Autumnal, Halloween & Geode Themed Wedding with Grandma’s Cookie Recipe

Elizabeth Bettis Photography

March 30, 2019

Madeline and Patrick wanted their day to be the perfect combination of everything they love. Madeline is studying to become a geologist, so they incorporated lots of geodes, rocks and other fun references to geology throughout their day. “We are also a Halloween obsessed family,” she explained, “so it only felt right to get married as close to Halloween as possible with a bunch of spooky details.”

They included a lot of unique, handmade details from themselves and talented friends and family – from the homemade agate wedding arch by Madeline’s dad to her veil by her mum. They had homemade wildflower seed bombs and Halloween candy bags as wedding favours. They used rocks as place names that they’d spent forever collecting, and hand-lettered pumpkins for signage. Their guests got to drink from a different coloured glass goblet that the couple had spent years hunting for in the thrift stores. They made a Polaroid guest book in lieu of a photo booth. It was important to the couple that they had full creative control over one of the most important days of their lives.


As their friends and family are so unique and alternative in every day life, they had no problems with doing things a little differently for their day – they knew they had their support, no matter what they wanted to do! They skipped a sit down dinner, instead opting for a giant taco bar. They served Voodoo Donuts instead of cake. The bridesmaids were given a colour and told they could pick whatever outfit they wanted in that colour. The groom and groomsmen all wore Vans trainers.

Madeline and Patrick had a short but sweet ceremony officiated by Madeline’s cousin. “It felt incredibly intimate even with 125 guests,” said Madeline. “We said our own vows, read Shel Silverstein’s The Romance, and had a unity ceremony where we mixed together my recently departed grandma’s cookie recipe so that we can make her cookies on our anniversary.”

Madeline walked down the aisle to Space Oddity by David Bowie and promptly burst into tears when she saw Patrick standing waiting for her. “It probably didn’t help that my dad started crying too!”

It was important to the couple that their two-year old son played a big part in their day, and wanted to ensure the event also catered for him and the many other young children in their lives. They gave all the kids handmade goodie bags filled with Lego, Playdoh, crayons, candy and disposable cameras. “It seems it’s currently quite fashionable to not include young ones in your wedding day, but we wanted to make sure all our guests were included and entertained – even the littlest ones!”

Suppliers