Our Wedding - Halloween 1999

Being Halloween fanatics we decided to combine our wedding with a big Halloween party. In 1999, October 31 fell on a Sunday. This caused a bit of a dilemma as we did not want to have the party on a Sunday night but really wanted to get married on the 31st. To solve this, what we did was hold the party on the evening of Saturday the 30th and then the Justice of the Peace came to the house just after midnight to do the wedding ceremony.

We wore our costumes for the first part of the evening then around 11:30 we got dressed for the wedding. The wedding was unique, a lot of fun for everyone (we only invited about 20 family members and close friends), and cost us less than 1/8 of what a traditional church wedding would have.

Our costumes...the choice was obvious

We covered the walls of one half of the basement with black tar-paper and spray-painted the white graveyard outline. During the party the room was lit with about 6 blacklight fixtures. The effect was amazing!! The little dome light you see at the left gave off lit Halloween shapes rotating on the ceiling (until the batteries died).

In the background is the buffet table we had set up.

The middle of the basement. The "Scream" character in the middle is actually an inflatable Bill Clinton doll (we originally bought it up to use as the body form for a mummy) with the costume put on and hung on a support pole. Throughout the evening you'd be surprised how many people thought it was another guest and tried to talk to it!!

What to do with a huge cedar chest that weighs a ton...throw a black table cloth on it and decorate it.

A shot looking at the front of the basement. On the right you'll see the "altar" we set up for the rings and the silver goblets engraved with little Jack O'Lanterns on one side and "Bonny & Lee, October 31, 1999" on the other. . The gargoyle was one of a pair we got for on top of the columns (I'll mention why we didn't use them later on). Of course Albert is in the corner overseeing everything and in the foreground is the CD player where we had Halloween themed music playing all evening.

Another shot of the front of the basement showing the altar with the gargoyles on both sides of it and the revolving light in the middle of the floor (not the best spot to have it but necessary).

A close up shot of the altar. Behind the skeleton bride and groom is where we have the bride and groom's engraved silver goblets. The little gargoyle (originally a candleholder) held the wedding rings. The three smaller silver goblets were also engraved and were for our parents. The rubber eyeballs glowed in the blacklight and the electric candles threw off a nice flickering light on the silver.

The rear entrance to the house where our guests came in. The tombstones are made of styrofoam (Bonny was the one who figured out the best way to paint them to look like real stone). The columns were 8' tall, made of plywood covered with fibrewall which looks and feels like real stone. The light fixtures were wired and fully functional. As we mentioned before, we had the gargoyles for the tops of them but the columns were a little wobbly and they looked so real people kept trying to lean on them when they would go outside for a smoke. Needless to say if we had put them on top they would not have remained on top for long and being cement-filled they could have really hurt someone.

The only proper way to serve Watermelon Jello.

Our unique way of serving ham for sandwiches. Many of you have probably heard of the "meathead" before. We got the idea off of the internet and it was a big hit with the guests.

Our wedding cake. The picture isn't the best but it's made using an "over the hill" tombstone cake pan and it reads: "LAMBERT, Lee and Bonny Oct 31, 1999 - Eternity". We bought the Bride and Groom figures the previous July. They are currently on display in our rec room along with the slver goblets.

A fountain we had on the buffet table. There is a bit of a story behind the fountain. We first saw it at Spencer Gifts in Edmonton where we were living while Lee attended law school. We both thought it was really neat but not worth the $90 price tag. Well as Halloween got closer and closer the Halloween decorations were marked down more and more until we got it for 60% off plus an additional 10% (Lee has a discount card) the week before Halloween. Well when we flew home to Regina for the wedding it was just a tad too big for the carry-on luggage and it is quite fragile so we didn't want to check it in with our bags. Fortunately the good folks at Westjet stowed it and took good care of it on the flight home. It was worth the hassle though...it looked great and the guests loved it!!

Our treasure chest. This decoration was designed and built by Lee's dad as a part of our wedding gift. It really looked great!!

Finally the big moment...us coming down for the ceremony.