Midnight Weddings: a Gothic Niche Growing in Popularity?

For every wedding request there’s a thriving niche market making it a reality. The first to capitalise on gay weddings in the US in 2004 was Bernadette Coveney Smith. She quit her job and became a same-sex wedding planner. In 2008 when Massachusetts legalised gay marriage for non-residents as well, even if their home state didn’t recognise it, Coveney Smith’s business 14 Stories skyrocketed with revenue reaching six figures and bookings more than doubling in a year. It resulted in her opening a shop in New York.

Weddings are a multi billion-dollar business, borne from the pursuit of creating the most unforgettable day ever imagined. It is this that blows budgets, minds, and any idea of restraint. With numerous social media platforms, and whether it be for the beauty or the blunder, a wedding day is Warhol’s prediction that, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”

Offering wedding planning services is the entry point for entrepreneurs to break into the industry. It’s a lucrative start; basic overheads are little more than business cards and a website. The expertise and solid networking ability builds event experience and reputation, and that is the marker where the real money begins.

When pastel lipstick, a white gown and something-blue isn’t your thing, sometimes a Goth wedding is. That being the case, there is no better time but midnight for the nuptials to begin to break those wedding rules. Although black is not listed among popular wedding dress colours there is no reason a black wedding gown won’t be as original and stunning as a white or blush counterpart. Candelabras, glass skull glassware. Black lilies, dark and moody among deep purple flowers and black pearl lisianthus. Black bacarra dark red roses in the bridal bouquet.

Naturally every wedding is unique, whether it be its tackiness, opulence or tasteful exuberance and every one is a moment of magic where laughter and all the expressions and languages of love, get to celebrate in one place.

Of course it’s more expensive to have a midnight wedding, with the added challenge of finding a venue to accommodate your ideal timeline by it not having a strict-policy closing.

A night-long reception brings the opportunity for complaints, from both outsiders and guests. Older family and friends, those in uncomfortable shoes, children, and anyone annoyed by their quiet night time air being broken are useful things to take into account. Even if you don’t hear about it at the time, you surely will within the year. Two, if it’s really awful – like starving guests having to secretly order pizza over the back fence.

Next day brunch is off the list too with a midnight wedding if the plan includes the next day – unless of course it’s scheduled for two in the afternoon. The point of the get together is the chance to eat decent food, continue to gently recover from the big day before, and find out all the good stuff. No point doing that when everyone’s managed just three hours sleep: not everyone wants to kick into action with just a short black and faith in apple cider vinegar to get them through.

Every wedding day is perfect: the perfect combination of dream-like excitement and stomach-pit stress. Along with finding the perfect venue for your into-the-wee-hours celebration, a realistic itinerary for this shifting in time is imperative for the night to run smoothly. Are your vows to be at midnight? Or is that when dinner will be served? How open-ended is it that lasts guests can leave?

An advantage of course, and a good part of the reason to have your gothic midnight nuptials is that there’s more time for dancin’. And more time for people to decide to get up out of their seat. Nobody without a skin full really feels like tripping the light fantastic at three o’clock in the afternoon.

A night wedding is also the best excuse to sleep in, the morning after and bask in any glory in which you feel like basking.

Getting married in an enlightened relationship gives hope for love’s creativity and giving yourselves the night to party is memorable way to begin married life. You’ll have more time to spend with guests, and speeches and cake-cutting won’t have the usual time constraints if you’re wanting the perfect marriage of tradition with the unconventional.

It’s a beautiful thing to be watching a sunrise, and no better than when it glows across your new journey in which is held your beloved. That in itself is reason to pledge yourselves to each other with the moon your timeless witness.