully Weddings, please drop me a line at steff_green AT hotmail DOT com and tell me about your products. I want to run features with text links and lots of lovely photographs. Please - I want to hear from you!

Skully brides and grooms - if you have pics of your DIY favours or craft projects that would make awesome favours - send me an email at steff_green AT hotmail DOT com and tell me all about them! If anyone has any tips for where they sourced fabulous favours or any favour questions you want answered, please email! I really want to hear from you all.

Public Service announcement over. We now resume ordinary programming.