A woman “obsessed” with Halloween has revealed her spook-themed wedding – with black dresses, spiders, skull wedding rings, and even walking down the aisle to a heavy metal song. Kirsty Boultbee, 44, a customer service assistant from Swadlincote, Derbyshire, is a self-proclaimed “fanatic” of the scary holiday – a passion she shares with her husband, Chris, 45.
The couple have decorations up all year round, so, naturally, when they decided to marry, there was only one date and theme to consider. “Chris and I marked the occasion by tying the knot on our favourite date – 31 October,” Kirsty said.
"It's always been a part of our personalities, as we love spooky things and rock music, as well skulls and anything black – everything surrounding Halloween brings us so much excitement. It's not only for ourselves, as it makes our marriage exciting because we like to dress up together and decorate the house, so it's something special for us.
"It's nice that I have someone who shares this passion with me, as it's been difficult before because I guess the obsession is a little bit odd. We were expecting people to say we couldn’t have all these songs and decorations at a wedding, but I think they realised this theme was us.
“They know us and our obsession with Halloween. My mum, a fellow goth, was jumping for joy.
"I recall eagerly anticipating the holiday growing up, and my mum used to decorate our home with ghostly decorations all year round. She used to help me get dressed up for trick or treating and, as she's always been into witchcraft, this became a very big thing in our house.
"We also shared a lot of clothes and many of the items were decorated with skulls on them, so I quickly become her mini double."
Kirsty chose a white dress with black lace draped over the top and a black and purple bouquet with tiny skulls attached, alongside shoes with purple laces which read: "until death" on the side. A fan of metal music, the bride also opted to forego the standard wedding march for a more hardcore tune, the rock anthem Song #3 by Stone Sour.
The couple also decked out the reception area with pumpkins, bats, skull ornaments, and tiny lanterns on each table. And the pièce de résistance? A purple and black skull wedding cake.
Kirsty said: “I was in for a surprise when Chris’ sister, a talented baker, revealed that she’d made a vanilla sponge cake, along with purple-iced cupcakes. It was decorated with a skull bride and groom – and it was such a nice surprise, I had a few tears in my eyes.
“I also had my nails decorated with a cobweb design, while my shoes had purple laces and diamanté. Our wedding rings had skulls all around the band and engraved with ‘until death’, which we both love.
“For the groomsmen, they had purple flowers inserted into their pockets with little spiders on. I only had one bridesmaid who I've been friends with for a very long time and she also loves rock music, as well as 'gothic' type things.
"She wore a purple dress which matched the overall theme – it was perfect."
The couple first met on a dating website, Plenty of Fish, in 2012, when Kirsty spotted Chris' love of all things ghoulish on his website.
Sparks quickly began to fly and after just 18 months together, her real-life Jack Skellington popped the question and on Halloween 2020, the big day went ahead. Sadly, their dreams were soon shattered as COVID restrictions caused the venue to pull out and multiple family members were unable to attend their special day.
But the couple pushed ahead – determined to have their wedding, with just 12 guests. Kirsty said: “In the end, we couldn’t book the restaurant, so we settled on a small venue where we only had a few tables.
“It was sad and not what we had planned, but hey ho! We finally got there and did things our way, which I’m glad about, as we were quite sceptical at first.
“I thought our families might not be happy with the theme as it isn’t traditional, but it was our day, so we did things how we wanted.
“Chris’ brother-in-law’s mum, who we’re very close to, even said it was nice to hear some different music for a change [referring to the death metal aisle walk], even though it's not her cup of tea. We sat in the evening with a couple of friends and some drinks, and it was perfect."
Kirsty is over the moon to finally be married to the love of her life. Now, every Halloween, the couple dress up and decorate the house for trick-or-treaters, and, as the spooky day has more meaning to them now, their house stays in theme all year round.
Kirsty added: “We have lots of skulls and witches around the house, as well as dragons. We’re also big fans of 'Nightmare Before Christmas', so there’s lots of film merchandise knocking about.
“It’s a day we’ll always remember and Chris really is my ‘ghoul’ mate.”
