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.
