EASTAMPTON TWP., N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — Halloween is all about the tricks and the treats, but for a group of couples in Burlington County, the holiday this year is also about the brides and the grooms. A half-dozen couples got married on Tuesday in a historic mansion surrounded by their loved ones — and maybe a few uninvited guests they might not have been able to see.
“It was nice. It was short, sweet, and pretty.”
Kelly Danta so summed up the day after she married her best friend of a decade, and now husband, Robert at Smithville Mansion in Eastampton Township.
She says Halloween wasn’t a big motivating factor, but rather they jumped at the rare chance to be married in the nearly 200-year-old historic home — which many people reportedly believe to be haunted.
“It was different,” said Robert. “I didn’t know what to expect, but it was the perfect venue, actually, for us.”
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Usually on Halloween, the county gives engaged couples the chance to get married at the reportedly haunted Burlington County Prison Museum. It’s currently under renovations, so this year, the county extended the rare opportunity for a few couples to tie the knot at Smithville instead.
Married couple Hezekiah and Agnes Smith purchased and transformed the property into a bustling woodworking machinery factory and village. Now it hosts tours and events. But only for special occasions — like Halloween — does Smithville open up to couples to get married inside the mansion, according to the museum curator of history, Marisa Bozarth.
As Burlington County clerk, Joanne Schwartz marries couples pretty often — but only on Halloween does she officiate weddings while dressed as a witch.
“It’s fun.” Schwartz said. “Where else to hold a wedding than a haunted house?”
“One year — not this year — I actually married a couple where the bride came dressed as a banana. And she brought her dog, who also had a costume.”
However they’re dressed, when they say “I do” in the intimate living room of the Smithville Mansion, some people may expect there to be some supernatural wedding crashers in the room from beyond the grave.
“There’s definitely something here — or someone, I guess, I should say,” Bozarth said.
“People have said they have seen Hezekiah. They’ve heard piano music. The only thing I’ve ever really experienced is the lights. You know — turn off all the lights, lock up the doors, and all of a sudden there’s lights back on.”
Haunted or not, the historic site casts a beautiful backdrop for the newlyweds’ special day.