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 The whole garter-tossing ceremony seems rather strange and outdated to me – which is why we didn’t partake of it.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.

Let me be the first to say I absolutly adore steampunk. It’s the perfect marring for edge, urban style and pretty archaeological goodies. I loves it to much, I even wrote a steampunk novel (which is currently being considered by HarperCollins voyager, yay!)

I know many people out there are planning steampunk weddings, so I thought we might throw our collective brains out there to try and come up with a few venue suggestions.

Historic railroads and train museums often take the refitted trains for short runs. Why not ring around your nearest historic railroads and see if they could accommodate a wedding? You could hold the ceremony in the station than all the guests could hop on board for a scenic train journey, perhaps stopping for a picnic or dinner.

If trains don’t appeal, I suggest looking around your local known and not-so-well-known museums and art galleries. Last year, CDH and I visited the Powerhouse museum in Sydney, which is a converted victorian pumphouse housing industrial art, turn-of-the-century science exhibits and fascinating moving replicas of important inventions. The whole place had an amazing steampunk vibe.

I used to work at the Howick Historical Village, a quaint 20th century living history museum in Howick, Auckland, New Zealand. The museum featured around 30 buildings arranged as a village, complete with tiny chapel (hired for weddings), a stable, a school, general store, pub and forge. Hiring the church and cafe for a wedding and shooting your portraits throughout the beautiful villiage was an extremely affordable way to totally immerse your guests in a steamy world.

In the spirit of steampunk adventure, why not begin your marriage with a daring ride and ceremony on board a hot-air balloon? Perfect for the couple who prefer to be alone while speaking their vows – and who aren’t afraid of heights.

And if you crave a steampunk adventure but you ARE afraid of heights, you could always try hiring a boat, for a nautical steampunk pirate adventure wedding. Telescopes, admiral’s jackets, swords and dancing on deck!

You can find boats for hire through local boat clubs, or maritime museums (who often have historic vessals for cut-throat prices).

A note of caution however – even if you or your husband have sea legs, many of your guests may not, and a day aboard a windy boat may not be the pleasent, fun romp you imagine.

So steampunkers, I’ll hear no words about the impossibility of finding appropriate venues! They do exist, and often, they’re cheaper than ponsy-ass normal ‘wedding venues’ the rest of us choose from.

Is anyone else out there planning a steampunk wedding at a unique venue? Does anyone know of any other cool ‘steamy’ venue ideas? If so, spill the goss! Don’t leave us all hanging by our spats!

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!

Dear Wedding Skulls

I have a question. We want to do something fun at our reception that doesn’t involve dancing. We don’t dance and neither do our friends. Do you have any ideas for a gothic/steampunk wedding that doesn’t have dancing?

I sure do! You shouldn’t be surprised to know this is a common question. For every person who loves tapping their feet, there’s at least two who find it abhorrent. Non-dancers are rife in our gothic/heavy metal subculture because we tend to be the socially-awkward, ambivilent individuals.

Without knowing too much about your wedding I can’t offer any specific ideas, but here are five suggestions for dancing-free entertainment at a gothic/steampunk wedding.

1. Computer Games.

For the geek couple! Set up a massive Dance Dance Revolution station or a singstar / rock band stage. Watching your grandma trying to strum along to ‘Through the Fire and Flames’ on guitar hero will totally make your whole wedding, I guarantee!

2. Parlour games

Parlour games are perfect for the indoor steampunk wedding. I’ve found a great website of parlour games for all you Victorian lovlies.

3. Exhibit / Attractions

At our wedding, we paid for our guests to travel through four haunted attractions. The actors picked on us – especially me. I got chased by two chainsaw-weilding maniacs through the haunted forest. It was awesome.

If your wedding is at a theme park, guests can go on rides or just walk around and enjoy the evening. You could also have a museum/gallery wedding – always something to look at in a museum!

I’ve seen photos from one couple who had their wedding in a zoo, and another who were wed under an aquarium dome. Their guests loved exploring the animals after hours.

I also heard of a steampunk couple who married on a historic train which took all their guests on a four-hour train trip with delicious food and music. How rad is that?

4. Other Entertainers

Have a look at Rachel and Matt’s Moulin Rouge meets Tim Burton wedding – they had dancers and entertainment all night! What about belly-dancers, modern dancers, trapeize artists, clowns, magicians or comedians? I’m sure if you ask around you’ll find some talented friends willing to step up!

5. Outdoor Games

Your gothic cemetery picnic needs a few black-ribboned hula-hoops, a black frisbee and a lawn-bowls set, and your guests won’t miss the awkward dancing.

Since I’ve recently become addicted to Etsy, I thought I’d have a go at doing a few product features (as opposed to the shop features I normally do). I’ve been finding lots of beautiful and unique items which will complete any wedding outfit, or are perfect as a pick-me-up treat for yourself (you hard-working goth, you ) or a gift for a friend.

This is a bit of an experiment, so please tell me if you like seeing a range of items or you’d rather me continue featuring individual sellers, or you want a mix of both, or none at all.

Gothic Black Lace Earrings, $19, 20% OFF, from peling

Call Steampunk a fad if you like, but no one can deny the aesthetic of combining repurposed Victorian knick-knacks and gothic/punk rock subculture is freakin awesome.

So when I found EDM Designs on etsy, well…I swooned. I feel compelled to share these remarkable designs with all my Skully readers, lest y’all complain about the recent derth of steampunk-related posts.

Enjoy