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SIERRA VISTA — Chris and Mary Feller will do tonight what they wanted to do 11 years ago: Get married on Halloween.
The couple, now married 11 years, will renew their vows at midnight in a makeshift graveyard they’re creating at their home.
Unfortunately, Mary said, they were not allowed to be married in the graveyard where her grandparents are buried, as she had originally hoped for. Regardless, the Fellers are looking forward to fulfilling their wedding dreams.
“We’re all ecstatic,” Chris said. “Yay, we get to do it our way.”
  
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Their way will include a candlelit ceremony — with red candles being held by the guests — and a graveyard with tombstones to honor loved ones they’ve lost: Mary’s grandparents Chris’ father and one of his grandfathers.
“The symbolism’s still there with the tombstones,” Chris said.
Mary’s bouquet will further act as a way to honor their loved ones, with four black roses being placed in a bouquet of otherwise red roses.
Their vow renewal ceremony also will have a theme taken from “The Crow,” a 1994 movie starring Brandon Lee.
Chris, for example, will be dressed as Eric Draven, Lee’s character and the protagonist in the movie. Instead of rings, the couple each got a tattoo on their left wrist inspired by “The Crow” wine glasses they own.
On Mary’s wrist, above a picture of the crow depicted in the movie, is written “Believe in angels.”
On Chris’ wrist, above the same image, it reads “Real love is forever.”
In addition, the couple will be using music from the movie’s soundtrack during the ceremony.
“A lot of the music from ‘The Crow’ is real eerie and Halloweeny-sounding,” Mary said.
Mary said “The Crow” fits in with her taste.
“I’ve always liked things that are different and unusual,” she said. ‘The Crow’ kind of goes along with the whole mystical thing.”
In addition, it fits in with Mary’s dream of being married at midnight on Halloween.
“They were going to get married on Halloween, but they were murdered the night before,” Mary said.
Though Mary said she’s always wanted to get married on Halloween because she’s “strange,” she said she and Chris have the support of their six children.
“They like it,” Mary said. “They’re just as strange as we are.”
Their children will all be involved in the ceremony, with their son JoJo DJing; their son David doing fire poi, a form of fire twirling that consists of a ball on a chain; and their daughters, Marina and Melanie Petersen, are baking the wedding cake — heart-shaped cake that will be black and red, the wedding colors.
David’s girlfriend will be the photographer for the ceremony. In addition, their sons James and Brook will dress up for the wedding.
Being Halloween, all 40 guests are encouraged to wear costumes. Mary has settled on a vampire costume in lieu of a wedding gown.
“I think the best part is going to be seeing what everyone shows up as,” Chris said.
As the wedding details solidified, it became the fulfillment of a dream that has stayed with the Fellers since they were married in their dining room 11 years ago Oct. 21.
“We kept saying ‘One day, one day we’re going to do it our way,’ ” Mary said, explaining the first time they couldn’t find anyone who would even marry them at midnight on Halloween.
It was finally their kids who pushed them into doing it this year. “We’ve actually only been planning it since May,” Mary said. “It was kind of a ‘Why not?’ ”
“It’s kind of exciting,” Chris said.
KATIE EVANS can be reached at 515-4611 or by e-mail at katie.evans@svherald.com.
dancing with death wrote on Dec 8, 2008 1:22 PM: