01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, May 1, 2005

Danielle Beaudoin and Christopher Parsons

Highland Country Club, Attleboro

10.31.04

"Halloween is my absolutely favorite holiday," says Danielle Beaudoin. She mentioned October 31 as a wedding date, jokingly at first, to her fiance Christopher Parsons: "What if we got married on Halloween and had everyone come in costume?" He loved the idea.

"Growing up, I would decorate our entire house," she said. "I would borrow my little cousins to go trick or treating. As I got older, I dressed up to hand out candy, and watched Halloween movies all night long. October is my favorite month -- it's my birthday and Halloween."

Danielle grew up in Central Falls, and graduated from St. Raphael Academy in Pawtucket. Christopher is originally from Maine. They met at a party when both were college students, in 2000. It was not an instant attraction, but enough to start exchanging e-mails. They finally went on a date, and decided they liked each other a lot after all.

There was no rush to get married. "Chris was still in school, we couldn't afford it, so the wedding has been planned piecemeal," Danielle said, starting with the Halloween date.

Danielle is 26, Christopher, 28. With a psychology degree from Rhode Island College, she's now a full-time graduate student in speech and language pathology at the University of Rhode Island. Chris, who has a degree from Roger Williams University in computer science, is a software developer for Health Care Business Services.

Their wedding invitations have traditional wording: "Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Beaudoin request the pleasure of your company... " But what's not so traditional are the little sketches of Frankenstein, a vampire and a witch. It says "dress in costume or suffer the consequences."

Most guests today seem not to have needed much coaxing: There's Superman and Lucy and two sets of Sonny and Cher; there are mobsters and molls and monsters; there are several vampires, a priest, and a devil.

The tables have been named for Danielle's favorite horror creatures: Hannibal Lechter, Freddy Krueger, The Mummy, Dracula, and the Bride of Frankenstein. Spooky jack-o-lanterns carved by Danielle's mother and father serve as centerpieces. The cocktail du jour is black vodka layered with orange juice.

And Danielle and Chris? They have promised to don their costumes later -- jailbirds, complete with ball and chain.