Monday, March 2, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wedding Skulls update
I think it's best to do this while the blog is still in its infancy. I'm telling y'all now so you can prepare for it's occurance. And I will tell you again just before we make the move - might not be for another few weeks yet, provided I can get my domain back. SIGH.
Why is WeddingSkulls moving, I hear you ask? Simply put, while blogger is a very simple, blogging software, it's very restrictive when I want to SEO Wedding Skulls so more wonderful brides and grooms can find me :) I use wordpress for my business site www.small-business-copywriter.com and it works so well.
This site will redirect to the new one, and I will be fixing the feeds so they redirect too. Blah, so much work. But it's better I do it now than in a years time. SIGH
On a happy note, I am now 24 years old. It sounds SO old. My friends be throwing a dessert party tonight - they know me so well! Possible pics to follow, and more wedding posts!
Hang in there, loyal readers.
Steff
Labels: blog
Monday, February 23, 2009
Favor Feb: Old Fashion Halloween
Fortune Teller Reproduction Postcard, $2, 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?
Labels: bat, cards, centerpieces, coffin, decor, eye, favour february, favours, ghost, Halloween, invitations, jewellery, Old Fashion Halloween, reception, skulls, soap, victorian, vintage, witches
Saturday, February 21, 2009
non-wedding Iron Maiden post, ahoy!
This be the third time I've seen Maiden. The first - Earls Court, England, in Dec 2006, was on their Matter of Life and Death tour, where they played the entirely of their new album. The second was when CDH and I travelled to Sydney to see them on the first leg of the SBIT tour last year. I think there's something to be said about seeing a band like this in your home country, however. It's something special.
SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME is a tour for the fans, where Maiden break out their classics, the songs their new fans missed out on all those years ago. They've rebuilt and redesigned the Powerslave stage set, and brought back cyborg Eddie. They played 'The Trooper', 'Aces High', 'Moondance', 'The Evil that Men Do', 'Number of the Beast', 'Run to the Hills', 'Iron Maiden', 'Powerslave' and, as a special treat, all 13 minutes of 'Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.'
You'd be hard-pressed to beat these boys live. Note perfect Bruce Dickenson can grab your balls from right at the back of the arena, even if - like me - you don't have any balls. They're absolutly electric. If you've never seen a metal concert before, you should go see Maiden, just to know what you're missing out on.
We shall return to the usual programming tomorrow, I promise, but for now...MAIDEN, METAL! \m/
Labels: concerts, iron maiden
Friday, February 20, 2009
Favor Feb: Shadow Manor interview
Labels: Art of Darkness, coffin, DIY, favour february, favours, Shadow Manor, skulls, Skully chat, voodoo
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Favor Feb: Donating to Charity
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?
Labels: charity, favour february, favours
Friday, February 13, 2009
Gothic Weddings: Tacky?
I also hate hate HATE when people say 'but what will they think in ten or twenty years time when they look back at their wedding photos?' I mean, what? Look at how happy everyone is! Even if these people aren't goths when they're sixty, surely they'll look back and say 'Man, look at that awesome fun wedding we had and how happy everyone was. I'm so glad we did that!'
Valentines Day, Skully Style
Truth is, I don't have much authority on the subject. CDH and I don't celebrate Valentines Day, because, well, it's like not celebrating Thanksgiving because you're not American, it just doesn't have any relevancy to us.
Don't get me wrong, celebrating our love has HUGE relevancy. MASSIVE. EPICLY EPIC, in fact.
St. Valentines Day involves vestiges of Christian and Pagan Roman traditions. Did you know the Catholic church accepts THREE different saints as St. Valentine? All three were martyrs. We're told the holiday honours the saint's death, but the Christian's set the holiday in February to coincide with the Lupercallia festival, hoping to Christianise it, as they were want to do back then. Lupercallia is basically the Roman's 'Spring Cleaning' festival - every citizen emptied their house, swept it out, sprinkled salt and spelt everywhere, and then went out into the streets for an epic party, where the luperci priesthood ran around slapping the women with meat from the sacrificial goat (seriously people. I can't make this stuff up!)
One legend has Valentine wandering around during the reign of Claudius II, who had the ingenius idea that unwed men made better soldiers, so he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine thought that was rather naff, so kept performing marriage ceremonies, only ceasing when his head was no longer attached to his body.
According to one legend, Valentine actually sent his first valentine himself. While in prison he fell in love with the jailor's daughter (always a mistake, right there) and would send her letters signed 'from your valentine.' During the Medieval period, with all that courtly love and poetry and such nonsense, Valentines Day became more and more popular, especially in Britian. Pre-printed cards seemed a logical next step, especially given the nature of certian genders to forget these kind of things. America began swapping valentines in the 1700s.
Ester Howland created the first commerical valentines in the 1840s in America, from ribbons and lace and 'scraps', as she called them. Nowadays, over 1 billion cards are sent on valentines, 85% of them by women.
Crazy. Madness. I'm totally celebrating Lupercallia this weekend. Gonna slap me up my husband good with a rack of sacrificial goat meat...It's gonna be rad.
What, Skully Brides and Grooms, if anything, will you do?
Labels: pagan, Roman, valentines day
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Favor Feb: Gothic matchbox art favors
- 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...
Labels: DIY, favour february, favours, matchbox
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Favor Feb: Steampunk favors from Curious Inventions
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!
Labels: Curious Inventions, etsy, favour february, favours, steampunk
Monday, February 9, 2009
Favor Feb: Speleobooks bat favors
Bat Balm - for lips and more. 8ml. Kering fastener. $4 each.
Labels: bat, favour february, favours, Halloween
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Favor Feb: Twig pens
Labels: centerpieces, favour february, favours, twig
Friday, February 6, 2009
Favor Feb: Medieval Love Potion
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
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)
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
Labels: favour february, favours, medieval, pagan
Favor Feb: Gothic Wedding Bubbles
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.
Labels: bubbles, favour february, favours, gothic, rose
Thursday, February 5, 2009
BHG Halloween Wedding Feature - Coffin Favor Boxes
Labels: coffin, DIY, favour february, favours, Halloween
Custom temporary wedding 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.
Labels: favour february, favours, Halloween, heavy metal, punk, tattoo
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Punk Rock DIY Candy Buffet
- 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.
Labels: candy buffet, DIY, favour february, favours, punk, zebra print
Monday, February 2, 2009
Favour February: Weird n' Witchy Gothic/Pagan soap
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.
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?
Without further yammering, I present your first favour idea of the month - Gothic, Wiccan and Pagan soaps from Weird n' Witchy
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
Labels: budget, favour february, favours, gothic, Halloween, medieval, punk, skulls, soap, Weird n Witchy
Thursday, January 29, 2009
DIY Halloween Wedding for $200
Webspinstress' home Halloween Wedding
Labels: budget, costume, DIY, Halloween, home wedding, masquerade, red wedding dress
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Gothic Wedding Theme Ideas
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.
Labels: articles, favour february, gothic, Halloween, steffgreen.com, wedding planner