By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

Dressed in white with teased hair and blackened eyes, Stephanie Womack walked down the leaf-strewn path in her father’s arm.

Her groom, Joe Womack, waited at the end of the path, wearing a werewolf mask and a black T-shirt.

The Womacks were married Saturday afternoon at the Haunted Hollows Spook Trail in Joplin in a costumed, Halloween-themed outdoor wedding.

“It (Halloween) is our favorite holiday,” Joe Womack said. “It always has been. It’s the only holiday (in which) you can basically dress up and scare people, and get away with it.”

Stephanie Womack said she thought a Halloween wedding would be fun because she has loved dressing up in costumes since she was a little girl.

Leona Huffman, the bride’s mother, said that when her daughter first approached her about a Halloween wedding, she thought it was unusual.

“But this is not my wedding; this is my daughter’s wedding,” Huffman said. “It’s something to do together, so they’re happy. And what more can a mother ask for her daughter than her happiness?”

Like many mothers on their daughter’s wedding day, Huffman was snapping pictures during the ceremony and admitted to shedding a few tears.

“She looked cute,” she said of her daughter. “She made a good bride of Frankenstein. All in all, they’re happy, so it’s been a happy day.”

Deborah Stevenson, Joe Womack’s mother, said she thought the wedding was great.

“We wanted it to be a homemade wedding, where you do everything at home and not buy a bunch of stuff at a store,” she said. “You know, just like you were when you were a kid and your mom made your costume.”

Stevenson, who was dressed as a killer nurse, said her family doesn’t always like to follow tradition.

“This made him (Joe) happy,” she said. “He’d always planned to be married on Halloween.”