I know Wedding Skulls readers love anything a little different from the “normal” wedding stuff, so I’ve been thinking about alternatives to the boring guestbook. At our wedding, we have a notebook my mum found in a hippy shop, with a resin cover moulded like a demonic Necronomicon, and a skull pen magnetically attached to the cover. It’s awesome.

A guest book is meant to be a memento for you, so you can look back and remember who came, and read the lovely wishes they wrote for you on your wedding day. I’m a big fan of guestbooks that let guests be as creative as possible, because I think that makes for a fun book to look back on. Perhaps you’ll enjoy one of these ideas:

Wedding Platter

You can buy plain white platters from many sources (check your local Ikea) and draw on them with ceramic pens, which you should be able to find at a craft shop. If you have a lot of guests they won’t be able to do much more than sign their name, unless you want an entire wedding crockery set (which sounds like fun, especailly if you have some artistic friends). In order to set the markers, you normally need to bake the platter in the oven, so make sure you buy one that’s oven safe!

Wedding Pillowcases

Buy two unpatterned pullowcases and have your guests sign these with fabric markers. This idea works with other functional items, like aprons, photo frames and matt boards, canvases, cushions, vases and tapestries.

Playing Cards

I always think playing cards are the oft-overlooked classy, simple decorating tool. For the retro couple, why not buy a packet of playing cards and have your guests scrawl on them? That way, whenever you play strip poker, you can be reminded that grams thought you were a beautiful bride.

Wedding Collage

If you’re a bit of an artist, design a wedding collage, (just design it, don’t make it yet) which will include some of your wedding photos and mementos, and some means of guests signing it (little bits of paper cut out as skulls, or leaves, etc). leave the cut outs on the guest table with lots of multi-colored pens and

Sweet Tooth

Have a cupcake or cookie-decorating station, and have each guest make up an edible with their name on it, or a short message. Arrange the yummys on a table and take several good photos. Now eat your wedding guestbook for dessert!

Garden Feature

Have your guests write their names on a rock with a pen that won’t wash off. Seal the rocks with varnish and arrange in your garden. Plant a flower that reminds you of your relationship, and watch it grow together.

The Steampunk Book

Have a friend sit at a table with an old typewriter. Your guests dictate messages which she can then type out. Use these typed messages to create a steampunk-themed scrapbook or other art item. For extra fun, have your guests dictate messages as telegrams.

Another great steampunk idea is to have guests sign an old vintage travelling trunk. Filled with your worldly possessions, you’ll be ready for airship adventures!

Pumpkin Patch

At your halloween wedding, have your guests carve their names into a pumpkin, and take a photo of them all lit up. How wicked would that be? Give out a prize to the most artistic pumpkin.

Horrible Guests

Buy a calico zombie doll, and have your guests sign that. Awesome!

Recipe Guest Book

On your wedding invitation, ask each guest to bring a favorite family recipe. Compile these recipes into your own family cookbook. You could even have the book printed through Lulu, and give copies back to your relatives for birthdays and Christmas.

I hope I’ve inspired you with a few alternative wedding guestbook ideas. Remember, a guest book is meant to be a memento for your wedding reception, so choose one you’ll be able to hold onto forever.

The wedding cake – the centrepiece of the evening’s festivities. The sight the first greets your guests as they enter the reception hall. The towering effigy of fondant and buttercream. For the alternative bride, a wedding cake doesn’t have to be a tiered bundle of white and pink icing flowers – she can have skulls and bats and cobwebs and polka dots and crooked cakes and chainsaw massacres and anything she wants! Given these stunning beauties, it’s a wonder any couple choose to go with the old school white tower anymore.

I’ve been compiling a file of wedding cake inspirations, so you shall be seeing many more cake inspiration posts over the next year. I may even be taking a cake decorating course in August, so you might see some of my own lopsided creations making their way onto the blog.

If you’ve been hunting around the online gothic couture shops for any length of time, you’ve probably heard of Azrael’s Accomplice. Both Azrael’s Accomplice and AZAC Designs (a “less gothy” line of gowns and eveningwear) are the children of designer Tracy Robertson, often called by her nickname Batty. If you’re looking for that perfect gothic wedding dress, or even just a gothic gown to wear on an evening out, you might want to check out Azrael’s Accomplice.

Tracy has been creating stunning alternative clothing for over ten years, and her history as a costume designer shows through in her dramatic gowns and corsets.

The Azrael’s Accomplice line features Tracy’s high-end gothic couture gowns (stunning pieces) and corsets, as well as some ready-to-wear and club pieces. These are all designed for the gothic sensibility, but have a sensitivity about them, which makes them accessible to non-goths.

Tracy wanted to expand her clothing line, so designed the AZAC line to appeal to non-gothic types. The AZAC line features avant-garde coctail dresses, wedding gowns, and fashion corsetry.

