Meant to have asked this question in here first and not as a comment, but I'm wondering if a masked ball after party is something common that brides would now consider it as part their wedding plans?
This was exactly my plan originally, until i started pricing what i was thinking and it got ridiculously out of budget. Ive always loved the whole venetian ball idea, but when you're paying for it yourself its out of reach. And sadly most of the people i know would be spoil sports and not dress up.
very strange as I wrote a huge reply to you from my iphone earlier and I thought I would log in and check the site and it has't loaded up. Good job I checked otherwise you would have thought me very rude for not replying!
Maybe I can help with some suggestions for having the theme without it costing the earth? Getting people in full costume will be alot of money and hard work unless you are forking out and sending them to a specific place to get them kitted out. Some alternatives would be:-
Cheapest:
Keep to an evening ballgown and black tie theme with the necessity of wearing masks and take a few spare masks with you in case anyone thinks they can turn up without, blaming time or money on the lack of one.
Then, use venetian style decorations throughout the room to create the atmosphere i.e. table decorations as masks, invitations with a venetian theme, table plan as parts of venice or points of interest i.e. Rialto Bridge, St Marks Sq etc etc. Mirrors with a candleabra in the centre of the table and lots of feathers rather than balloons (you can hire huge gilt candleabras and mirrors can be bought cheap off e-bay or from a local glaziers and look great with tealights around them!) Think gold/baroque and you can, in certain places, decorate the room yourself as I did. I added garlands of gold butterflies and masks around the room and hired candle trees and centrepieces for the tables.
Mid Cost
Get the wedding hosts i.e the serving staff etc to wear costumes that you have hired, so there is a theme there with a smaller outlay.
Or, wear costumes yourselves as the hosts of the ball to stand out from everyone else.
Encourage people to dress up by running a competition for the best mask and/or the best costume. So even if just a handful of people went in costume, at least the others would still be dressed up in black tie and wouldnt look totally out of place.
To do a proper ball would cost alot of money. Hiring costumes themselves - especially the more authentic ones, can cost over £500 each and that would be cheap. Our costumes alone for the day cost £1000 and then our ball tickets were £250pp so it does add up.
You can have an amazing time with the fun of the masks with people loving the mystery of it, by just making sure you choose the right accessories for the room and keeping it no more cost than your normal decorations.
I hope that helps as from the feedback we had from our wedding party, people really loved it as it was something different for them to get excited about. The focus isn't so much on what they are wearing, so they can throw on an existing ballgown and invest in a good mask that costs alot less than a new dress and is the focus of the night.
Just a pointer - even in Venice at the ball we went to, not everyone was in the traditional 18thC costumes but it didn't really matter.
Now if only i wasnt marrying a firefighter IN the firehouse. It's going to be a muddle of cultures enough without adding masks! LOL I thought i would do it for my 30th birthday instead though.
not quite, a nearby firehouse has an attached hall we're using so in keeping with the theme. Its already chaos, a jewish irish polish baptist wedding in a firehouse with aristocracy and skinheads! Can't get any better! lol
