If you’re looking for a sophisticated idea for a fall or Halloween wedding, then look no further. The masquerade ball with mysterious masks and a dark color palette is an elegant option. This mystical theme not only looks amazing, but also provides an abundance of fun for you and your guests. From guessing who is underneath the mask to impressive eerie decor.

For a vintage take on this theme, go for unusual masks teamed with a lace dress and light brown suit. Great for weddings in old warehouses or lofts. A candlelit reception will definitely up the scare-factor as well as providing some serious mood lighting. You can still use classic floral arrangements with this darker theme, such as whites and pinks. Gold and black are a stunning combo, especially for weddings around Halloween.

A scary yet grown up treat in the form of a delicious burger! Get creative with your menu and steer clear of the witches fingers and creepy eyes in favor of clever themed options like this.

A laser-cut black mask with a lace dress and Gibson Girl style hair has a vintage influence.

Capture the essence of the nostalgic smoke machine in a glass, with a spooky cocktail. A signature drink with a difference.

Another option for a masquerade themed table, is by going for a slightly cleaner approach. Team gold and black with white accents and mini gold pumpkins. If you’re going for wooden tables, this will work well; especially in a barn setting. Black candle holders were made for a masquerade ball and you can use any combination of candle colors to match with them. Glitter and feathers as cake decorations will complement the design of your masks.

When it comes to selecting masks, there are many references to help inspire you. Venetian, 18th Century and Mardi Gras are fun styles to choose from. Or you can design and customize them yourself. Black bridesmaid dresses will complete the look especially when paired with deep plum bouquets.

Photo one: selectstudiosphoto.com; Photo two: brookelynphotography.com; Photo three: bradleyjamesphotography.com; Photo four: stylemepretty.com; Photo five: meghansavage.com; Photo six: mathieuphoto.com; Photo seven: jophotoonline.com; Photo eight: toa.st; Photo nine: rusticwhite.com; Photo ten: carmensantorellistudio.com; Photo eleven: bridalmusings.com;

Burgundy might seem like a bit of a throwback to the early 90’s, but with the recent popularity of jewel tones, the deep red shade is making a comeback in a serious way. Rich and dark in tone, burgundy is a perfect addition to any fall or winter color palette, but used sparingly it can also work for more daring spring and summer palettes as well. Here are 5 ways we think you should use it on your wedding day.

If you’re all about the jewel tones then burgundy is the perfect wedding color for you. Throw in some crimson red and a plummy purple and you’re good to go!

Just because burgundy is such a heavy shade doesn’t mean it can’t be paired with a soft color like blush pink to make for a pretty and delicate color scheme. We love the contrast it creates in this palette.

If you want to add a little oomph to the above palette, throw a little bright reddish pink and purple into the mix for a color scheme that clashes ever so slightly and in the most perfect way possible.

Dusty shades are perfect for a fall wedding, but can look a little drab on their own. Burgundy adds a richness to the color palette giving it that little bit of life it needs to keep it from becoming boring.

This is a great color palette for a late summer or early fall wedding when the trees are still green and the days are warm, but the nights are cool. The blues scream summer while the dusty purple and burgundy hint at autumn’s imminent arrival.

Photo one: stylemepretty.com; Photo two: 100layercake.com; Photo three: elizabethannedesigns.com; Photo four: ruffledblog.com; Photo five: weddingchicks.com

Fall seems to be everyone’s favourite season. The reasons why could possibly be due to the the stunning autumnal colors, delicious treats, and the cosiest of clothing. This makes a fall wedding a very enviable affair indeed when some of these seasonal ideas are incorporated. If you’re not a fan of big bright pumpkins and Halloween ephemera then there’s many ways for you to be inspired by the season in a subtle way. We’ve picked 10 of our fall faves for you to use in your wedding.

1. Mini Pumpkin Vases

You can use a selection of mini pumpkins, squash and gourds to create these unique floral centerpieces. They are ideal for the season without being too obvious. It’s a great DIY project that can also double up as favors for your guests.

2. Long-Sleeved Wedding Dress

Use the colder weather as an excuse to wear a gorgeous long-sleeved dress. Wedding dresses with sleeves are a contemporary  and on trend look for your fall nuptials. We love sheer lace details that are both feminine and fashion forward. This also saves you from thinking about a cover up.

3. White Pumpkin Centerpiece 

Pumpkins are synonymous with the season for a plethora of reasons. From Halloween to pumpkin spice mania, there are pumpkins everywhere at this time of the year. To make them more wedding appropriate, white pumpkins are a perfect choice. They have more of an elegant and classic look and can be hollowed out to hold your floral arrangements.

4. Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses 

Merge the colors of fall by having your bridesmaids wear mismatched dresses in the same palette.

5. Apple Cider Treats

If you could bottle the taste of the season, surely it would taste like apple cider? If you agree, then apple cider and apple cider donuts will go down as a treat with your guests.

6. Gourd Candles

Little pumpkins and gourds can be easily transformed into candle holders with this nifty DIY.

7. Monogrammed Plaid Blankets 

Wrap up in style with these plaid blankets, that also look great as chair back decor.

8. Painted Leaves

Dried leaves are a great project for the autumn months, they look even better when they are painted in bold or metallic hues. You can use these leaves as escort cards, table numbers or just scattered on your tables.

9. Bonfire Reception

If you’re having an outdoor reception, or if there’s an outdoor space available then a bonfire will keep your guests warm. Plus, bonfires just go hand in hand with hot chocolate and s’mores... so there’s your excuse.

10. Fall Bouquet 

Deep red dahlias, red anemones and garden roses help to make up this stunning fall bouquet. Dark and moody blooms make these floral arrangements such a lovely option for the season.

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Being a grad student from France, Bérénice couldn’t see herself having the time or the desire to plan a huge wedding. Still wanting to celebrate with those closest to them, however, she and Mike didn’t feel eloping was the right option for them either. Instead, the couple opted for a low-key courthouse wedding in Raleigh, North Carolina where they live, inviting only immediate family and a few close friends. They followed up their sweet civil ceremony with a photo session around town with their talented photographer Carolyn Scott, and finished off the day with dinner at their favorite Lebanese restaurant.

Bérénice, 26 & Michael, 34 

Raleigh, NC

Wedding Date: July 31, 2014

Number of Guests: 8

Wedding Cost: We never actually wrote everything down, but from what I calculated it was about $6,750 including wedding bands, but not the engagement ring.

Wedding Ceremony Location: Wake County Courthouse, Raleigh, NC

Wedding Reception Location: Our family went to a bar while we had our pictures taken and we met them there for drinks before dinner; then we went to a great Lebanese restaurant in downtown Raleigh for dinner.

Why did you have an intimate wedding?

I am French, Mike is from Massachusetts, and we currently live in North Carolina. So it was difficult to plan a big wedding because everybody would have had to travel. I am also in grad school, so I am super busy and I didn’t see myself planning a wedding! But most of all, we didn’t want anything big because it is not us: we are more comfortable in small groups. On the other end, it was important for us to celebrate that day with our closest family rather than just elope. So we decided on a very small – immediate family only – wedding.

What are some of the challenges that you faced planning an intimate wedding?

For a little bit, we considered having a wedding in Massachusetts or in France and both options were challenging in their own right. However, once we decided that we would go with an intimate wedding in Raleigh with only our immediate family, there was no challenge anymore! This is one of the reasons why we wanted a small wedding.

Was it difficult to pare down the guest list?

No, we invited only our parents, siblings, grand parents, and a couple of close friends that live in Raleigh so they didn’t have to travel. Unfortunately, our grandparents couldn’t travel from Massachusetts and France. We would have liked to share the day with more people, but this is the compromise you have to make when you decide to have a small wedding!

Did you have any ‘issues’ with the small guest list from friends and family? If so, how did you address them?

No we didn’t have any issues. We told our family and close friends that it was immediate family only and they understood. We sent wedding announcements with pictures of the wedding to everybody afterwards.

What were the highlights of the ceremony?

I was getting ready with my family at our house and Mike was getting ready with his family at their hotel. Mike picked me up at our house to go to the courthouse and when he got there with his family, my dad walked me down the stairs of the front porch to “Ghosts that We Knew” by Mumford and Sons. It was like being walked down the aisle and it was very emotional!

What were the highlights of the reception?

We had dinner at our favorite restaurant in Raleigh called Sitti. It was great to be at the same table as all of our guests! We were able to talk to everybody and enjoy our great food!

What was the best thing about having an intimate wedding?

The very light amount of planning and the small bill that goes with it!

What advice do you have for couples who are considering an intimate wedding?

Do what makes you feel comfortable! It is your wedding and it should represent who you are! Also, get photographers to document the day for you and the people you didn’t invite.

Vendors:

Wedding Dress: Kookaï

Bride’s Shoes: SJP Bobbie Nordstrom

Bride’s Jewelery: J. Crew

Headpiece: Dahlia Blusher from BHLDN

Groom’s Sport Coat and Shirt: Macy’s

Groom’s Jeans: J. Crew

Groom’s Shoes: Clarks

Photographers: Carolyn Scott Photography

Cake: The Cheesecake Factory

Make-Up and Hair: I did my own make-up and hair as well as my mom’s.

