So I Married the Grim Reaper

By Sarah Jones
BBC Wiltshire

A halloween wedding cake

For a bride, the one place she should feel overdressed is at her own wedding.

But for Calne bride Lizz Jennings not only was she battling to upstage a congregation full of ghouls and zombies at her wedding, but saying I do to the Grim Reaper.

"I was probably one of the least dressed up at my wedding," says Lizz.

Matthew and Lizz, the bride and groom

"My dad was dressed as a vampire, my mum as a witch and my Granddad wore an exotic dark wizard outfit."

Mother-in-law and witch jokes aside, Lizz is not the only one finding traditional white weddings beyond the pale.

In fact the pressure is on, for wannabe newlyweds, to not only wine and dine their guests but to entertain them as well.

And what better way than a Halloween wedding.

"We were originally looking at dates to get married," says Lizz, "and we both liked the idea of getting married on Halloween, and then it seemed obvious to do a themed wedding.

"But I don't think it was quite what my family were expecting."

Nice day for a black wedding

With the 'normal' civil service out the way, in the morning, the bride and groom were all set for their very own ceremony with a difference:

"There was quite a lot of nervousness when we said what we were doing," Lizz admits.

...a scary uncle...

"We were doing our own ceremony and people weren't quite sure what to expect.

Unless, of course, they were expecting the groom to be dressed as death, a congregation looking like extras pulled from a slasher movie and a cake infested with spiders:

"My husband went as the Grim Reaper," laughs Lizz. "He got this huge great scythe from eBay. It was something else.

"And both sets of grandparents really got into the swing of it. Both grandmothers wore witches outfits and my Granddad went as a dark wizard and I definitely remember a beard on Matthew's Grandfather's evil monk get up."

And with the wedding invitations 'encouraging' guests to dump the floral dresses and fascinators and crack open the ketchup instead the whole wedding party were got up in the creepiest of Halloween get ups:

"I wasn't quite sure how people were going to go with it," says Lizz. "So it was quite a nice surprise to discover that everybody had made lots of effort.

"But I think possibly my Mum was the best dressed because she just really went all out with the slinky witch outfit and looked really amazing."

And the bride wore black

Heading up the aisle in a black wedding dress, with an entourage of blood spattered werewolf and baby grim reaper pageboys, Lizz faced hubby-to-be Matthew to Queen's take on the wedding march from Flash Gordon:

Is there an Aunty under all that?

"It was just the most intense and amazing moment in my life," says Lizz. "It really was.

"Because we'd written our own ceremony it was really very personal to us and there were no expectations to behave in a particular way. It was really natural and amazing."

And what's more natural, at a Halloween wedding, than cutting the wedding cake with a blood covered chainsaw?

"We went for a sort of traditional wedding cake with a twist," says Lizz.

"It had roses and ivy, which matched my bouquet, and black icing that was cracked with spiders coming out of the cracks."

Actually that probably has a lot less of the 'traditional' about it and a lot more of the 'twist'.

And if you've got a wedding with a difference planned, or have been invited to one, then we want to hear from you. Click on the link below and send us an e-mail:

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