All of Tracy’s designs tell a story and inspire a mood. The gowns in particular evoke fantasmagorical places, forgotten lands and magical women. They’re emotive pieces that set a tone for a wedding. An AZAC gown would suit the dramatic, avant-garde, ethereal and fantastical bride.

Tracy’s opened up an Etsy store with discounted gowns, corsets and other pieces. It’s well worth a look. I’ve even put that gothic pixie dress on my to-buy list.

Steampunk – the meshing together of Victorian sensibilities and science-fiction. The aesthetic of aether and brass, of steamships and Air Pirates, of death and glory and mother England.

In the last few years, Steampunk has taken to world by storm – not just as a subgenre of science-fiction movies, books and games, but as a lifestyle and a subcultural aesthetic. Like Gothic, but more adventurous and playful, steampunk fuses whimsy and darkness in a perfect blend of awesome.

So it’s no wonder that Steampunk weddings are the hottest subcultural event since the class visit to the train museum. All over the world, couples are embracing the magic of the Victorian age to marry in old railway carriages, airships and hot-air balloons.

The centrepiece of a steampunk wedding is always the clothing. Steampunk fashion takes Victorian styles and re-casts them as the Victorians might have imagined futuristic aliens might have dressed.

Steampunk fashion features an element of dress-up: you create a persona for yourself based on who you would be in a steampunk world: a dishevelled air-ship captian? A steam-powered warrior from Napolean’s robot army? A mad scientist working for the Queen of Hearts? Literature, Science, Religion, Polities – take what you love from Victoriana and mesh it together into a character that’s uniquely you, but.

The Brides Outfit

A Steampunk bride should be both beautiful, mysteriouss and completely otherworldly. Think about your steampunk persona – those aspects you wish to emphasize with your outfit – your sense of adventure, your passion, your humour, your whimsy.

Steampunk is not a fashion of minimalism – it’s flambouyent, <> and <>. You need to wear something you’re comfortable in, but at the same time, you only get married once, in one outfit, so you might as well make it as awesome and crazy as you can, right?

The flexibility of the steampunk style allows us to experiment with different colours and textures. Victorians loved the combination of several layers of textured, patterned fabric, lace and jewelry. Combine stripes and squares, damask and ivy, silvers and gold for a distinctly Victorian feel. Add modern sub-cultural elements like rivets, safety pins, spikes, leather, PVC, tattoo designs and , to give that modern / old fusion.

The Groom’s Outfit

The steampunk groom is a figure of dapper sophistication. Unlike most other fashion styles, steampunk offers men ample chance to really let their creativity run wild: you could be a lion tamer at a menagerie, an Air-ship pirate or sea-going privateer, an adventurer, a pioneering archaeologist, or a decorated soldier with a mechanical arm.

No steampunk groom would be complete without a hat – bowler, top hat, soldier’s beret or cap and goggles.

The Attendants

Renting outfits from a costume shop or army store might give you the option of choosing desirable outfits on a budget. Where else could you find four matching Civil War uniforms?

Think about tying your attendants into your theme and characterisation? What about an airship crew with hand-designed insignia? Or a group of parlour ladies? Or soldiers from the Queen’s royal guard, complete with futuristic ray guns strapped at the hip?

Perhaps you could let your attendents create their own outfits based on their steampunk personas. You’d certianly have one of the most creative bridal parties ever.

Accessories

Accessories define the steampunk look. Fob watches, goggles, jewelry made from old watch parts, taxidermy, memento mori and curios, glass bottles filled with arcane liquids, military uniforms, lace handkerchiefs, monocles and huge silver keys. Hunt the many steampunk shops on Etsy or the thift stores in your own town to find the necessary gems. I love army surplus stores for a huge array of authentic knick knacks.

Creating the perfect steampunk wedding outsits means a lot of hard work: deciding on your aesthetic and your steamy personas, then scouring thift shops and car boot sales for those essential accessories. Late night DIY projects to make goggles and sew lace and attach watch parts to his cufflinks. But I think perhaps the best thing about a steampunk wedding is the chance to be boldly, crazily creative in a way you often don’t get to in everyday life, and that you get to share that creative process with your partner. How awesome is that?

It’s been a long time since I featured a steampunk business here on wedding skulls, but that time is at an end. Aerin of Royal Steamline contacted me months ago, but I’ve been horribly slack about putting this interview together. But finally, here it is. I know you’ll love Royal Steamline’s collection of vintage-inspired dark, macabre and steampunk wedding invitations.

Who is Royal Steamline and what do you do?

Royal Steamline is a husband-and-wife design team based in Portland, Oregon. We create wedding invitations that have a dark, clockwork or otherwise retro/vintage flavor. Through a subtle (and sometimes anachronistic) combination of shadows, textures and vintage illustrations, we aim to convey a sense of eras strange and forgotten. Sea monsters mingle next to robotic ravens, and gentlemen scientists have tea with rockabilly rebels.

