The Vitamin String Quartet is a group of string musicians and producers/arrangers who record for Vitamin Records. Their main schtick is tribute albums in which they perform classical versions of songs by bands like Metallica and Jane’s Addiction, but they’ve also got a couple of wedding collections.

The Gothic Wedding Collection features orchestral renditions of songs like Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and Nine Inch Nails’ “Something I Can Never Have,” and the Rock and Roll Wedding Collection includes favorites like Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long,” and David Bowie’s “Heroes.”

This would be a lovely way to introduce a subtle gothy note into a wedding. Your guests will either recognize the song and be amused or be happily oblivious and just enjoy the pretty music.

(hat tip to Herding Kittens)

Halloween weddings are a little more mainstream than they used to be, so it’s getting somewhat easier to find commercial invitations like the spooky ones at Gothic Art Gallery or the elegant ones at Invitations by Dawn. If you’re on a tight budget or just have the DIY Nature, however, there are lots of ideas for making your own. Here are a few tutorial links I’ve picked up in my wanderings:

Marilyn’s Creative Inspirations – Pretty scrapbook-style invitations with spiderwebs (shown above).

Better Homes and Gardens – A tattered invitation with vellum overlay.

Associated Content – Instructions (but no photo) for making invitations with watercolor paper.

About.com – Making invitations with rubber stamps.

Instructables – This is for a more generic DIY invitation, but the blossoming tree clip art they use could easily be replaced with something a little drearier.

Halloweddings – My own little contribution.

Coolest Party Ideas – The spiderweb one at the bottom would be especially easy to pull off.

Charisma – This is for a Halloween party rather than a wedding, but I just love the clever theme idea.

A couple that aren’t really tutorials but still might serve as inspiration:

Suite 101 – I love the Ouija invitation idea at the bottom.

Two from MyExpression: Halloween and Black and White.

The links featured here already have a Halloween theme, but it’s not hard to turn any DIY invitation to the dark side (muwahahaha). Google “how to make wedding invitations” for more ideas than you can shake a scythe at. Choose a design that fits your style and budget, then look for ways to make it a little gothier: Trade clip-art doves for bats, use an eroded-looking font, and select spooky colors instead of pastels. For a restrained, just-a-hint-of-Halloween look, you might use harvest colors like russets and deep oranges, choose a font like Black Chancery, and decorate with chic pumpkins. For all-out-creepy, try black and blood red, a spiky font like Zombie Holocaust, and perhaps something like spider silhouettes.

Making your own invitations is a fun way to personalize your wedding and a great option for trimming your budget a bit. Allow yourself enough time so you don’t have to finish them in a frustrated rush, and you’ll be amazed at how easy and satisfying it is to make them.

Wedding Skulls recently posted a question from a reader about getting married on a very tight budget. I got a little long-winded in the comments and thought of five or six other things afterwards, so I may as well turn it into a post of my own. (Be sure to check the original post for Steff’s suggestions and other commenters’ ideas as well.)

The key to a low-stress wedding is to remember that the whole point is to formalize your commitment to each other. The only thing you have to have for that is some legal paperwork. Everything else is optional. Take that to heart. Repeat it to yourself every morning in the mirror. Tattoo it on your wrist if necessary.

Your first step is to look at each element of a wedding–flowers, favors, invitations, dresses, yadda, yadda, and yadda. Decide what you absolutely can’t live without. Discard everything else (be ruthless). Then look at what’s left and figure out the cheapest way to accomplish it. Make a virtue of necessity: View this as an opportunity to make your wedding truly unique and personal instead of expensive and “cookie-cutter.”

Now…the reason that you’re having an actual ceremony and/or reception instead of eloping is because you want to include friends and family in your special day. So by gawd, include them. Tell them that in lieu of a gift you would really appreciate their help with planning and execution. This is the “Hey, kids, let’s put on a show in the barn” approach to weddings, but it really works. Many people will jump at the chance to add a little personal touch to the wedding of a loved one, particularly if you sell it to them that way. Emphasize how meaningful their help will be, and how grateful you are that they want to be included.

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I got a “cold call” e-mail yesterday:

I am looking for goth, rock ‘n’ roll, and rockabilly brides and newlyweds for a new show! Brides and newlyweds will compete to win up to $10,000!

If you know anyone in the Los Angeles area who might be interested, please forward my contact information to them or feel free to send me theirs.

Thanks so much!

