'People call us The Addams Family'

For Chloe Bryant, 38, Halloween isn't just an annual event, it's an everyday celebration

- LUCY ROBINSON

Walking down the aisle in my long black laced dress and matching veil, I couldn’t have been happier. As a piano version of Radiohead’s Creep filled the registry office, my son Leon whispered, “There’s no need to be nervous, Mum”, and I instantly felt calmer. He was right. From the bouquet of black dried flowers in my hands to the dark dress code, I was having the wedding of my dreams.

Before I met my husband, Lewis, my taste was quite plain. Whether it was my house or my hair, everything was minimal. But that all changed when I slid into his DMs three and a half years ago. We hit it off immediately and were like the same person, but one difference was that he was obsessed with horror films. At the time, I never really watched TV. My aerial wasn’t even plugged in. But I thought I’d give them a go and was instantly drawn in.

Now it’s like Halloween every day in our house. We have everything from coffin-shaped candles to prints of people who merge into skulls when you look at them from a different angle. I work from home doing hair, so some clients think it’s a bit spooky. My friends’ children have said, “I don’t want to look at that picture”, but no one else bats an eyelid any more.

Lewis and I got engaged at the end of 2021. We were at home and he wrote me a letter and at the end it read, “Will you…” I think his plan was to get down on one knee, but he didn’t. I thought, “Will I what?”

We’re both a bit awkward, so I walked off and started cleaning. He followed me and I said, “Yes, if you’re asking me to marry you, I will.” We laugh about it now, but I was over the moon. Later, we picked my engagement ring together – a black coffin ring from Empty Casket.