This is the first rockabilly wedding I’ve profiled on Wedding Skulls, and if this is how awesome they are, I hope I see many more. Haili and Michael look like they’re having an awesome time with their guests, and I’ve never seen a couple look more badass.

Who be you?

Haili and Michael Hughes, Bride is a Secondary school English teacher and groom is a Lab Technician at the University of Manchester

What made your day a Skully Wedding?

I am really into all that is Rockabilly and my husband is into metal music and we married the two and came up with a tattoo themed, polka dot day. We wanted the day to be about everything which makes us unique and if that meant alienating or upsetting people, we just had to go with it.

Tell us about your favorite wedding details?

Our invites were made by us and had interlocking, old school, heart tattoos on them. This linked in with the place settings and table plans which had an old school heart and swallow tattoo design on them. The place settings were attached with a red and white polka dot ribbon, which was another detail which was repeated all the way through the event.

We got married at Haigh Hall in Wigan which is a very grand stately home with a bit of a gothicky feel. We had the whole day here including the wedding breakfast and evening reception. The favours we also made ourselves with scarlet coloured organza bags we purchased from Ebay – the whole wedding was practically bought from there! These were filled with retro sweets such as flying saucers and swizel lollipops and each guest also got a temporary tattoo with the same old school design from the invites.

The bridesmaids wore full length dresses from Monsoon and had red and white polka dot shoes and 50s style cloth button earrings on, made out of polka dot earrings as well. The flowers were red and pink gerberas, tied together with red and white polka dot ribbon and secured with pearl pins. Table decorations were old punk records in the middle of the tables, with a tall glass vase filled with red and pink gerberas on top of them.

Every table was named after a Banksy piece. The cake was a three teir, chocolate and lemon sponge. It was decorated with red polka dots, a swallow and heart tattoo and topped with the lego bride and groom.

I wore a halterneck dress from Ebay, so I could show off my huge pin up girl tattoo, with no viel and a handmade pearl necklace with a polka dot ribbon attached to it. I wore pin up style make up and had my trademark bright red hair. Our photos were taken by Julie Fortune and were edited comic book, sin city style with black and white pictures with splashes of one colour. The groom wore a Mod style suit, with a short sleeved shirt to show off his Banksy tattoos which are all over his arm. He also wore a baby pink and blue skinny tie covered in skulls and rockabilly white and black shoes. Our son Hendrix wore a little tux with a pink tie and biker boots, and for the reception he changed into a babygrow printed with a tux!

Most memorable moment?

Getting to the end of the aisle and kissing my step dad and dad who both gave me away. I felt really emotional seeing all my friends and family in the same room and the enormity of the situation hit me.

Tell us about the music at your wedding?

We only played the music we liked, so many members of my family were not happy! Our wedding dance was to Marilyn Manson – The Nobodies and other songs were from System of a Down, Queens of the Stone Age, Green Day and Rage Against the Machine. I walked down the aisle to my cousin playing “Starlight” by Muse on the violin and walked back up it with my husband to the Verve “Bittersweet Symphony”. During the service my uncle and cousin sang and played “Good Riddance/ Time of your Life ” by Green Day.

Any advice for Wedding Skulls?

Make some time for each other on the day, everybody wasnts a piece of you on the day but after we were married we got the chance to go for a drive together around the park in our wedding car and have a glass of champagne which was lovely. Also when planning, don’t listen to other people, as they always think they know better but it is ultimately about what you want.

You can see more photos from this kickass rockabilly wedding.

To garter or not to garter? It’s a bit of an odd question, really. The whole garter-tossing ceremony seems rather strange and outdated to me – which is why we didn’t partake of it. I wasn’t going to wear a garter, but my dress lady sent me one as a free gift – a gorgeous red and black lace garter with skull beads on it. So awesome.

ALMOST as awesome as the amazing punk rock garters from Peterene Designs, makers of vintage and theme wedding garters and accessories.

Yaaarrrrr!

I might have mentioned this before, but I thought I’d better do a whole post on the topic. Just in time for Etsy Day, Wedding Skulls now has an Etsy shop! You can buy both wedding planner ebooks there – as well as my writing ebooks, and copywriting / marketing writing packages for Etsy shops.

But that’s not the best part. A good friend of mine – Amy Beales – has come on board as well. She’s selling her beautiful line of gothic clothing and accessories, including wedding garters, favor bags, rosaries, coats, corsets, bags and more. Every one of her creations is custom made to your exact measurements, so you can change the colours/fabrics if you desire. Her pride and joy is the Nevermore coat – a stunning red floor-length gothic coat with handmade fastenings.

For those of you who have NO IDEA what I’m rambling on about, Etsy is a network for people to buy and sell handcrafted goods. You can sign up for a free account and browse away till your eyes are sore. So many talented, wonderful people sell and shop on Etsy, and Wedding Skulls is honoured to now be counted amongst them.

Wedding Skulls are also proud members of Etsy Dark Side street team. You can find us on their website, forum and blog. If you search ‘etsydarkteam’ in tags, you’ll find all the delightful gothicky items.

We’re adding new items every day, and we’ve got TONS to add. So keep checking back. We have a special section just for – well – specials, and we’re active in the Etsy forums.

Also, don’t forget that you have only FIVE MORE DAYS of the Wedding Planner Promotion – %50 off both wedding planners when you enter the discount code mmmdonuts or buy through the Etsy shop. Get yours today!

The beautiful and talented Steph from Tart Deco rockabilly wedding blog has graciously popped over to Wedding Skulls to say a few words about her favourite subject – rockabilly. I certianly didn’t know much about rockabilly before I talked to Steph, and I’ve now got a whole new list of bands to listen to

My FIL talks about the old days, when he used to walk down the road to watch The Who, and he wore these horrible wing-tip shoes. According to him, you either liked The Who, and you were a Mod, or you liked The Rolling Stones, and you were a Rocker. And never the twain should meet. It was like emos and…non emos.

I must confess that I’m not an expert on ‘Mod’ style, but I have a friend who wears these kind of clothes and she always looks FABULOUS. I’m emailing her right now to tell her about Mod Cloth.

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