Flowers: My mom made my bouquet with flowers from Fresh Market.

At a glass chapel in the woods of Arkansas, Sarah and Jason were joined at the altar by the bride’s daughter and the groom’s son as they became husband and wife, joining their two families together as one. The children even read their own vows, pledging to be a good brother/sister to each other in an adorable ceremony that ended with the family dancing down the aisle together to Pharrell William’s Happy.

The whole thing was beautifully captured by the couple’s friend and photographer Kari Nichols, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to share the photos with you today!

Sarah, 25 & Jason, 34

Eureka Springs, AR

Wedding Date:  May 18, 2014

Number of Guests: 36

Wedding Cost: $3,476, but keep in mind that Kari gave us a special price and shot the wedding on her own so that Caleb, her husband, could be one of my groomsmen.

Wedding Ceremony Location: Thorncrown Chapel, Eureka Springs, AR

Wedding Reception Location: DeVito’s of Eureka Springs

Why did you have an intimate wedding? 

Well, we already knew that we wanted our day small and intimate since this was the second time around for both of us. I guess we just felt that since we are generally private people, this day should really be for us. And when we thought about it, we really only wanted our closest friends and family to come – basically, the people who had seen each of us through the good and bad times. Once Jason suggested the chapel and we looked at photos online, we just booked it. We never even visited Thorncrown until the day of. We liked that it was small (only seating a max of 100 guest) and we liked that it was two hours out of town. We’d both been to Eureka Springs before, so we knew how beautiful the area was, and we just took a chance with the chapel.

What are some the challenges that you faced planning an intimate wedding? 

Finding a place for a reception. There are very few places for a reception in Eureka Springs on a Sunday and most of the places were designed for bigger crowds and really wanted you to book a ceremony and reception. Also, most traditional reception locations would not allow us to bring in an outside vendor for food and drink. Honestly, it was a little unsettling to lose so much creative control when we knew that we wanted a personally crafted experience . Initially, we got annoyed by all the restrictions that venues were trying to place on us that we just rented a big ten person cabin in the woods and we were just going to have one big wedding reception/house party. Eventually though, we found Devito’s and Teresa Devito bent over backwards to make us feel welcome. In the end, we liked her so much that we just let her handle everything. They printed personal menus for us and made and provided an Italian wedding cake that was great!

The other challenge was flowers. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money on flowers for a glass chapel in the woods. But we did need flowers for the bride and bridal party and we wanted them to fit in with the natural beauty of the area. Our solution was to drive highway roads the morning of the ceremony and look for flowers to cut and arrange ourselves. We found a few nice irises (Sarah’s favorite flower) on the side of a particularly busy highway, and while cutting them, we were eventually noticed by a local. Steve the local was concerned that we would get hit by a car so he asked us to come and take as many irises from his yard as we liked. Steve mentioned he was going to mow them all down anyway! In the end, most of our flower arrangements were courtesy of flowers provided, for free, by some Eureka Springs’ local named Steve.

Was it difficult to pare down the guest list? / Did you have any ‘issues’with the small guest list from friends and family? If so, how did you address them?

Honestly, it seems like it should have been, but it turned out to be a pretty smooth process. We knew that more then half of the people we invited wouldn’t be able to make it. Most of Jason’s family lives in Seattle and traveling to Arkansas would be unrealistic for them, and Sarah’s family is very small. Choosing a venue that was two hours out of town and placing the ceremony on a Sunday evening worked in our favor as well. We just went ahead and invited any friends who we thought would get offended if they didn’t get an invitation knowing most of them would probably not opt to drive out of town on a Sunday evening.

What were the highlights of the ceremony? 

Jason’s son Jude and Sarah’s daughter Penelope’s involvement. Apart from them getting to be the ring bearer and the flower girl, we also had them come up and do vows of their own, pledging to be a good brother and sister. I just remember them being so happy to be up front holding hands with us and each other  At the end we were announced as the Jason and Sarah Denney family….and then all four of us danced back down the isle to the tune of Happy by Pharrel.

What were the highlights of the reception?

Just being able to show up. The room was set up and the cake was cut. We just got to have dinner with close friends and family and not work or stress over anything.

What was the best thing about having an intimate wedding? 

Not having to worry about pleasing other people. We were able just to focus on our day and our family. Having just close friends/family present was great, everyone there was truly focused on us, at that moment. They were fully there for the for of us, not the open bar.