Making it Legal: Our Unusual Nuptials

In my introduction post, I mentioned that Mr. Dachshund and I will have to be legally married before his visa expires, which is about three months from the time he'll arrive in the US.  That left us with two options: making it legal beforehand, or planning our wedding around our immigration time-line.  The latter would have been doable if our timing had been better.  However, FFIL is working for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and he'll be unable to make a trip to California until after April.  April is not even close to our three month deadline.  We're stuck with option one.

I'll admit that I was a little bummed we'd have to be married months before our actual wedding.  What would people think if they found out that we had already been married for six months!?  Would they assume we were just soliciting gifts?  While I knew that couldn't be further from the truth, I wasn't sure our guests would understand.  Above all, I worried that a civil ceremony would make our wedding less special.

Despite my initial misgivings, I'm a firm supporter of turning life's lemons into lemonade.  Because there was no way out of it, Mr. D and I thought we'd make the best of our situation and use the opportunity to turn our civil ceremony into something off-the-wall and fun.  That said, we'll be making it legal on Halloween night at our century-old country home in the company of a few of our closest friends and family.  My MOH will be officiating.

So, with a classic Twilight Zone marathon serving as motivation, I turned to the internet to find inspiration for our Hallowedding (doesn't "Hallowedding" sound fun!?)

I've never actually thrown a Halloween party before, let alone a Hallween-wedding.  In my head I'm imagining classy, Marthaesque decorations with tasty food and even tastier drinks.  I spent hours searching for inspiration and came out with a small bounty of photos that will lay the foundation for a memorable party to celebrate our quickly-approaching nuptials.

{Photo sources: Love-o-lanterns, tissue pom, bottle invites, tulle poms, pumpkin cooler, witches candy, pumpkin punch bowl, Halloween garland, brain cupcakes, luminaries}

I'm really looking forward to getting started on our Hallowedding crafts.  It's so hard to believe that it's right around the corner!  I'm definitely running out of time. I think the entire month of October is going to be Halloween overload; I still have so much to do!

Are any of you "making it legal" before your wedding day?  What are you planning for your civil ceremony?