What is steampunk to you?

We thought you might ask something like that! Well, it can be many things, but it often involves a reordered history, usually with a novel mixing of noteworthy technological concepts or historical figures. And, yes, it often evokes the people, manners, and building materials of the Victorian period. So you might have Sherlock Holmes working with William Fox Talbot to develop infrared photography as part of an effort to identify and apprehend the Ripper. But it goes way beyond this and the common penchant for corsets and goggles: it can involve elements of the Old West or totally fictitious times and places. It’s kind of like Justice Stewart’s famous quote, we’re not sure how to define steampunk, but we know it when we see it!

What drew you to the culture/style initially?

Hmm…a particular sense of adventure? Always asking “What if…?” The dusty, muted colors. The elegance of brass, glass, and the era of the gentleman scientist? Poe and the birth of the modern detective story? Sprawling fin de siècle country manors where strange dinner parties occur? Jim and Artemus foiling the mad diminutive doctor? The contradiction of it all. Plus, we adore Victorian wallpaper design!

How did you or will you incorporate gothic and steampunk features into your wedding?

We often tend to prefer the subtle. So when it came to our wedding, we tried to incorporate a lot of small details and touches that suggested instead of overpowered. For instance, we created table “installations” that featured objects from our collection of curios: glass eyes, Victorian travelogues, antique stereoviews of seances, examples of 19th century quackery. Our guest book was a stack of antique postcards that people used to “send us” their best wishes. J. wore an antique silver brooch (reputedly haunted) as a tie bar, and I wore a unique shrug and veil that I had handmade for the wedding; I also wore long gloves and a ’30s-inspired gray dress. In our readings, we quoted everyone from Poe to Shelley to the Gothic Archies (again, it’s all about new combinations!).

Tell us a little about your design process – how do you choose materials/motifs/inspiration for your pieces?

Our designs start and end with a story, usually sparked from a book or artifact on our shelves. J’s been deep into Victorian pulps and I’ve been collecting mourning buttons and early 20th century advertising and science imagery. We’re inspired by the stories of retro technology, textures of old paper…the look of outdated fonts…some crazy ornate border flourish. The combo of the different worlds usually leads to some interesting aesthetics.

Why do you think Royal Steamline appeals to so many people?

It seems that more and more people are realizing that weddings can and should reflect themselves, their styles and tastes. And, for what seems like a growing number of people, this means choosing wedding invitations that evoke a dark, gothic or Victorian or misplaced-science-type feel. It’s created a whole new definition of what a wedding should be. We just want people to enjoy their wedding day — and if they’re into the idea of people landing on the Moon in 1901, then please come see us!

Name a couple of bands/songs that are on your stereo at the moment?

Music plays a huge role with regard to who we are and what we do (or, maybe, just how we do it). We actually met when we were both living in San Francisco and our first date was basically one big argument about music (but it was great!). We genuinely enjoy a huge range of music: I grew up loving bands like Bauhaus, Ministry, Joy Division, Clan of Xymox, and The Smiths while J listened to stuff like the Misfits, Neurosis, Hawkwind and Einstürzende Neubauten. These days, we’re still all over the place! Recently, shows we’ve seen include Earth, Stereolab, Vagabond Opera, the Horrors, Thrones, the Handsome Furs, the Ghastly Ones…We haven’t even mentioned J.’s love of early Americana (Harry Smith is a big influence) and my collection of hard bop and sad bastard vinyl.

What’s coming up for Royal Steamline?

More invitation designs, of course! Oh, and we recently released a line of what we’re calling “dress badges.” By combining vintage seam binding, buttons, military pins and insignia, we’ve created accessories appropriate for weddings, balls, cotillions, museum dedications or just everyday wear.

Any advice you could offer to Wedding Skulls?

We just hope brides and grooms go with their hearts. If you don’t want to wear a white dress then don’t! If you want to walk down the aisle to Ernest Tubb or At the Gates, then do it! Your wedding is about you and your partner — make it a day you both will love to plan and remember.

So Skully brides and grooms, if you fancy a little steampunk-inspired wonder to adorn your wedding invitations, I suggest you head over to Royal Steamline and check out all their designs. While you’re there, you should take some time to read the Royal Steamline blog, which is packed with great steampunk articles.

You might not know this, but my favorite part of wedding planning isn’t the dresses, or the invitations, or the photography – it’s the wedding cakes. And gothic / halloween wedding cakes absolutely WIN when it comes to unique, beautiful cake designs.

I share with you now a few pictures from my internet perusings. I don’t have sources for any of these pictures, so if you know from whence they came, please let me know so I can correctly attribute these talented cake designers.

Will you be having a gothic or halloween wedding cake? What have you chosen as an inspiration? Would you like to see MORE pictures of beautiful gothic wedding cakes? (I have more. So many more.)

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.