Krystal Fonte
Casting Producer
O: 323.799.2535
KrystalCasting@gmail.com

Disclaimer: I know nothing about this person or the show she mentions (a quick google around didn’t turn up anything obvious), but if you’re a goth bride in the L.A. area you might want to check it out.

The rest of us can keep a lookout for a new show involving alternative weddings.

Giving new meaning to the phrase “with every beat of my heart,” the Pulse Ring from C. Roule Design features a custom EKG engraving on the inside of the band.

Send them an EKG printout and they will create a ring engraved with the pulse pattern, name, and date. This would be a unique and very personal wedding ring, but you could also have an engraving of, say, your baby’s heartbeat from an ultrasound or the EKG of a loved one who’s recovered from illness.

The rings come in several different metals and pricing starts at $495. They also offer a Pulse Pendant, starting at $795.

Their online store is “under construction” and their downloadable order form is a bit flaky,* but the form lists pulse@roule.com as a contact e-mail so you could probably just write and ask for ordering details.

(Incidentally, you could go DIY with the personalized-EKG idea and paint or embroider a pattern on decorative objects or clothing. The rings are very pretty, though.)

*It has a “.pdf.bin” extension: If you’re running a Mac, drop the file into StuffIt. If you’re on Windows, change the extension to “.pdf”. If you’re on Linux, good for you!

The CakeWrecks blog has a post that’s a tad harsh on spooky wedding cakes. Admittedly, a couple of the examples in their post are a little cheesy for a wedding–although I’d love the toe-tag picture on an anniversary card–but they’re not so much “wrecked” as just out of the blogger’s comfort zone (if you really want to roll your eyes, read some of the comments).

I’ve mentioned spooky cakes previously, but as long as I’m on the subject here are a couple I missed last time around:

Some skull cakes from Cake Alchemy.

An elegant Pumpkin design and a nice Corpse Bride theme from Pink Cake Box.

Another Corpse Bride design from Wild Cakes. Check out the cloud of little blue butterflies surrounding the cake.

A Halloween/harvest theme from Carlucci’s Bakery. This one would be reasonably easy to replicate, since most of the decorations are fondant cutouts rather than icing.

An offbeat “Till Death Do Us Part” cake from Ace of Cakes. (Check out their Beardsley cake, too.)

Several designs from Let Them Eat Cake. This is an all-Flash interface, which I hate SOOOO much because it won’t let me link to individual pages, but if you click on the thumbnails there are some spectacular designs. I’m especially blown away by the Nightmare Before Christmas cake about halfway through the slideshow.

Any of these beat the daylights out of ecru buttercream and doves.

Update: The CakeWrecks “Sunday Sweets” post added some much nicer undead cakes.

In days of yore (before indoor plumbing), it was common for a lady to give her knight a token of affection to carry into battle. You can do something similar whether or not your beloved heads off to work every morning toting a broadsword.

I’ve put together a tutorial for making a simple cross-stitched bracelet that you can personalize to your heart’s content.

This is an easy and romantic gift, and would also be an excellent item to give to groomsmen/bridesmaids for a medieval wedding.

(Incidentally, my workshop is beginning to get cluttered with prototypes, so I’m selling a few of the items I’ve made for tutorials in the One-of-a-Kind section of the store. If you don’t want to Doom It Yourself, you can buy it cheap. The bracelet shown above is available here).

Looking for some great wedding favor ideas? The Wedding Skulls blog is doing “Favour February“–posts for a whole month on ideas for dark wedding treats.

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.

Be sure to look around the rest of the site as well. The blog is relatively new, but she’s got some lovely ideas for gothy weddings, including loads of great pictures.

Despite their annoying interstitial ads, I do like Better Homes and Gardens Magazine’s decorating slideshows. They’ve posted a bunch of cute ideas for a Halloween wedding reception, many of which would also be appropriate for an upscale Halloween party.

Several of the ideas include project instructions like this easy Guest Book and Pen Holder.

Be sure to check out their other Halloween slideshows for additional ideas.

Bonus Link: Check out these cute ideas from Christine’s Couture

UK-based jeweler Butler & Wilson offer a large selection of skull-themed jewelry encrused with Swarovski crystals. They aren’t cheap, but they’re certainly arresting. This skull tiara would be an awesome bridal accessory, and this trinket box is intricate and creepy.

If you’re patient and good with gluing on fiddly bits, you might be able to hand-make something reasonably similar. (You’d have to be much more patient than I am.)

Link (via Haunt Style)