Erin & Sam’s Dia De Los Muertos, Halloween, masquerade ball wedding

What would Halloween week be without a Dia de los Meurtos wedding? Not a very good one, that's for sure. That's why I'm pleased to bring you Erin and Sam's Dia de los Muertos masquerade ball! This one's got it all… Halloween accoutrements, skull details, costumes, a tarot card reader, even hula-hooping! It's pretty amazing… -Megs

The offbeat bride: Erin – Admin at the University of Texas

Her offbeat partner: Sam – Organic foods delivery driver for Greenling

Location & date of wedding: Three Points Ranch in Round Mountain, Texas — just an hour outside of Austin, Texas — 10/31/2009

What made our wedding offbeat: We were married by a Justice of the Peace on 9/9/09 and decided on a big party for all of our friends and family on 10/31/09. We had cupcakes, an Indian and Thai themed buffet, Texas beer and wine, tons of delicious food, hula-hooping, wax lips and wax fangs, and everyone looked amazing in their costumes. It was a blast!

We never liked the formality of a big ceremony (of course, that's super cool if that's your thing). I LOVE to plan, so I did all of the little details from custom invites printed frugally, to tons of hand-painted skull decorations, to paper flowers and a bubble smoke machine. I spent a lot of time online finding interesting ways to make things work, such as finding wholesale vases for our centerpieces.

I made tons of little touches — a sign on the cupcake table to remind people who “be calm and eat cupcakes.” There were favors featuring our invitation design and starring a song that both of us sung together (neither of us are singers, so it was a special treat for everyone).

We decided on a location that represented us — a place called Three Points Ranch in the Texas hill country that was built from sustainable materials with a Texas flair and five gorgeous vintage airstreams, each with a different theme. In one of them we put a tarot-reading friend, who ended up being the most popular part of the wedding!

Our biggest challenge: We wanted to do so much with decorations and themes and colors and food, but budget, time and ability to get everything together were all big hurdles. We knew one thing — we didn't want to compromise when it came to fun or food, which meant things like decorations had to be creative. With so many ideas and so little time, we had to come to figure out exactly what the night would mean to us. When we finally settled on a theme — Dia De Los Muertos Halloween Masquerade Ball (what a mouthful!).

We were able to incorporate a lot of our ideas into the theme without leaving out too much. We were able to save a lot of money by choosing paper flowers, which goes wonderfully with our theme, instead of real ones. We're very lucky to have family and friends who were able to go with the flow and be okay with a wedding event that was a tad out of the ordinary.

My advice for offbeat brides: My best advice would be to find the little things that make you happy, and incorporate them into your celebration. I was the most happy knowing that everyone felt special by the little personalized touches. They don't have to be expensive or time-consuming.

We both decided to sing “Tonight You Belong To Me” (the song Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters sang in The Jerk) as the first song on a mixed CD we gave as favors, and everyone loved them even though we're both pretty bad singers. I always say if you're willing to embarrass yourself for your friends and family, then that's real love.

What was the most meaningful moment of your wedding? My husband and I were able to sneak off to the Tarot-reading trailer to get our cards read. She did a long reading just for us, and the cards said all the right things. Even though we were so busy all night talking to so many family members and friends, I was happy to have that moment alone with him.

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

• Dress: Custom made by savannahred
• Cupcakes: Polkadots
• Food: 2 Dine 4
• Venue: Three Points Ranch
• Photography: Jen Hellow
• Cake Topper: Clay Lindo
• Paper Flowers: Amols

Enough talk — show me the wedding porn!

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About the Author: Megan Finley Horowitz

@meggyfin @thedashanddine @meggyfin

When Megan's not writing, traveling, and sleeping, she's eating like the fate of the world depends on it. (You're welcome, world!) You can snoop into her personal life over on her website The Dash and Dine!