It’s a nice day for a weird wedding

MILTON — Cemeteries are often the final resting place at the end of a person’s life. But for one Milton couple, it’s the place where their life together will begin.

Deloria Sebastiao never saw herself having a church wedding. But she never thought of having it in a cemetery either … until now.

She and her fiance, Ryan Albrecht, were visiting her middle school boyfriend's grave when they decided they wanted to get married near his tombstone. After speaking to the caretaker and discovering it was a free venue, they were sold.

“Initially it was just ‘let’s just get married in a cemetery and we’ll have a big Addam’s Family theme,'” Sebastiao said. “It was all a joke.”

“Most people get married right next to a cemetery in a church, so what’s the difference? I’m just a little bit closer.”

“We just took the church out, not for any religious reasons or anything, and we saved a good chunk of money,” Albrecht said. “So we can throw it all back into the wedding.”

The ceremony and reception will take place in an open field behind the cemetery. Sebastiao’s first love’s tombstone — who passed away from a brain aneurysm at 14 — will be visible as they say their vows. His family will also be attending the wedding.

While that might seem strange to some, Albrecht said it doesn’t make him uncomfortable at all.

“I wanted unique,” he said. “When it comes down to it, it could be a plane, on the water, wherever, as long as she’s there. We’ve just been having fun with it.”

The pair has never considered themselves traditional. The son of a biker and welder, Albrecht proposed just two months after they began dating, because “when you know, you know.”

“My parents were engaged two months in because he was in the Navy and was getting shipped out," Sebastiao said. "They’ve been together for 32 years now.”

Sebastiao, who considers herself the “black sheep” of her “very Catholic family," said they've gotten nothing but support from both of their families and, surprisingly, the only negative feedback she’s gotten has been from vendors.

“When I was looking for our baker, initially, we got a lot of really ugly feedback about how disrespectful it was,” she said.

“We’re not trying to disrespect or dance on anybody’s grave or anything like that,” Albrecht said. “But I don’t think that anyone buried there would be upset with what we’re doing either.”

With a Victorian Gothic theme and Addam’s Family vibe, the guests are being asked to wear dark colors to symbolize the death of the pair’s single lives.

Even the bride will be wearing black.

“That was my one bridezilla moment,” Sebastiao said with a laugh. “I’ve told the guests, ‘If you wear white, I swear to God I’ll make you sit in the back.”

"I've had some family ask what qualified as dark clothing and I've told them, if you can wear it to Easter, don't wear it here," Albrecht said.

From the fog machine and the Wiccan minister, the coffin-turned-cooler, to the Gaelic vows, nothing about their wedding will be traditional.

“It’s just a unique wedding,” Albrecht said. “It’ll be very fun and light with dark humor.”

"We're weird, and that's OK," Sebastiao said. "I just think it'll be cool to have a happy ceremony there, rather than a sad ceremony for once."

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This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: It’s a nice day for a weird wedding