Decor: Part one of many

I could really write quite a few blogs about decorating, especially for Halloween, but since didn't want a 20-page entry today, I thought I'd restrain myself and talk only about decor ideas from Martha Stewart, or MS as my grandmother calls her.

First, let me back up a bit and say that when it came to wedding priorities, flowers went to the bottom of the list. Yes, I want a beautiful bouquet (what it will look like is another potential post subject, but I'm restraining myself here, remember?), but Halloween doesn't scream "$2000 floral arrangements on the tables" to me.

So...what does it scream (no Halloween pun intended)? I went to the authority, MS, to find out. I discovered that she and I have a shared obsession: pumpkins. I love carved pumpkins. I don't know if I could ever pull off some of these creations, but I have this Halloween to practice, right?

Without further ado, take it away Martha! (All photos courtesy of www.marthastewart.com).

First, let's start off easy: A nice autumnal centerpiece:



I don't really want assigned seating (again, another post in the making), but if we did, we could use these cute place cards:



I like "Halloween trees" but they appear to be quite expensive based on my internet searches. Here's MS's version:



These are candleholders wrapped in tissue, to look like jack-o-lanterns. Cute, huh?:



This is pumpkin decoration even I could do: glitter pumpkins. Ooooh:



Okay, I know I said no flowers, but I like the cobwebs here. Maybe one arrangement for the guest book table?


Speaking of flowers, maybe at our table we could have a hollow pumpkin to keep my bouquet in:



I like the idea of dry ice in a pumpkin, but there will be some kids at the wedding (I think), so I'd worry about policing them around the dry ice. Here's a cute pumpkin fake punch bowl, and a candy bowl with dry ice underneath:




Speaking of not kid-friendly decorations, we won't be having these apples, but I liked them. I like the idea of the apple-bobbing tradition, but the reality of everyone's saliva in the same water is icky. This has the idea without the ick:


Mr. T and I like the idea of a candy bar, since it's Halloween; there are lots of nice candy jar decoration options, like these:


Here's another way to display candy (lollipops, to be specific), and all you need is a drill!



And yet another way to display candy, also involving a pumpkin!:


I like the idea of words on the pumpkin, and I like that the carving doesn't go all the way through the pumpkin, so it's just a nice glowing silhouette. Mr. T and I could do our initials in pumpkins using stencils, like these:



Here's another pumpkin decoration that I could pull off: Pumpkins carved with cookie cutter stencils. We could do hearts! I quite like the row up the driveway; would be cute for an aisle, no?:




And another pumpkin that would involve the drill: Pumpkins with xmas lights sticking out of the drill holes. It sounds weird until you see it:


I also like these spiderweb pumpkins, but they would require a bit of skill:



Also requiring skill would be these silhouetted pumpkins. I adore the skull on the white pumpkin:



And finally, my favorite ones. I love that they're white; even though I'm not wearing white the white pumpkin says "wedding" to me, as does the "lace" pattern. These seem like they would be really hard to do, but again, I could practice...right?:





I can't remember who suggested it, but someone said my rehearsal dinner could be a pumpkin-carving party. I laughed, but hmmm....