Wedding a monstrous celebration

Instead of “Here Comes the Bride,” they played the theme music from “The Addams Family” as Lisa Eickstadt approached the groom.

Instead of wearing white, the Halloween bride was dressed in a blood-red blouse and skirt, with just a touch of crimson around the lips.

She was, after all, a vampire on her wedding night.

Standing next to the justice of the peace, the groom, Matthew Pederson, stood frozen and still. When the vows were exchanged, he knew what he was going to get – a tender bite on the neck.

Their Sunday night wedding, with about 170 friends, family and guests on hand at the Buckhorn Inn in Airway Heights, concluded a year of planning by the couple.

Twelve months ago, Pederson had proposed to Eickstadt during a party at the Davenport Hotel. Her next question to him was: Can we get married on Halloween?

“A church wedding just wasn’t us,” Eickstadt said, right after the ceremony finished. “We just wanted to have our friends together and enjoy one another.”

Her husband, who happens to be the deputy mayor of Airway Heights, agreed. “Yeah, I’d say this is just a big party interrupted by a wedding,” he said. “I’m one of six kids in my family. We like to have as much fun as we can.”

Pederson and Eickstadt, who are both 30, grew up on the West Plains and both have a large collection of friends. The friends who came to the wedding came dressed in full costume. Those in devil outfits easily outnumbered the characters from Disney. And the two young ring bearers wore Frankenstein and ghoul costumes.

“I really wanted to come to the wedding,” said Janet Stradling, who works at Fairchild Air Force Base and who has known Pederson since he was a young boy. “It’s not stuffy or tight. Everyone here is not dressed in their Sunday best, and that makes it a lot more fun,” she said.

She told several friends this past week she was going to a wedding party in costume.

“I told them that anyone who has their wedding, in costume, on Halloween, will stay married a long, long time,” she said.

Pederson left his bride’s side long enough to visit with some of his family, and with his parents, who’ve owned the Buckhorn Inn for more than 20 years.

Talking with friends, he made sure the fake bite wound on his neck was still attached correctly.

The couple had only one minor disagreement before the nuptials, he explained.

“I wanted to come dressed as a mummy. Lisa didn’t want that at all. She said no one would see me under all the bandages,” said Pederson.

So he agreed to come as a victim of the vampire. He headed out to find a tux and the only one he found was white. He tried dyeing it, but it turned out pink instead of red.

“My buddy has a friend who has a car-painting shop. So we went down there and they painted this tuxedo for me,” he said, holding up the sleeves.

“BMW red. Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?”

Some friends suggested they honeymoon in Transylvania, or even Death Valley. The couple declined. Early today, they leave for a week in Las Vegas, a city where the undead can stay up all night.